Yes, we are finally “up to” Christmas in my posts (gag). This was a really weird year for Christmas. We traveled to see Denay and my family in San Francisco the week of Christmas while Brian’s parents went to Southern California to spend the holiday with Brian’s little brother. Brian’s older brother and his family went skiing during the holidays so we didn’t have a time to get together with everyone here. In fact, we had to wait until New Year’s Day to have our local gift exchange.

While we knew that Santa would visit the boys in Cali, we (the parents) didn’t want to drag all of their gifts there and back, plus whatever they got for “real” Christmas from my family (airlines frown upon such nonsense and charge too much $$ for checked baggage). So…we decided at some point that we would just have a 5-of-us early Christmas. So there we were, at the indoor soccer facility on December 7th (a Saturday), watching Brady in Pro Academy, and we started talking. The next weekend, we realized, was packed with our annual Polar Express trip with the neighborhood friends and an adult party for Brian and I. We looked at each other and said…well, I guess Christmas is today (not the next day, because the boys can’t stay up late on a “school night”). It’s plain to see that we’re quite the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants planners…we should have realized all this over-booking earlier, but we didn’t.

At this point, we didn’t even have a tree because we had professional pictures taken of the house the week prior (since we’re selling it and all…sniff sniff). We decided that the boys and I would go buy a tree while Brian went shopping for any gifts we didn’t already have (we had a few, but not all of them). Furthermore, since we had to leave in a week and a 1/2, we decided not to do the BIG tree in the front room that we usually do. We decided instead, to buy a cute little tree and put it right in the family room.

When the boys were done with soccer, we told them the plan. “Today is Christmas!” we said. They were (not surprisingly) OVERJOYED. Presents?!Today?! YES!!! They happily accompanied me to Home Depot (a never-before-visited-tree-destination) and we picked out a little cutie. I literally shoved it into the car through the trunk and away we went. Brian, meanwhile, started hitting the stores! He came back with PERFECT stuff for everyone! He also brought home our Christmas dinner – both the BBQ we love from Sharko’s and Panda Express.

Brian and the boys decorated the tree while I wrapped the gifts. Once everything was done, we made them “go to bed”. I read them the Night Before Christmas, changing some of the words to be “The Night of Houckmas”…I wasn’t that clever, but we all laughed. Brian and I went downstairs and then back up about 5 minutes later to “wake them” for Christmas morning. It was a blast! The boys opened their gifts, played and we all had a laugh. A memory that we won’t forget I’m sure – Christmas on the 7th of December!

Decorating the tree

Brian went out on a limb and bought Brady some snow goggles. He wasn’t sure how he felt about them at the time, but he literally wears them to recess and to walk home every day. They are like his prized possession right now!

A cool bow and arrow set

Logan got one big gift, a small sonos speaker for his room. Now he can play his tunes while he hangs out and every night while he sleeps. 

Drum roll please…the big gift…

“An Xbox One?! Seriously?! How did you even get that?!” <—Logan. Brady: “yeah! Xbox One!” (I’m still obsessing over my new goalie gloves!)

Aiden was so excited, he spiked a stuffed animal that Logan had been holding. I have an awesome video, but YouTube and I aren’t getting along in the blog world lately.

Yeah Houckmas!!!