Christmas, come and gone.

This Christmas was by far the best one we have had for our little family. It was the 1st real Christmas that for once we weren't living out of suitcases and going back and forth between families. It was the 1st Christmas that we had with just our boys and us on Christmas morning and it was sooo nice. This was the 1st Christmas that Santa and the birth of the Savior was ever so present in our home too, Elias really believed this year in Santa and I had to be very careful and we really tried to focus on the birth of the Savior as well this year. We even had a little baby jesus in a manager under the tree and we would put a little bit of straw in the manager periodicallly as a constant reminder to the kids about why we celebrate Christmas and it worked really well. I remember when the home teachers came over a few weeks before Christmas and the 1st thing they asked Elias was, "Why do we celebrate Christmas?" I was thinking oh no whats he going to say, and ever so sweetly he said, " Its when we celebrate Jesus' birthday." I'm not going to lie I was a very proud momma and it was so cute. I remember thinking, I cant believe he didn't say anything about presents or santa. He is so innocent, I wish he would always stay that way, give me a few more years right, and then all he'll say is "presents", hopefully not.. i know that the little manager under our tree this year added to the spirit of Christmas in our home and gave my boys a greater understanding of why we have Christmas, defiently a new tradition in our home. Since this was our 1st official Christmas back home and the boys were a little older and more excited about Christmas i also ordered an advent calendar, it was sooo cute and the boys loved getting little treats, or stickers and so on everyday. We also had the 12 days of Christmas with christmas/winter books wrapped under the tree and every night I let the boys unwrap one and we would read it together.. this was A LOT of fun for them, Elias never forgot to remind me and was so excited everytime. Definite repeat.

1st year making gingerbread houses

Pre-K christmas concert

12 days of christmas books

Christmas morning

Oh and fave gifts this year were: Elias- Leapfrog Leapster explorer, seriously awesome educational game system, Elias LOVES it and learns so much from the games as well as having fun.
Nixon- Fisher price Stand and Go race car track, really great toy! And together they got this play castle that they love, we read books in it, have ball fights and really use our imagination, great purchase from Costco.

stocking stuffers

Overall such a great Christmas, can't wait for next year!