We had 2 different Christmas celebrations this year: Bri’s family on Friday the 23rd and my family, at our house, on the 25th. In between, we did a children’s church service at 5pm on Christmas Eve followed by loads of food, with both families, hosted at our place. Big gifts from Santa: Aiden got Skylanders the video game, Logan got a Nintendo 3DS and Brady got “the claw”. Everyone was beyond excited with their big gifts….plus all the other loot they scored including: games like a new Connect 4, Loopz, Battleship, Operation and Jenga. Other fun individual items: a new nerf gun (Logan’s 2nd wish on his list….to add to the collection of TOO MANY he’s already got), roller blades for the big boys,  a doggy vet kit for Brady, Webkinz from GG and GGpa, nice new markers, a chef outfit and lots of chef stuff for Brady, science stuff for Aiden, a “spooner board” for Logan <—like snowboarding inside, lacrosse stuff (that didn’t fit), a Bear’s flag for their room and like tooooo much other stuff!

 

First of all, I can’t believe I haven’t posted these yet – here are pictures of the gifts the boys all made at school. We opened them the day they came home….Aiden tried really hard to save his under the tree for Christmas day, but Logan said there was no reason to wait on the one he brought home because we wouldn’t need it after Christmas, but we could use it now (an ornament) so Aiden gave in too.

Although I loved all the gifts, obviously, I just adored this idea: the back of the gift….explains the sign language signs for I love you.

And here’s Brady making each sign. AHHHHH…..so cute!

 

Pictures, pictures and pictures. No captions :)

For months, our San Francisco cousin Ryan has been looking forward to Christmas in Chicago…playing in the snow. And so what happens? It doesn’t snow…for like the first time in forever! I was momentarily excited to see, the morning before they were due to arrive (Friday, December 16th), that we had a little over-night dusting. The boys were elated and ran outside to play. This is the 2nd such tiny snowfall we’ve had this year, but just like the last one, it melted by mid day. Sorry Ryan!!!

 

 

We did manage to have tons of fun with our cousins while they were here though! We went bowling, roller skating and did a home-make pizza night. Tuesday afternoon, the boys made these aprons as a craft and then later, they helped daddy (aka uncle Brian) make the crust, the sauce and even some home-made sausage (yum!) Auntie Denna and mom snuck out during this fun dinner for a girl’s night out.

 

here are the boys at lunch. We had to make a little extra room at “mommy restaurant” (aka: the kitchen counter)

Everyone picked their favorite color for their apron. Aiden picked his favorite color too….rainbow.

Grinding meat for sausage

Aiden, Logan, Ryan and sauce-covered Brady