Merry Christmas!

The Tradition Continues

Christmas Eve, to me, means a lasagna dinner by candlelight.  I grew up with that tradition and I'm carrying it on. 

My favorite Christmas gift this year was perfect behavior from both the boys at the evening mass!  It was unbelievable!  Thank you Santa!  After mass the boys got to open one gift; The Night Before Christmas book. 

I got to open one gift also.  They gave me a pine smelling candle since I was disappointed that we couldn't find a real tree this year and had to settle for our artificial one. 

 

The next morning I woke up feeling horrible.  I had gotten the flu.  Of all the days to get sick, it had to be our Christmas morning!  I did not enjoy our gift opening or brunch as much as I had hoped.  But Andrew did...I guess that's what matters!

Dominic would have been happy if we stopped after the first gift.  They both received new trains in their stockings; Andrew got Gordon and Dominic got James.  This was all he cared about.  He finally has a train that is his very own and Andrew can't take it away!

Oh Pancake...

You are getting quite the personality.  You love to laugh and follow your big brother around, imitating his silly noises.  You are very cuddly.  Your favorite thing to do is burrow your head between my legs to get my attention and lay your head on my shoulder (or anyone else's who is holding you).

You are walking around to strong and steady, yet you want to be held all the time.  It's as if you know that your time as our baby is limited and you want to squeeze every ounce of attention from us before the new baby arrives. 

You love to play with cars and trains, just like Andrew, which has been causing some fighting between you two, as you are always taking the trains that the other is playing with.

You do this thing where you shake your head back and forth and roll your eyes at the most random times.  We all get a kick out if watching you!

 

We love you to pieces little Pancake!

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Finally...our first real snowfall!  Looks like we will have a white Christmas after all! 

 

 

After some fun in the snow, we came inside to warm up with hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows.  This was Andrew's first mug of cocoa and boy did he love it!

The simple things in life can bring so much joy!

Meet Bob

 

Andrew has a friend.  He found this bunny at the bottom of the toy box, brought it to me and said, "This Bob.  I wuv Bob!"  He has since been carrying Bob around, hugging him and squeezing him tightly.  He has even been sleeping with him.  This is the first toy that he has shown any connection to or affection for...It's very sweet!

A Blessed Advent

I haven't gotten overly excited for Christmas this year.  It's not that I'm not looking forward to it, I'm just trying to spend more time focusing on Advent this year.  Usually I start getting all my Christmas decorations out right after Thanksgiving.  It all goes up at once and stays up until mid February.  But this year I'm doing things different.  I decided to get some Jesse Tree ornaments and put those one by one on our Christmas tree.  We were disappointed to find out that on Dec 8th when we went to get our tree there were only a handful left and none to be desired.  I guess that's the price you pay when you don't start celebrating the day after Thanksgiving!  So, up went our artificial tree.

 

I had high hopes for our Jesse Tree.  I had visions of us sitting on the couch each evening as a family reading the bible stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible and then carefully placing the ornament on the tree after reciting the prayer.  Hopefully one of these years we will be able to do that, but I realized that this year is not the year.  Nevertheless, I will continue to do it, even if it's just me that's listening. 

 

I'm doing something different with our nativity set also.  Each Sunday I will be putting out new pieces.  We started with the Angel and star, then added the shepherds and animals the second week.  I really wanted Andrew to help and he has actually taken an interest.  However this has resulted in my angel being decapitated and the figures being rearranged everyday.  No Andrew, the camel doesn't go there.  That's were baby Jesus will be.  All of this has made me realize that I have good intentions to start Advent traditions, but two years old is just too young.  I need to relax just a bit. 

 

This is the nativity set that I set up in the basement on top of our piano.  This is proof that no matter how high I put things, Andrew will find a way to get to them.  These will end up broken, it's just a matter of time!

 

We did have a good time on the morning of St. Nicholas' Day.  The kids found Christmas jammies, a book and a DVD in their stockings.