Christmas Part III

On Christmas Eve we watched movies, munched on goodies and spent some great family time together. We didn't get a chance to make Santa our usual goodies so we shared our awesome Peppermint Shortbread tea cookies and a glass of milk. Lucas has been in charge of cookies for the past couple of years and he made sure they were in plain sight. We took one last photo of all the kids before they headed off to bed...cause Santa doesn't make his appearance until everyone is asleep...

On Christmas morning Scott was the first one up. He actually beat the kids out of bed! We took care of the puppies and then Scott made us some delicious eggnog french toast. The kids seem to think that we should do presents BEFORE breakfast because we eat too slow....but we always insist on breakfast first...oh the torture! You would think we were making them do something horrible! lol

Noah and Eli took turns being Santa this year...and Scott and I really enjoyed sitting back and watching their joy. It's always a lot of laughs on Christmas morning because sometimes we give/get silly gifts...such as when Scott called me a "dork" for getting him 90 pop tarts! :) Or how excited Lucas was to get a replacement hammer that he lifted it toward the ceiling and yelled, "YES!".

I actually didn't take that many pics during our Christmas morning so I must have really enjoyed myself. Santa brought everyone the big gift that they wanted and we now have some inspiring Skateboarders, scientists and engineers. On our Christmas day we packed up and headed to the hospital to surprise Grandma with her gifts. Lucas was our designated Santa and as soon as we walked into the hospital I heard a patient say, "Look, it's Santa Claus!". We headed down the hallway and found grandma in good spirits. We got her a new "hobo" hat (we lovingly call her our hobo because she is always wearing a stocking cap...and now Noah has joined that club with his own hobo hat.) We got her a matching scarf and a new winter coat plus some little things. We had a nice visit and thankfully she was feeling pretty good. We stayed for about an hour and left to go eat at our favorite Cinzetti's for our Christmas dinner.

Here is our little group with Grandma. Can you believe how BIG the kids are? Where did my babies go?

Lucas' favorite gift was a Chemistry set. He currently wants to be a scientist and asked for "Toxic Waste" for Christmas. He wanted chemicals and minerals so that he could mix them and cause explosions....but for now Daddy is going thru the experiments with him and he is learning a lot about Science....He Loves it! He also got a membership to a local Science Club for Christmas and is pretty excited about all the different things he is going to learn and make....molding....molding...molding...

We LOVELOVELOVE our extended time with the kids because it gives us an opportunity to relax, play, gel and grow as a family...and during our winter break we played scrabble, monopoly, scrabble, more scrabble, did science experiments, made crystals, rode scooters and skateboards, used Aslan as a sled/skateboard dog, cooked, baked, watched movies and did a photo shoot. It was a great week!!

I hope each one of you had a great Christmas break with your family and had a chance to unwind and bond. We loved our time together and made some great new memories. We believe that the time you spend with your kids means more than the STUFF you buy them. They won't remember the material things but will remember HOW you talk to them, how you make them FEEL, how much LOVE you show them and whether or not your love is UNCONDITIONAL. Merry Christmas!