Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and doesn't feel too down about the day already having come and gone. My birthday is New Years Eve, so it always seems a little easier for me to keep Christmas going because there is a whole other day of celebration just a week away!

Our Christmas this year was wonderful. It was just the four of us. I was really disappointed about it at first, but as the days led to Christmas Day I got more and more excited. I am so glad to have a wonderful husband who saw the excitement of it just being us and who gets just as excited about Christmas Eve as I do. We still haven't sparked any great Christmas Traditions like we want to, but there's always next year. It's mostly because James had to work until after 7 Christmas Eve, so when he got home he went straight to wrapping my presents and then we spent hours getting Ezra into bed.

Ezra has been really into Christmas this year, which has made it that much more fun. He enjoyed learning about Baby Jesus, though I don't think he quite understands that Christmas is His birthday and not a day of presents. I'm working on it :) He has visited Santa a handful of times, though he is still afraid to get close to him. The last visit we made he cried until I let him see him, ran to him, held his arms out to sit on his lap and then very quickly backed away in horror at what he was about to do. He stood about 5 feet from Santa and said, "I want pesents, cookies, candies and cars!" Then he walked a little closer, held his hands out and waited for Santa to give him his coloring book. Every time he would hear a noise outside our window he would gasp and say, "Santa! He's here! He's bing me pesents!"

Christmas Eve we set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. He was so excited about that. When he woke up he couldn't believe that Santa drank all the milk, ate most of the cookies and his reindeer ate the carrots. After Ezra went to bed James and I (and Santa of course) set out the presents and then we spent about an hour building his train track throughout the room. (He got a bunch of hand-me-down pieces from his cousin Tyler to fit the ones he got for his birthday, so it was huge!)

                                      
                               

James and I didn't sleep hardly at all that night. I never sleep well Christmas Eve. This year it was in part because we have a sick baby. (He was up way more than usual (his usual is every 1-2 hours). He has a really nasty cough for a 4 month old and he is so congested.) I set our alarm early so we would be up before Ezra to see his face when he saw everything. Well, we didn't need the alarm because we were just too excited.

When Ezra opened the door he just stopped, looked at the presents with wide eyes and then looked at the train tracks. The first thing out of his mouth was, "we're missing pieces." It was funny because the train track was huge; what was he expecting? We took it really slow this Christmas which was great.

We got a Kinect from my mother-in-law this year. James let Ezra open it and right when he saw it he said, "that for you daddy" and moved to the next present. Though now that he has seen how it works and has played his Kinectimals game, he loves it! We spent Christmas afternoon rearranging our living room to make the Kinect work. It was fun!

(Poor little Makai wasn't/still isn't feeling well :( )

When we were cleaning up the gifts we put some back into Ezra's stocking just to get them out of the way. When he noticed his stocking wasn't empty he ran to it and said, "Oh, der's more!" Just for a family history side note: presents inside the stockings are now called "stuffing stockers" because James just couldn't get it right all month long!

Later that evening we went up to the Stake Center next to the Temple where we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with our neighbors and friends. The only thing I actually made was sweet potatoes and guess what... I burned it. haha! It's not unusual for me to burn things. It was only the marshmallows and James claimed they were perfect, but I like them just barely brown, not slightly crispy. Oh well. Cristina provided most everything else and it was great! Thanks Cristina! We played games and ate lots of yummy dessert. Then we came home, played more games and went to bed.

It really was a great Christmas. We talked a lot about Baby Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas, but next year I want to do a Nativity Pageant with the boys and really focus more on Christ than Santa. We got a little more commercial this year than I would've liked. I am so grateful for our Savior's birth and this special time of year. Thank you to all our family and friends for the Christmas cards, gifts and warm wishes. We love you all!

Thanksgiving Vacation

We're back! We've been back for almost a week now, but I still don't feel readjusted to "normal" life yet. We had a great time out east and I wish it didn't have to end. It's always nice coming home, especially when James was back home for 11 days before we were, but it's so nice being with family and back where the world seems a little more alive.

We ventured to Maryland for Thanksgiving with James' family. Half of the family stayed in two RV's in the driveway while the other half stayed in the house. The showers and bathrooms were always occupied, mealtimes were a little crazy and our caravan systems were always delayed (mostly, okay, totally because of me. I choose to blame the babe, but I was almost always the last to shower, so it's more my fault than Makai's. Sorry!).

We spent time in DC where I saw the White House for the first time. I have to say, it looks bigger and more magical in pictures. We also got pedicures, manicures, went shopping with the girlies and put on a cute talent show. The boys were able to go to the Navy football game. We also went to the Air and Space Museum, Port Discovery x2, DC Temple visitors center, The museum of Natural History and American History and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Needless to say, everyday we had an adventure and it was great. We also had time to talk, make cookies, and watch the only family video of James and his sisters when they were younger. Oh and I can't forget the wonderful Thanksgiving meal we had thanks to my mother-in-law! It was sooo yummy! Ezra loved playing with his cousins. We came upstairs one morning and he heard someone and gasped, "cousins!!!" It was so cute. He still prays for ALL of them. All we have to say is "we're thankful for.." and he just fills in all their names.

Then Thanksgiving Day we said goodbye to everyone, James got on one plane back home and the boys and I got on another to go see my family. Within half an hour of James being home he was called into work where he walked the floors all Black Friday morning.

The boys were great for me on the plane. It was a little crazier on the way home due to a much longer flight plus a layover and double the amount of luggage I came out with, but the boys were still way more behaved than I expected, so no tears!

In New Hampshire we had fun shopping, shopping, and shopping. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle and cousins, met Santa and rode on his train, got a house visit from Santa (aka Grandpa), and went horseback riding and Ezra and I fell off the horse. I'm still sore, Ezra landed on me so he's fine. He still talks about how he got to feed the horse, walk it, brush it and say, "whoa horsey", not once has he ever mentioned falling off, so I'm not reminding him.

We also played with more of Ezra's cousins and I found myself relaxing more than I have since I've had kids. I hardly prepared any meals for Ezra (my mom and sister-in-law, Jamie, took care of it)! I sent Ezra down with Nana each morning while mommy and baby relaxed or, some mornings, slept in. I had my first Black Friday early bird adventure and it was a little lame. My fault though. I went with nothing particular in mind. I just wanted to "look" around. Well, you can't really "look" at anything in the crowds, so I mostly stood to the side until I saw an open aisle to move through. Still fun though and not nearly as horrible as everyone made it sound. I got to see many old friends and it was great. My neice, Lily, just loved Makai. She would say all day long, "baby, oh, it's a baby!" It was so funny. Ezra spent most of his time downstairs playing with Tyler's toys. I didn't get hardly any pictures, but what else is new...

Like I said, we're happy to be back and so so happy to be with daddy again, but Rexburg is just a little more depressing to me right now. I was quickly reminded how empty it feels, how there is nothing to do, how the stores in Idaho don't have hardly anything worth purchasing, how cold it is, how people don't know how to use 4-way stops out here, how lonely we are with our friends dwindling away and no family close by. Que sera sera. Tis the season to be jolly, so forget what I just said :)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner and I just can't believe it! We've got presents under our tree that James has to keep scolding me for trying to peek in. And even more presents in our closet that we have to keep Ezra's hand off! Can't wait for Santa to come this year!