Netflix and chill

What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve???

We stayed home, and had our best friends the Lawsons over. We wanted a pretty low key evening because by 5:30 pm John and I were both fading fast. Someone out there please tell me that these 6am wake up calls will stop at some point. Oh the payback when they are teenagers...

There was yummy food, fun hats, noise makers and fun fun fun!

I baked some sugar roll out cookies so we could have a decorating party! That didn't last quite as long as I thought it would.

 

Netflix was great at providing a countdown! It was so good we even did two!

Love doing New Years with kids because this can be you at 10pm. So chill. 
So long 2015! We had a blast!

Christmas Day

This is really just going to be a picture dump from the day. After we discovered we caught Santa on video, the boys couldn't wait to tear into their presents. Thankfully they are used to waiting while I take some pictures. :)

Watching them open their presents will never get old. Just look at their little faces.

 

 

And then off to the stockings we go!! This was the first year momma got something in her stocking too! (I think Santa finally got the hint.)

Not sure the sweet little princess that is my niece was quite awake yet. :)

That afternoon we went over to Grandmom's. This is always a special afternoon. There is amazing food, too many presents and tons of family fun! This year we are so lucky that Great Great Uncle Joe, Great Great Aunt Ruby, Cousin Jimmy and Carolyn joined us.

The whole crew!

Luke had just gotten up from nap and was feeling extra snuggly. He cuddled up with Uncle Joe. I don't know what they were talking about, but they both were just as happy as can be.

 


After another amazing dinner, it was time to open presents.

Evan opened his 3DS from Grandmom and was shocked. He had told Grandmom they were too expensive so he wasn't going to ask for them for Christmas. They "were like $300 and no body in {his} family could really afford that." 

 
 


Skylar had a lot of fun opening presents too! At one point there were so many I was afraid we were going to lose her in the pile of presents, wrapping paper, and toys!

And I got a selfie stick. I gotta admit. I have wanted one of these for a long long time but couldn't bring myself to buy one. Thank goodness Granmom came to the rescue! I even taught her how to use it! Doesn't PawPaw Charlie look thrilled???

We finished out the day at Gran and Jed's house.


We were VERY forturnate to have Luke there since it seemed as though no one was able to open a present without his help.



After a very late night before, early morning, and busy day filled with family, laughter, too much food and lots of love, Evan was ready to call it a day.

We caught Santa!

**This is the story I told Evan and Luke before we opened presents.**

Christmas morning I woke up and couldn't find my phone. This isn't an anomaly because I lose my phone about 15 times in an hour. But this morning, I really needed it because it was Christmas morning! I needed to take pictures. So I went on the search.

I found my phone sitting right beside the plate of cookies we left out for Santa. That made perfect sense since it was the last thing I did on Christmas Eve! But when I picked it up I noticed there were chocolate chip smudges on the screen. Almost like someone who had been eating a cookie had touched it. When I opened my phone, I noticed it went straight to the camera. Weird...

But I started thinking...my phone was by the cookies...it looked smudged...the camera was the last thing that was open. If the camera was the last thing open, what was the last picture taken? My mind was swirling with possibilities. What if Santa accidentally took a picture when he was moving my phone to get cookies??

With shaking hands, I clicked on the photos icon. There it was. A video. The last thing taken on my camera. Now I know for a fact, on Christmas Eve, I did not take a video of anything (for reasons you'll understand when you are older Evan. Around the 1am mark, nobody needs to be videoing anything). When I clicked on the video, I saw our Christmas tree, with our presents, in the complete dark. But there was one additional thing. Santa. Santa was right there in front of our tree digging through his sack and putting out presents. OUR presents! On Christmas Eve night!

Now there is only one explanation I have for this. Santa must have been moving my phone to get to the cookies. When he did, he accidentally turned it on with a quick swipe of his hand. My phone has this neat feature where you can swipe up and automatically turn on the camera. When it was sitting on the table, it caught Santa!!

We have to be one of the very lucky ones to have accidentally caught Santa. We know this is a very special thing and would never tried to 'catch' him on purpose because we know Christmas magic is real. If we ever tried to trick Santa, Christmas magic wouldn't let it happen. But magic is just what it is. Christmas magic will live forever in our hearts.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Oh what a night!

We started our day with a fun time at the playground with Skylar. It was in the 60s so the boys were able to wear summer clothes! (Again...mother nature off her meds.)

Ummmm, have I mentioned my niece is BEAUTIFUL?  Evan caught these shots of her.

We started our Christmas Eve party at 5:30 with a visit from the International Space Station. Nonna gets alerts on her phone when the ISS is visible to us. It was such a clear (and warm) night that we were able to watch the ISS move all the way across the sky. I am sure my neighbors thought we were absolute nuts standing outside, waving and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS into the sky. Who am I kidding? My neighbors already know I am nuts.

I needed about half an hour for our food to finish cooking, so we took off on a walking tour of the neighborhood. You remember how amazing the VP did for Halloween?? Christmas was no different!

Let's just say, I've never dressed my kids in SHORTS and FLIP FLOPS on Christmas Eve.

When we got home and filled our bellies, we kicked the party into high gear! General merriment!

This was very serious investigation of the alcohol content of Root Beer...or was it calories....or the government warning. You had to be there.
 

 
  

Then Luke took the camera again. That kids has a serious future behind the camera!

And then it was PRESENT TIME!!

 

And then there was the obligatory bow picture. Nonna has a tradition of her own. For the past EIGHT years Evan has sat in Nonna's lap with a bow on their head. This was the first year Evan balked at the idea of sitting on Nonna's lap for the picture. It broke both our hearts. Evan, being the good natured kid he is, agreed to take the picture....but you can see the disdain on his face. Luke wanted to be in the picture, but refused the bow. <sigh> I don't want them to grow up.

We ended the night with the kids like we do every year by throwing reindeer food. This was the first year neither boy came home with reindeer food from school. So about 10:15 I am rooting around in my pantry trying to find something to put together in baggies for each of the kids. Note to self...buy glitter.
 

Later in the night, after the kids were in bed, we played a uh....interesting....round of Cards Against Humanity. All I can say is that I married the most horrible person. There is now proof.