Christmas 2013

Well I'm finally finding time to write on my blog. Thought I'd start by recapping my Christmas. I got to take lots and lots of pictures but tragically my computer killed them....anyway it was a great Christmas. This year my older brother's family came down from Seattle to spend three weeks with us. So I got to spend time with my little ones and visit with my brother and sister-in-law.

Christmas Eve I went over to my parents to spend the night. We dressed the kids up and reenacted the nativity. Little Jace was so adorable. My mom had to catch him and somehow was able to wrap a sash over one shoulder and wrapped a tie about five times around his little waist. He looked like the cutest little ninja...er...I mean shepherd.

We acted out the chapter in Luke and then the kids went to bed, while us adults watched some Christmas movies.

After the kiddos were asleep...the Santas came out and I camped out on the family room couch.

In the early hours of the morning I heard the little whispers of my two oldest nephews, and got up to see this:

And my nephews attacking their stockings. The stockings were all lined up on the front room couches.

I dug into mine. I got two magazines, one on cooking and another on archeology. I also got some white chocolate hot chocolate. It is the yummiest hot coco I've ever had. Highly recommend it.

After everyone was up and finished going through their stockings, we began our family tradition of making waffles with ice cream and strawberries.

The little guys got a plate of bananas and strawberries shaped like candy canes and waffles shaped like fishes.

After breakfast my dad and brother went and picked up my grandma, so she could join us in the fun. Then the mass unwrapping commenced.

Every year we always get a new toy for Saydi-dog but this year she got two. And the poor thing got so worn out playing with them that she fell asleep on one of them.

It was fun to see Max and Ryan get so excited about every gift they got. Their biggest presents this year were new lego sets. After the chaos of the gift giving. The two of them raced upstairs and started working on their kits.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying each other's company and playing with our new toys. My pile of goodies wasn't that bad.

I got a few good movies, some new clothes, a cool cook book and my mom's yummy granola. And I finally got a broom.

All and in all it was a fun day.

Teddy Bear Christmas

One of the fun Christmas traditions we have is my Mom's cute Teddy Bear Stockings. She made one for each of my siblings and myself when we were very little.

They are getting a little faded but still are working well. With my brother's family in town my Mom and I decied to add stockings for them as well. We found a cute bear pattern material in a mostly green shade. We've spent the last few weeks cutting and sewing.

I did most of the cutting of materials and my mom did the sewing.

 

The fun part was making the cute little teddy bear faces.

Teddy Bears all in a row

We finished the stockings on Christmas Eve, just in time for Santa. For another fun tradition, my Dad and I made some little Teddy Bear loafs.

We wrapped them up and handed them out to our friends with a little container of honey butter. Christmas is always a fun time of year for me. And with these fun traditions it makes it more enjoyable.

The Little Ones

This last week my older brother's family came down from Seattle to spend Christmas with us. It has been fun having them in town for a while. My little nephews are huge fans of legos so I helped them put together one of my old lego sets.

They have been playing with it ever since. My mom and dad have also enjoyed having them around. My mom gets to read to them every night and dad gets some grandpa time as well.

 

A while back my dad purchased a HUGE teddy bear from Costco. We've named it BB (Big Bear). The kiddos love it.

Especially little Jace

And even the big kids have fun with it. Meet my older brother Tony....he is such a big kid some times.

"Good-bye cruel world...."

I think he had more fun throwing BB over the railing than the kids had fun hugging the life out of it.
I also got to meet my little niece for the first time. She is so tiny and cute. Just got to love her.

On Thursday, I invited them all over to my apartment to have pizza and make Ginger Bread houses. The boys were so excited it was hard to get them to sit down, all they wanted to do was eat the candy. But after putting in a Christmas movie they settled down a little, enough to make some.

My hand got pretty sore squeezing that frosting but we got them all built.

Debbie and an unhappy Jason

I discovered that my home wasn't very Jason proof. We kept having to move things up higher.

 Here is Max and Ryan showing off their creations. They had a lot of fun. Max was even nice enough to give me one of his to keep.

Happy Ryan

Tony's "Tiny Tim" Evie.

They are so much fun to have around. I can't wait to see how they are at Christmas. Should be a blast.