Our First Alone Christmas

Since Scott and I have been a family we have always spent the holidays with either his family or my family. In fact we had a rotation, if we spent Thanksgiving with the Hooglands, then we would spend Christmas with the Youngs, and the next year we would switch. Well being 20+ hours away from either of our family, we were forced to have our own little Christmas. We wanted to make it special this year, Scott had the time off so we tried to play as much as we could with the kids to ease the transition of moving. We mostly got everything unpacked, my "craft corner" (as you can see in the picture below) still needs to be put together, we are trying to find the right kind of shelf, and our living room is still bare because we can't decide on furniture. Oh well, here we are making a gingerbread house. . .




We asked Grandma Young to read us a Christmas story on Skype, because she is the best children's book reader ever. She does voices, and knows all the right places to use the right expression. The kids were mesmerized.
Anna sent us a hefty Costco gift card for our family Christmas present, so we went as a family and each picked out something, FUN! Maddy just happened to pick a Hello Kitty bath kit, and Ian found the empty box, he loves to climb.
On Christmas Eve day we watched the Polar Express
and made gingerbread men for Santa, and some for ourselves too

We had a fancy dinner with ham, mashed potato marvel, green beans with bacon, homemade rolls, and sparkling cider.
Then we opened our new jammies, (Ian does not like to be held or contained)

so we kicked him out of the picture

We then had a little talk about the birth of Jesus with a book that had magnets of the characters that the kids could move around

Had a little dance party. . .Rylan is trying to dip Madelyn

Then went to bed so the big man in the red suit could appear, and guess what? He came!

Our kids were threatened that no one better come into mom and dad's room until after 7:00. I woke up to Ian talking at about 7:20, then I started breakfast while Rylan entertained Ian. Maddy came running out of her room and jetted down into the family room...."Maddy, wait, you have to wait for all of us, ok?" She said, "oh yeah I forgot."

Anxiously awaiting. . .

The kids ran down the stairs to check out their stockings, Ian immediately noticed that Santa left part of his gingerbread man cookie on his plate, "um, A COOKIE!" He was so happy, "who cares what is in my stocking, what is a stocking anyway when you have a half eaten cookie within your reach!"

(notice the blur that is Rylan in the back, that tells you how fast he was moving and how excited he was)

yeah I finally have a girl that I can play Barbies with!

As a family gift we got a digital keyboard so I can start teaching the kids a little about music and so they can take lessons.

Thanks Grammy & Papa for reminding me of my Idaho roots!

Madelyn and her duck. She lost her precious "Ming Ming" duck, the one she has slept with since she was a baby. When she and Rylan were writing their lists to Santa, Rylan suggested that she ask Santa for her duck back...brilliant Rylan! Well Santa had a hard time finding the duck (who I think was really dropped outside and picked up by a dog in the neighborhood), but he did find a bigger version of duck, meet his big sister Dottie Dots the Duck. She was a big hit, (whew) and loved immediately by Maddy.

I found this dart gun set for my boys. The darts have velcro on them so when you wear these super cool vests the bullets stick, then you can see how many "hits" you had. Here is the before picture. . .

It was a big hit, once Ry figured out the gun

and the after picture, Scott is ruthless!

Ahh what a wonderful Christmas we had, so fun, relaxed and special for our little family. It was really cool to have Christmas be on Sunday this year because we got to actually stop the Santa part of Christmas and go worship the Lord at church. We are so blessed to have each other, our health, our employment, our home, and the knowledge that Jesus lives and is there for us cheering us on and helping us through life. Happy Birthday dear Savior.