Christmas 2016

CHRISTMAS EVE

So…parent confessional time…
Zane saw and played with his “Santa” gift early.
Is that what happens with the second child?!
Zane does not go to bed until really late and Nik wanted to get gifts put together…
therefore - Zane saw, played with, and loved his gift!
And I couldn’t help but let him enjoy it for a while :)

All the presents wrapped, and ready for morning!

One last thing we did for Jaxen was to wrap his door with streamers.

Thinking in the morning he would break through and open his stocking.

well….

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Jaxen woke up and was almost in tears that he was stuck in his room and couldn’t get out! lol.

Poor boy.

Once we explained to him that he just had to break through, he loved it!

I put a little “Merry Christmas” note in each of the boy’s Christmas mailbox,

and had placed their stocking outside their door.

Zane had a stocking and mailbox too. 

Apparently I didn’t get any pictures of it.

Jaxen pulled everything out of it anyway, and showed it to Zane.

Jaxen, of course, had to put on his new undies before we went downstairs.

There will probably always be new undies in Jaxen’s stockings.

After stockings were looked through and played with, we headed downstairs.

Zane went straight for his walker and Jaxen was so excited about his activity desk!

(The white board part flips down, so it is more of a ‘desk’ - 

and has markers and crayons stored up top).

We let the boys play with their stocking stuff and “Santa” gifts until it was time to head to church.

At church we had a Happy Birthday Jesus Service.

Complete with a game of charades (acting out the nativity story),

party favors (for the kids), songs, a chorus of Happy Birthday and cake!

There was also a short sermon involved :)

It was a great service and and celebration of Jesus’ birth!

After church we delivered some leftover cookies to the workers at our gas station in town,

and tried to deliver to the firehouse and police station (but no one was there). 

So we came home and snacked for lunch and then did some gift opening!

Nik and I both have a Yeti cup, and decided to get Jaxen a ‘fake’ Yeti.

He was so excited…he calls it his “yea yea cup” :)

Zane’s favorite gift was this vibrating teether.

But look how adorable his new outfits are!

Nik enjoyed his new bluetooth shower speaker…as did the boys.

Dance party!

And Nik surprised me with new house shoes!

We had a lot of fun opening gifts and I think everyone really loved what they received!

CHRISTMAS AFTERMATH

Look at the mess of paper and boxes!

I stuck the boys in the middle of the mess and tried to get a cute pic...

My favorite :)

Awww…good times!

The rest of the afternoon we watched a Christmas movie (elf),

relaxed and ate dinner (sirloin tip roast with crescent rolls and sweet potatoes).

It was a great day!

THE DAY AFTER

We were out of the house by 10am to do some after-Christmas shopping!

I love December 26. The stores, the sales and the yummy pizza Nik treated us to.

Zane loved Jaxen pushing him in the cart.

And please notice our one and only Sam’s purchase…wipes.

My main goal was to get a Christmas tree for next year, that would fit in our house.

We purchased a 7.5 foot one.

I’ll keep holding on to my 9 footer, just in case I can use it again one day!

We didn’t purchase much…

a few items for a Christmas Party next year, a few decorations

and then we found king size flannel sheets at a ridiculous good price.

They are in the dryer as we speak…I’m really excited to try them out tonight!

After running all over Rochester we headed home 

to play with Nerf Guns :)

The sweetest thing happened today…

Nik had given Jaxen $5 that he could spend on a toy while we were out shopping.

At the first store, Jaxen spotted a few things he wanted to buy.

But after walking around looking at the nerf guns, paw patrol stuff and other things -

Jaxen told Nik “Daddy, I want to buy you a nerf gun.”

Nik questioned Jaxen about him buying a nerf gun…

asked him if he was willing to give up the other toys he wanted,

 to purchase a nerf gun for Nik…and he said 

“Yea daddy. I heard you say you wanted a nerf gun and so you don’t have to borrow mine!”

(We have a few nerf guns, but Jaxen recently got a new one with a laser that Nik likes!)

So Nik let Jaxen pick out a nerf gun (and he picked out the exact same one he had)

and bought it (with a few extra dollars from us) for his daddy.

So sweet, right?!

Tomorrow is RELAX day.

At day at home.

Resting and playing.

My boys need a day at home to recoup from the fun and busyness the last week held.