We had a wonderful Christmas and December. Thanksgiving Break began with decorating for Christmas, making Gingerbread Houses with Tommy, and a great visit with Nana and Grandad.
All 3 boys had a great time decorating their houses. My mom and I took a class once on making homemade gingerbread houses - it was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. I like these easy pre-made kits from Target - they are great for kids.
Greg and the boys went on our neighborhood's annual hayride in early December - it was probably the coldest weekend all winter. I missed it due to a previously planned night with friends - so I had to rely on Greg to take the annual Santa photo. They were on the last hayride of the night and poor Santa had been in 5 degree weather for 3+ hours at his point. I wish Luke's eyes were open, but I understand the desire to hurry up and take the picture. It does show their complete joy in seeing Santa. Greg said Ryan dominated much of the hayride conversation with Santa and told him all about the robot dog he wanted for Christmas.
Later in the month we went to the Trail of Lights at the Chatfield Denver Botanical Gardens. One of the boys took this picture of me and Greg.
The weekend before Christmas Break the boys and I made gingerbread cookies (this time homemade). I used to make and decorate cookies on a somewhat regular basis. I don't do that so much anymore, it is quite time consuming. However, the boys are now of an age that they really can take over the decorating and enjoy it. They had a great time. I also felt that I could check that off my list of "holiday baking with kids."
My grandmother's sweet 94 year old husband passed away the Friday before Christmas Break. We headed to Lubbock for the funeral and the cousins were able to reunite again. We will miss Mr. G. - he was a remarkable man who left such a great legacy.
Here is a short story that the Lubbock news featured on him. I am thankful for the love he brought to my grandmother's life.
Christmas Eve was filled with lots of family and fun, but our Christmas day is always quiet and nice with just the 4 of us. We started the morning with the boys getting up a 6am and checking out what Santa brought them. Ryan had been very nervous about Santa bringing him the robot dog he so coveted. We reassured Ryan several times that he was a great boy and that he asked Santa for a reasonable gift - but he was up very late the night before, in tears, worried that Santa would not bring him anything. It was quite a relief for him and us that Santa came through on Christmas morning. Luke asked Santa for a remote control tarantula - which Santa was somehow able to find.
Luke also received his very own set of Harry Potter books. Those are my absolute favorite books and I love that I can share that with him. He is about 3/4 of the way through the 4th book at this point and looking forward to reading books 5, 6, and 7 (he had already read the first 3).
Ryan and Luke checking out Ryan's present from Santa - Zoomer, the robot puppy that you have to train.
Ryan was very excited to receive his very own camera. He has had a great time taking pictures of a variety of random objects around the house.
Luke cracks me up in this picture. He had just opened his very own hand-held video camera and he was like "what in the world is it?" He has since staged a few America's Funniest Home Video scenes with Ryan.
Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas. Santa/Greg was good to me and Greg is all set with yard work tools for the spring. We've enjoyed the time off and being home with each other - tomorrow we head to the mountains for snow tubing.
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