First Christmas as a Family of Five

Our stockings hung for James' First Christmas

Evie & Connor watching movies in bed

Noah and Weston hanging out in the playroom

Connor & Mommy at his class Christmas party

Weston at his class party

Connor showing off his treats

Weston & Daddy opening presents

Granddaddy & Nana with all their grand kids

Will, Me, and our three boys (5, 3, and 3 months)

The boys with their cousins, Kayla & Emily

Grandparents with kids in their Christmas pj's

Passing out gifts on Christmas Eve

Boys checking out their new movies Turbo & Planes

Connor with his remote control monster truck

James holding one of his gifts

James & James

Mimi and Weston

Weston so happy to finally have a complete MSU football uniform

James & Mommy

He wore this uniform (minus the helmet) for 36 straight hours

James all bathed and ready for bed

Going to bed in his Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve

Blueberry Cinnamon French Toast for Breakfast

Family presents under the tree in the living room on Christmas morning

Santa, I mean Will, ready to start the day

Santa came and dropped off some presents

Waking the boys up

Playing with their new HotWheels track

James at the table with us for breakfast

Reading the Nativity story

Going through the stockings

Connor trying to count his candy

December was packed full of fun.  First, we hosted the Carnathan family for 5 days.  The kids had so much fun playing together for an extended visit.  Noah and Weston camped in the playroom one night.  The following night, Evie and Connor camped out.  Connor and Evie were always sneaking away to watch movies together on the kindle.  Weston and Noah were a good match for each other at air hockey.  As always, I loved getting to spend some quality time with my best friend Abby.  We had fun doing pedicures one afternoon while the kids napped.

A few days later, Will’s family came to visit and celebrate Christmas.  The boys had fun playing with their cousins.  Then, two more Christmas dinners and celebrations followed.  We went to our Christmas Eve service and then came back home to exchange gifts with Mimi and Grandy.  On Christmas morning, Will and I woke the boys up, and they ran into the playroom where Santa left their presents.  Weston and Connor played with their toys, while Will and I put blueberry French toast on plates for everyone.  After breakfast, we went into the living room to read the Nativity story from the Bible.  We also put the last name of Jesus on our “Jesus Tree”.

There are several things we will remember about this Christmas.  This was our first Christmas with our sweet baby James.  We also started the tradition of the “Jesus Tree” in our home.  We read daily scriptures about some of the names of Jesus.  The boys would take turns putting an ornament with a name for Jesus on the tree each night before bed.  Sometimes we sang songs that related to the name, but most nights we walked downstairs to bed while singing “Go Now in Peace”.  On the night that we read our first name of Jesus, the boys noticed what looked like a star on our ceiling.  It was a really cool reflection of light in the shape of a star.  Our “star” made our devotional time extra special.  During the week of Christmas, we also delivered for meals on wheels two days as a family while Will was off from work.