Christmas 2012

Christmas seemed to come and go *so* fast this year! But I guess it feels like that every year. 

This year was our first year with our Elf on the Shelf, Skippy. I had intentions of taking pictures of what he did everyday, but some days, nights rather, I just didn't have the energy to get him set up for something silly the next morning. The boys were SO excited to wake up and see what Skippy had done. My favorite reaction was when the found him sitting in their Time-Out chair. I asked them if they found Skippy, and Hunter, or maybe it was JP responded with "He's in the time-out chair! He was being naughty yesterday!" Which just so happened to be true. He toilet papered the Christmas tree the day before. At least they knew why he was there!

I was a little nervous about the boys meeting Santa in person this year. Hunter wanted nothing to do with him in years previous. This year was completely different! Santa was all he spoke about for an entire month. When Santa stopped by Nanny's house, he started jumping up and down in excitement. JP was a little more reserved, but quickly became excited when Santa started pulling presents out of his bag for them!

Although they forgot to ask him while he was there, they really wanted to ask for a ride in his sleigh.....turns out he drives a Chevy truck :) 

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and sister's at my parents new house. Unfortunately Perry had to work for most of the day, so he missed out on the boys seeing Santa. Originally Santa was supposed to come on Christmas but we worked around his change in plans and had him arrive on Christmas Eve in the afternoon. Not like the boys would know any different at this point. After attending church (and holding my sleeping 4 year old for what felt like forever!) we went back to my parents house and had a late dinner, followed by lots of present opening.

The boys seemed to help everyone open their presents. They had too much fun!

I made these cute Santa strawberries for us to snack on. They were super easy to make...I'll probably make them every year since they were a huge hit. I'm pretty sure Hunter ate at least half the plate! Cut the top off the strawberries so they can stand, and then cut the top off to make the hat. I filled a decorator's bag with Cool Whip, but you could easily use a ZipLock bag and cut the corner. Add Cool Whip to the middle, replace "hat" and add a dot on top. I didn't have time for it...rather I forgot them at home, but you could also add mini chocolate chips for eyes. :)

Before we headed home, the boys had one more present left to open in the basement.

They tore it open and discovered their very own card board box fort, complete with tractors (from their toy box) already inside! What we didn't realize was that they each took a candy filled candy-cane into the fort with them...

This is Aunt Bobby, Aunt Kim, and Daddy trying to get them and/or the candy out before they ate it all!

Christmas morning, Perry and I woke up a little extra early to make sure everything was ready to go before the boys woke up and before his parents arrived. Shortly after they arrived and were settled, we all went downstairs to wake the boys up. Surprisingly, they were pretty hard to get out of bed! It took alot of coaxing!

 We spent quite a while in the basement opening presents in our stockings, and then the boys ran upstairs to see what big present Santa left for them.

A huge ride on Jeep. They were *so* excited! Perry even let them test drive it in our living room. I had to go into work for a little bit on Christmas, which was a bummer because it turned out that they didn't need me after all. So I missed out on breakfast with the family, but they were nice enough to leave me some leftovers! :) 

We spent the rest of the morning opening the presents under the tree, and then all 6 of us went to my parents house again for Christmas dinner. My mom had never cooked prime rib before, but she knocked the socks off of it! Delicious! I fell asleep on the couch later that afternoon....

A very successful Christmas!