A Christmas Story…

We started the Christmas season by going to a local Christmas tree stand and picking out the perfect tree.  Last year we got our tree from Lowes and it started shedding needles 2 weeks before Christmas…this year the local tree stand came through big!  I have hardly had to vacuum up any needles and its AFTER Christmas!  We decorated, I made lots of treats over the next couple of weeks, and then it was all of the sudden Christmas Eve!

But first we had two Christmas parties, each with Santa, and an early Christmas with the Broadbents that live in MO (Ben and Cammie and fam, Miriam and Marcus and fam, us, and Jesse’s parents).  We were busy busy…and all of the sudden it was Christmas Eve!

My family has a traditional Christmas Eve dinner that we have eaten ever since I can remember, so I (of course) had to make it for my family this year.  This is only the second year I’ve had to do it, since it is only the second year we have not spent Christmas with my family.  So, we had Jesse’s parents over for our chicken soup and cranberry muffins.  I believe it was the smallest gathering we’ve ever had with the Broadbents! Dan’s first Christmas…too cute!

Semi-matching PJs for the boys, opened on Christmas Eve!

Grandma and Grandpa with the kiddos on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning it was just us, which was wonderful.  We (mostly Steve) opened presents and then ate a yummy breakfast…

First we opened the stockings.  Steve probably would have been totally satisfied with just the stuff from his stocking, specifically the M&Ms!

Our stockings are big and easy to fill!

Steve and a present…

The present being played with…

And the best present for a 2 year old boy ever!  Steve has been loving his basketball hoop, or b ball hoop as he calls it!  He is constantly begging Jesse or me to play with him!

Cammie and I made adorable car mats for our boys.  This was quite the project!  It took us forever…but I love the way it turned out.  Unfortunately, Steve hasn’t quite gotten the concept yet! 

This was Dan while we all opened presents.

When we were done, we noticed that it had started to snow!  We got a white Christmas…kind of!  We didn’t get much!

Jesse and Steve taking a break from bball under the blanket I made Steve for Christmas.

Baby Dan with his loot!  I made him a blanket too, and he got new binkies and some shoes.  The hat is from Gramma Meri and I forgot to put the teddy bear from Gramma Great in the picture.  Grandma Kathy also got him a blue puppy very similar to Steve’s puppy!

Speaking of grandparents, Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Steven stopped by Christmas morning with more presents!  They got Steve a ninja sword that he just LOVES!  We gave him Kung Fu Panda (the movie) and he’s been a ninja all weekend!  I think he even transformed the picture he colored in nursery on Sunday into a sword! 

Merry Christmas!