Christmas 2011

Christmas time in our house was extra special and extra hectic this year. With Emily's arrival it was difficult to find the time and energy to squeeze in all the holiday traditions we enjoy each year. But, we were able to do a few of our favorite Christmas activities, like decorate a gingerbread house (and eat a ridiculous amount of Christmas candy in the process)!

Josh's Elf on the Shelf, Snowflake, made his appearance again this year to keep track of Josh's naughty and nice habits throughout December. Snowflake was found doing some crazy things this year that led to lots of giggles and squeals from Josh each morning. For example, Snowflake was found fishing for Goldfish, eating off of Josh's gingerbread house, making a snow angel out of baking flour, and he was even stuck to the ceiling one morning!!! But, Josh's absolute favorite was when he woke up to find Snowflake tied to a Christmas candle and being attacked by all of his Star Wars Lego figures. 'Cause nothing says Christmas like a poor Elf being attacked by Storm troopers.

Of course, Josh's preschool helped us maintain the tradition of making lots of personalized Christmas crafts. This one was my favorite. Josh as an elf. We hung it on his bedroom door, however, I think this line up of all the kids in his class made the best decoration of the season!

Christmas finally came and so did my dear family!! Meme and Barn were already in town to help us with baby Emily. As you can see, they enjoyed Emily snuggles and watching her change before our eyes over the course of one short week.

Uncle Phil and Aunt Anna arrived and were wonderfully patient guests who embraced the craziness of our house, kids, and dogs.

On Christmas Eve, Josh and I made some reindeer cookies (thank you Pinterest.com) for Santa and left out apples and carrots for Rudolph and his buddies. Josh was very concerned that we would forget to put out the fire in the fireplace and Santa wouldn't be able to make it down our chimney. Lucky for Santa, we remembered and EARLY the next morning...

Josh came shooting out of his bedroom to find...

... all of his Christmas loot from Santa. Santa brought Star Wars Legos, a Pocket Helicopter, and an awesome race track. I think the race track is more Chris' present. Actually, from the amount of time Chris spends playing with these 3 things, I think they are all equal parts Chris and Josh presents.

Funny how that works.

Best quote of Christmas morning was when Josh opened his present from Phil and Anna:

"Oh. My. Goodness. This is 100% (((((( long pause)))))) COOL!!!!"

It was the much lusted after Lego Police Station that Santa was too cheap to purchase for Josh, but cool Uncle Phil wasn't.

Luckily, Josh has an brilliant Aunt and a talented, albeit dorky, architect Uncle who "helped" him construct the super awesome police station.

I think the theme of Christmas 2011 in our house was Star Wars movies, baby snuggles, Legos, and an amazing amount of food. And for me, lots and lots of diaper changing, midnight feedings, and coffee. This picture captures just about every day in our house over the holiday weekend. It was pure greatness relaxing and enjoying our family. It only happens once a year, but when we are together we do our best to make it worth while!

We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas!

We hope you and your family had a fabulous holiday and New Year!