Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had an excellent Christmas holiday this year. On Christmas Eve day, Will and I slipped out for last-minute errands, namely the post office and Costco:

We knew the cousin gifts wouldn't actually arrive by the next morning, but it felt good to at least get them mailed, haha. And Will was sweet and patient and entertaining at the post office as we waited in a long-ish but very manageable line. We waltzed in and out of Costco as quickly as possible, mostly thanks to our short list: fun nuggets and muffins!

That afternoon we busted out copious amounts of flour for some sugar cookie fun. Thanks to my fantastic bfsc Courtney we used wax paper and it was amazing. Later she told me you can use another layer of wax paper on top and eliminate the need for the aforementioned piles of flour everywhere, buuuuuut where's the mess in that? If I'm going to bake something, I want to adorably look like I've been baking, with a smudge of flour on my cheek, ya know? ;)

Okay, isn't Carma's little Christmas outfit so darling? It was a Grandma Thomas find that she gave us over the summer, and I was so glad to see that Carma didn't outgrow it in the meantime :).

So last year our Christmas Eve was lame; Chuck worked until six and then stayed late to help a buddy with a flat tire. By the time he rolled in, the kids were donnnne and so we kind of rushed through everything. THIS year, it was perfect - we were able to have a really nice evening; we read the account of Jesus' birth aloud while the boys followed along with their little nativity. We set out the cookies... pushed them farther away so Carma couldn't get them... and took some pictures before tucking these sweet kiddos into bed!

And then we woke up to all of thiiiiis in the morning!

Clyde's main passions in life are Percy Jackson and legos, so he was a pretty happy kid when he found the final Percy Jackson book amongst his gifts. Aaaand an entire jar of peanut butter JUST for him!

Oh Willy boy, haha. For the school sing-along, each class sang a different song and Will's was "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". Will LOVED it. He sang it constantly. Like, seriously. So naturally that turned into actually wanting a hippopotamus! Thankfully, Santa hit up Savers on the right day and found one for two dolla and Will is happy as can be that Henry the Hippo has joined our family.

And just in case you didn't personally encounter Will during the month of December and thus have yet to see/hear the song, here's a snippet from the program:

Jack had no real idea of what he 'wanted' for Christmas, but luckily I did: a kitchen! Clyde and Will had one at this age (that was eventually relegated to the backyard and then given away) and they loved it, and I knew Jack would follow suit. 

Carma crawled around and got in everyone's way and was totally content letting Will and Grandma open her stocking - which contained a cute onesie and some puffs AND a special doll named Ginger Christmas that I apparently failed to photograph, but fulfilled all the requirements that Will had dreamt up and then specified to Santa: a soft girl doll with red hair :).

We were very happy to have Grandma Pam celebrate Christmas morning with us! The kiddos loved the gifts she gave them: Clyde received new books and money for his bball camp, Will got an encyclopedia book and a special bank, Jack got super cool wooden food that can be cut apart and a monkey backpack (Clyde and Will have coordinating animals/backpacks from Grandma), and Carma June got the sweetest pink and green flower print bear ever.

Such perfect, thoughtful gifts - thanks Mama!

OH, and at some point in the still-early morning the boys opened up the front curtains and found this new addition to the front yard:

Say what? A trampoline! I had asked for advice on sizes, etc on facebook earlier in the month and got excellent feedback. This little 8 footer popped up on craigslist for $50 almost immediately, so we bought it with the plan to continue looking for a full size one after Christmas (spoiler alert: we found one. It's in the backyard. We now have three trampolines, if you count the mini exercise one in the living room...).

A few more shots of present opening...

 

Oh, Will brought home a present for us from school and the pictures on the gift bag were darling: on the left is me, Carma as baby Jesus, and Chuck... with the actual baby Jesus in a manger of hay above. On the right is a candy cane and an angel. Oh I love that kid.

 Quinn and Eden and co. came over that afternoon, which was super fun. Eden got roped into Jenga with the boys:

while Quinn was content watching the basketball game and taking creeper pictures of himself... and thus me... with my phone.

Carma and Leila made a darling pair of Christmas elves:

We ended the day with - of course - more legos (did I mention that Jack got his very first 'real' lego set? Just for him? #milestone). Such a great day being together and playing with fun stuff!