Merry Christmas 2012!

Some highlights from our Christmas celebrations ----

On Christmas Eve we gathered at my mom's for a yummy spaghetti dinner. We exchanged gifts and then went to 8:00pm Mass. (We like going to that later, less crowded Mass... but for the second year in a row Ray fell asleep. So I guess we'll need a different plan next year. He's just not able to function at that hour!)

My mom has long wanted to take us all on a family vacation to Disney. Well, this is the year! For Christmas she gave us all fancy "tickets" for our summer vacation. All of us will be spending three days at the Disney parks in Florida and then going on a four day Disney cruise! We can't wait!

Here's mom with the kids and the Disney pajamas she made them for the trip.

 

Mom also bought the kids new bathing suits for the trip.
The boys loved "modelling" them!

My mom with our boys.

We played a fun "present" game before actually opening the real presents.

Our family before heading to Mass

My sister Reenie with her husband Mike, daughter Ava, and dog Poppy

The best picture EVER of my sister Colleen and her son Carter

 

We spent all of Christmas day at home! The day actually began quite early when Jon discovered that we had a sick cat. (More on that in the next post.) After cleaning up lots of cat puke... ("Joy to the World!") .... we headed downstairs (at around 7:30). Ray took charge as he had been holding onto Baby Jesus until Christmas morning. He insisted we sing "Joy to the World" as we processed downstair to the manger scene. He placed the baby in the manger and then told us all to stand in line and take turns saying a prayer to Baby Jesus. I was laughing at how much Ray is becoming like me (in my take-charge teacher personna).... and then I started to cry with joy.

 

Adam immediately stepped up to the manger, knelt down, and prayed "Thank you Jesus for coming and bringing light into the darkness of the world. I love you so much."

 

 

 We each took turns saying a little prayer... and then my bestie Susan showed up at the door. She is a Dominican Sister and she loves spending Christmas morning with us. We love having her here too!

We headed into the family room to check out what Santa had brought.

The first discovery was of a little train set that can actually attach to the Christmas tree.
Santa put it on a table and left a note explaining that Daddy would attach the train later. ;)

We had lots of fun taking turns opening gifts.
Notice Jon cleaning up more cat puke in the background. ;(

Gloria chilled out under the tree and took in all the action.

Look who got the biggest gift of all! Daddy!

One of Ray's favorite gifts was an MP3 player loaded with lots of fun music and stories.

Adam got a cool big-boy scooter.

Don't you love this look at Adam's tonsils?!
I mean the look of pure joy!
This blue Puffle was a must have on his list.
Santa had to order it online and pay big bucks for it... apparantly it's a rare one.

Gloria enjoying her new cat bed.

Look what I got!!!!!
I'm still trying to load all my programs, pictures, etc...
but I'm SO glad to finally have a laptop.
Thank you Santa!
And you can see what was in that big blue box for Jon too!

 We all enjoyed just relaxing and playing with our new toys on Christmas Day. In the evening some of my family members came over and we had yummy snacks and appetizers (rather than a formal sit-down dinner).

Ray and Jon (and the rest of us) had a GREAT time playing Just Dance 4!

 We spent Christmas and the few days following it IN OUR PAJAMAS! (Except for Jon who had to go in to work.) We're continuing the celebrations and carols during this great 12 day Season.

Thank you Jesus for coming into our world as a little baby.... for loving us so much and teaching us every year about the abundant generosity of your love. Help us to keep our hearts at the stable, to learn from you, to be with you during these days of darkness. You are our light. We rejoice in your birth! Amen.

Recap of pre-Christmas Fun

Ok... so here's a big post of photos from lots of fun pre-Christmas activities. Enjoy!

Saint Nicholas made his annual visit and filled our shoes on December 6th.



Santa Adam... with homemade beard and mustache!
Love it with the skeleton shirt. ;)



We were busy little elves...
making our traditional cookie packages for Jon's family and others.
Ray really enjoyed helping this year.
We must pass on that secret family recipe.



We had lots of help with the decorating!



At our Friday class (Catecheis of the Good Shepherd and Montessori)
we had a sweet little Christmas program.
Here's the boys' class singing "Away in a Manger."

We attended our monthly zoo class, which was called "Super Sleuths."
Daddy took the afternoon off and went with us!
We stayed after class and visited lots of exhibits, ate dinner, and...

....enjoye the amazing light displays!
It was a perfect clear not-too-cold night!

We even got our picture taken INSIDE a giant snowglobe!

The cats were mostly undisturbed by the holiday hoopla.
Fortunately, they didn't mess with the tree too much,
although they do enjoy laying under it.
In this picture they are laying in our bassinet...
which I brought up to lend to a friend.
She ended up not needing it and now it's a favorite spot for the kitties...
back in the basement.

This year the boys were definitely ready for a winter break from school...
but I did manage to squeeze in some fun Christmas-themed lessons.
We had fun building these 3D shapes with Christmas gumdrops.

I apologize for the blurriness of this picture...
but can you believe the size of this ball?
It now lives on our back porch.
The boys won this at Jon's firm's Christmas party.
Once again, we were treated to a super fun evening
of bowling, dinner, gifts, and arcade games.
 

We had a super fun gingerbread day with some friends!
We read "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett,
  completed some gingerbread crafts,
and decorated gingerbread men and (graham cracker) houses.

 

 

And our last big pre-Christmas adventure was our trip to Michigan to celebrate Christmas with Jon's family. We went the weekend before Christmas and had a wonderful time. We were disappointed not to get snow to play in, but we found other ways to have fun!

We went to the bowling alley and played indoor mini-golf and rode these crazy spinning go-carts! (With cousin Addie)

We visited Midland's amazing Santa House...
and I basically tricked Adam into sitting on Santa's lap.
 



Jon tried to do a good deed by setting up these "carolers" that had been toppled by the wind.
He remembers these same decorations from when he was a kid.

I think the boys swam at least six times in the 3 1/2 days we were at the hotel!
Fortunately, their big kid cousins - Emmett and Addie - are good sports.
They swam with the boys and their other cousins a few times.

Grandma and her grandkids!

We had a fun family Christmas party and the lovely home of one of Jon's sisters.
Our Mario-obsessed boy was greatly indulged!
As usual, we came home with a van full of presents from our very generous family.

We also celebrated lots of birthdays!
It seems that half of our family has birthdays in Nov, Dec, and Jan.

The winter birthday people!

Look at my awesome gift from my Mother-in-law!
I can't wait to sit in this baby during all the rainy spring soccer games!

So there's a peek at some of our busy December fun! Next up --- Christmas pictures.