Christmas Day

So when Gigi, Papack, Aunt MerMer and Uncle Roger arrived, the boys showed them what Santa brought. Everyone was very excited and couldn't wait to open more presents. Here are the pictures from the rest of the day.

Jonathan and Aunt MerMer. He slept through most of his first Christmas.

When they arrived, we had brunch together. Andrew and Coleman had already eaten some oatmeal, but our brunch was a big hit. Those boys love breakfast food. Here's a shot of Andrew, wearing his helmet, watching Gigi make the sweet potato biscuits. Yummy!

Coleman drove his fire truck all around. He'd drive up and say, "Here comes the fire chief!"

After brunch, we let the boys open their gifts from everyone. Aunt MerMer and Uncle Roger gave them each a sleeping bag!

Andrew got a set of fireman walkie talkies from Gigi and Papack and Coleman got a "My First Craftsman" nailgun.

Gigi and Papack loved their picture of the boys too.

MerMer and Roger also gave the boys a fire truck tent. A HUGE hit! They loved playing in it.

We looked over after the gifts were finished and saw Coleman was ready for his nap.

We put the boys in their beds, and then saw that Brent was also taking a nap.

Jonathan did wake up for a little while that afternoon.

By the time nap was over, it had stopped raining and so the boys got to play outside in their new toys for a bit.

After supper we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had birthday cake for one of our desserts.

This is a tradition my grandmother started when Meredith and I were little girls, and I love carrying it on for our boys.

Don't be fooled into thinking that's the last Christmas post. More to come. . .

Christmas Morning

We figured that this might be the last year we had a chance to be showered and dressed before the Christmas morning festivities began, so Brent and I got up at 6am and got ourselves ready for the day. Jonathan ate and went back to sleep. We perched ourselves on the stairs closest to the boys' room so we could catch them before they wandered into the living room. We didn't figure they would remember on waking up that it was Christmas and Santa had come. We were right.

We started hearing Coleman around 7 talking quietly. He knows he's supposed to stay in his bed, and we could hear him saying, "Andrew? Are you 'wake?" Then we heard him moving around in the room and saw this.


We kept getting our cameras ready for that first picture, and they kept beeping and whirring. Coleman could hear the noises, but had no idea what it was. He was saying, "What's that? It's a bear!" Very hard to keep from busting out laughing.

A few minutes later, Andrew got out of bed and appeared at the door. Pretty apparant he's forgotten it's Christmas. We videotaped all of this and I'll post it another day.


Stopping for a picture on the steps before heading to the living room. We've told them by this point that Santa came and it's Christmas, but I still think they were a little groggy.



A first look at the living room


Andrew's pile


Coleman's pile

Jonathan's pile

Andrew was very surprised by his bicycle. He hadn't really been asking for one, but jumped right on when he realized it was his.

They were both excited about Coleman's new fire truck!

This was a great year to have no dining room furniture. They rode around all morning.

Trying out his new armor

Opening a new fireman's jacket

one of Jonathan's gifts

In the past, my gifts for Brent have been hit and miss. He's been very difficult to buy for the last few years, since he was pretty much an indentured servant with no free time or hobbies. However, he was very surprised and excited when he opened his Wii. Hooray! He also got a collage frame of the boys' pictures for his office, and a new clock/weather station.

I got a new coat, three little boy Willow Tree figures, and Charleston Receipts. It's the oldest continually published cookbook there is. I mentioned it when we went to Charleston, and he remembered and got it for me. How sweet!

the first of many brotherly swordfights

opening stockings

Good grief. It is very consoling to know that everyone else with Santa aged kids had a similar looking living room floor that morning.

Right about now, Gigi and Papack, Aunt MerMer and Uncle Roger and Major are walking up to the door. We'll see what happened next tomorrow.

Christmas Eve

This was the first year we have ever spent the entire two days of Christmas in our own home, and it was WONDERFUL!!! We had so much fun with all the boys carrying on traditions and starting new ones. And I must say, every family should get to experience Christmas with a newborn at least once. It made The Story so much more special and real to all of us.

Christmas Eve morning started off with Christmas Pancakes. Andrew and Coleman got to choose from gingerbread, Santa, or train shaped pancakes. The January issue of Southern Living has the yummiest recipe for pancakes, by the way.




After breakfast, we made the gingerbread boys and girls for Santa to enjoy during his visit that night.



Then we mixed up some reindeer feed for Rudolph and his friends. Coleman is shirtless because he had just dumped a glass of water on himself.



My favorite thing about the day was that we were so laid back. Nowhere to be at any certain time. We just did whatever we wanted to do. Here Brent and the boys are doing a Christmas I Spy book. These books are really popular right now at our house.



We had a nice supper of ham, macaroni and cheese and green beans. Then, the boys got to open a gift before their baths. Whatever could it be?



New pajamas for Christmas Eve!

This month, the boys have LOVED The Polar Express DVD. So we watched it one final time for the year on Christmas Eve. I think we'll probably do this every year from now on. They got to have a gingerbread man and hot chocolate during the movie. Gigi told Andrew that sometimes she stirs her hot chocolate with a candy cane, so we did that too. I don't know why this picture is sideways.

Then we put out the reindeer feed,

and the cookies and milk for Santa.

I was going to make a picture of both of them with the cookie plate, but the turkeys kept trying to eat Santa's treat! It was all we could do to get Andrew to leave the plate alone. Then we realized Coleman was missing. We turned around and found him at the bar eating one of the extra cookies! Turkeys! They finally got in bed, pretty close to normal time, when the power went out. Good grief! We had really bad storms that night, but finally got our power back on before Santa needed to come. Thank goodness he had not procrastinated about putting certain things together!

More to come. . .