Pre-Christmas festivities & Christmas Eve

 

So, to document a few of the things that were going on at our house leading up to Christmas...first off, we enjoyed our beautiful tree, as we do every year.  (By the time I took this picture, it was starting to look a little less fresh as you can see!)

 And the boys worked on their lists...over and over and over again.  Tyler helped Sam make his and it took forever to get it just right.  At first I told them they could only put 3 things on their lists but that didn't last.  They kept adding.  I was trying to keep things a little light, but they wanted every thing they saw in the magazines.  So then I spent the month telling them they needed to tell me which items they wanted the most...  {sigh}

I somehow remembered this book and reading it when I was a kid.  I hadn't thought about this book for years but this year I did and thought it would be fun to read with the boys.  We read a chapter or two a night and we loved it!  I think we will read it every year.

Thanks to pinterest for the idea, I made these little countdown calendars.  I knew I couldn't have just one or there would be fights every morning over who got to cut off part of the beard...so I made one for each!

I also got this idea from pinterest for displaying cards.  I loved having them on my wall this year displayed like this!  I didn't want to take them down.  Although I do think I need a second one since we get quite a few cards and I want to see them all.  :)

And now on to Christmas Eve...we hit the bonfires in Gramercy again this year.  Always a favorite of ours!  We went with another family from our ward and we actually went before they lit them this year.  We usually get there after they have been started.  Since we had some time to kill, we went to a house and finally found ourselves a bonfire ornament.  I have been wanting one for years!  I was so glad to have one.  When we got there, Sam immediately started saying he was scared for the fireworks.  And then I immediately started feeling bad because I forgot how many fireworks there are and I forgot how badly he hated them!  Oops!  So to kill some time while we waited, Garrett went and got some treats for the boys at the store.  This picture makes me laugh because Garrett is the most popular guy in town here!  He had a package of Starbursts and everyone wanted them, of course!

Sam was starting to loosen up a little bit...

And then they finally lit one off.  It was fun to see them light them this time.  I just love them!

 And check it out, that is even a smile on Sam's face!  He got over his fear (for now!).

 

But...right after we took this picture, we decided it was time to head home.  We stayed for a few minutes and that is really all we need and we knew we had Christmas Eve festivities at home and church the next morning so we didn't really think we should stay a long time (that was why we went earlier this year).  And as we were heading back to the car we noticed a particularly huge crowd gathering around a bonfire that was about to light off.  And just as we were making our way through the crowd, they lit it off...  I can't even begin to put it into words.  I thought it had a red tarp draped over it, but it wasn't a red tarp, it was strips of Black Cat firecrackers.  When they lit that thing on fire, it was literally THE loudest noise I have ever heard in my life.  Sam was no more than an inch away from me as I was trying to shelter him from the sound with everything I could imagine over his ears.  He was that close to me and I could not hear a peep coming out of him, even though he was screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs.  It was absolutely deafening and I honestly wondered if we would have some permanent hearing damage.  It was INSANE!  So we made out way through the crowd as quick as we could and tried to calm our nerves.  The friends who came along were going for their first time and I imagine they thought we were crazy after that!  Ha ha!

 So we came home and calmed down, put our new ornament on the tree, opened up our new pj's from Grandma Andersen, set out cookies for Santa, and got ready for the night.

I had been wanting to make new stockings for many years and finally got around to it this year.  Ours were never matching and Sam was always the odd one out, so I finally tackled it and made some. Thanks, of course, to pinterest for the instructions.  :)  They aren't perfect, of course, and I notice all the flaws in them, but they were fun to make and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out...AND they match!  Yay!

 All ready for bed, in new cozy jammies!

All I Want for Christmas

is my ONE front tooth!

4 days before Christmas, Tyler finally lost a front tooth!  It was almost a little bittersweet since it was his front tooth he chipped when he was a year old and has been his little trademark since then.  He has bumped that tooth a million more times and on many occasions I was just sure it would fall out.  But it hung tight for a looong time!  And finally, right before Christmas he was eating a cupcake with little edible silver balls on top and bit right into one.  They were as hard as a rock, of course, and he turned to me with a bloody mouth and said "Mom, I think my tooth is going to fall out."  Sure enough, it did!  And the lucky boy got to put it under his pillow just a couple days before Christmas.

He looked so funny with that lopsided hole in his mouth!

 He put the tooth in a Ziploc bag with a note for the tooth fairy to put under his pillow.  He really wanted to ask the tooth fairy if he could keep his tooth.  He said he wanted to keep it since it was so big! :)

 Normally our tooth fairy thinks $1 is plenty for a tooth, but this time she thought since it was so sentimental, he needed $2.  :)  Boy, was he happy when he woke up!

Here is his cute little note he left for the tooth fairy.

The Golden Birthday! 12.7.11

December 7, 2011--the big golden birthday!  Tyler turned 7 on the 7th and we had such a fun day celebrating!  It was an 'off year' for birthday parties, so he'll get one next year.  He was kind of bummed about that, of course, but in the end, I really do think he had a great day.  And I know I loved not throwing a party...in December!  :)

 As it turned out, his school was hosting a Muffins for Moms breakfast on his birthday, so I was so happy I could go with him to start out his big birthday.  We took cupcakes for his class too.

When he got home, he had two birthday cards waiting for him that had come in the mail from both sets of grandparents.  They each had money in them and combined he had a decent chunk of change to spend.  :)  I told him we could go to the store that day to pick something out with his money.  He was so excited.  He had never been able to just pick out nearly anything he wanted!  He picked out a Loopz game, a remote control hex bug, and a board game.  He was thrilled!  And he still had presents to open when he got home!

 So home we went for birthday dinner, gifts, and cake.  I have tried to make it a tradition that the birthday boy gets to pick out what they want for dinner, so this boy wanted his good old stand by of homemade macaroni and cheese, but the real kicker is that he wanted oysters this year too. Yes, you read that right.  Oysters!  He has become a HUGE oyster lover this past year and wanted nothing more than oysters for dinner for his birthday.  But you see, that's not really something I make...so we ordered an order of fried oysters from a local restaurant as take out and then paired them with the macaroni & cheese and it was this birthday boy's dream come true!

And then it was present time and he was spoiled!  He got a Wii game and his big present was a K'Nex coaster.  It was for 9 year olds, but he was thrilled regardless.  I knew he was going to need some help putting it together, though!  :)

 This is the Loopz game...it's pretty fun!

 And then we had cake, and who doesn't love birthday cake!  He wanted a rainbow cake so badly after he's seen lots of pictures of them, so I told him I would make one with four colors of his choice (since I reaaaaally didn't want to do all 8 colors and have that much cake!).  It worked out great!  And we paired it with some Blue Bell ice cream.  I laughed because I realized that with the exception of the cake, Tyler picked a very Southern birthday meal--mac & cheese, oysters, and Blue Bell!

 Yes, the 7 year old was not the only one who loved the birthday celebration.  The 4 year old was quite a fan as well!

On the weekend, Garrett and Tyler got to work building the coaster.  And let me tell you, it was quite a process!  It took them Saturday evening and almost all afternoon Sunday after church.  But it is awesome!  They were all so proud of it, and rightfully so!

Happy 7th birthday to my firstborn!  Tyler is honestly such a great kid and I am so blessed to be his mother.  He is a peacemaker, always wants everyone to be happy, always plans activities for everyone to do together--because his favorite thing in the whole world is when we're all together.  He is become a huge sports enthusiast and loves learning about EVERY thing (just like his dad!).  He has had a great year in school and is such a blessing to our family.  I can't imagine life without him!

Breakfast with Santa & KCS Holiday Express

So...yep, I'm blogging about Christmas and it's June.  I was on such a good run there getting blogged all the way through Thanksgiving.  And all I had left to do was blog about December and 2011 would be in the books.  But then March/April were not the kindest, and then we had a computer crash, and, and, and...now we are in the middle of June.  I just returned from Girls Camp last week and now feel like blogging again.  So perhaps the next few weeks will finally give me a little more time?  We shall see, but here's a start!

 So, December 3 our ward had a breakfast with Santa activity for their Christmas party.  It was great and pretty easy going for such a busy month.  The boys got to wear their pj's and we ate our breakfast and waited for Santa to arrive.  They both had their lists memorized, of course.  Although, they changed about 45 times from December 3 to December 24 {sigh}.

Our Santa was seated in such a way that I couldn't get the best pictures and he didn't let the kids sit on his lap (he was getting them over & done with in quick fashion, I tell you!), so my pictures aren't the greatest.  But here is the proof that they saw him, asked for their presents, and got their candy can!

Later that day, we decided to get in the car for a drive.  About an hour or so away in LaPlace, there was going to be an appearance from the Kansas City Southern Holiday Express train.  It is a train that makes stops all over the country during Christmas time and it hauls Santa Claus and his elves and is all decorated and super cute.  The boys loved it, even though Sam was not a interested in getting his picture with an elf (above) or with Santa (below)!

 It was a great way to get our Christmas season started!