Christmas Festivities

Our Christmas celebrations seemed to be endless this year. We spent three days down home visiting both of our families. We had a good time, the boys especially! Josiah has really gotten to the age of loving Christmas, the decorating, the getting and giving of gifts, the food, and the fellowship. He was really in tune to Jesus’ birth being the reason we were celebrating and loved making festive ornaments and artwork at church. Elijah enjoyed it, too, but he was mostly just happy to be along for the ride.

We started off our festivities visiting Jacob’s family, first celebrating with extended family at his aunt’s house:

Nana and Dandy looking at a photo album of the grands and great grands from Aunt Patricia

Christmas kisses!  There was no mistletoe, it was just cuz.

I’m not sure if Sam is admiring the tree or prowling the gifts, but I think she was captivated!

Elijah, on the other hand, was prowling the tree and didn’t care about the gifts!  He kept getting these tractor ornaments off and playing with them.  They were all hung near the top by the time we left.  Sorry Aunt Patricia!

If it has wheels, he likes it!

 

Next, we were off to Jacob’s parent’s house:

Granny and Papa got the kids the Hallmark book with “Jingle” the dog – you know, the one you see on t.v. where you read the story and the dog barks on cue.  Granny hid the dogs (see one on the floor next to her) and the boys went wild trying to find it while she read.  It became a game long after Josiah figured out we were teasing him.Papa has real dogs on the other side of that window which is where the boys started their search.

hmmm…where IS that barking coming from?  Several running laps around the room followed.

Then he steps on the dog to just listen to the story.

Then the excitement wore off.

That’s my boy!  He has great etiquette because he reads the cards first!  Actually, he just has a fetish for thick paper in general.

The grandkids elbowed their ways into position to look out the front door at the Great Blue Herons Granny feeds on her front porch.

No trip down there during citrus season is complete without a ride in the back of the truck to pick oranges.  Josiah begged for this the whole time he was there and even wanted to do it before opening presents!”Ewww!  I touched a frog!”

 

Then  we spent Christmas Eve at Gram’s house with my fun family:

Elijah opening his favorite gift…animal crackers!

Gram opening box after box to finally get to her earring and necklace set from the family.

Josiah got a fire truck and Elijah got a garbage truck.  They immediately traded and have each enjoyed the other’s gift.

Elijah kept taking his jar of animal crackers around to everyone , then did his excited “animal cracker dance”, and asked them to open it to give him some.  He knew no one could resist that!

I brought silly string as gifts so the kids could participate in our white elephant gift exchange.  I never anticipated it being used inside the house that night, but I should have known better.

Jacob and I both had the same thought and shared it after the fact..that we could almost see Deda sitting there in a chair (likely with food nearby!) just loving that his family was in his home and missing those who couldn’t make it.  During the silly string war, he would have laughed his quiet laugh that shook his whole body with a broad smile on his face!  Just like Gram, he wouldn’t have cared one bit about the mess as long as there were laughs to be had.  We sure miss him!

 

Then after a long, late drive and carefully putting sleeping boys in their beds, we awoke Christmas morning in our home:

I bought this engine for Josiah on his first Christmas and put it in the top of the closet because it said for 3 year olds.  I should have given it to him sooner because Elijah loves it!

Ok, so you can’t see the kid and his excitement and the game is upside down, but this was a good buy!  I have had my eye on age appropriate games we can play as a family and this one was a winner and it was affordable.  I can’t say we have played it by the rules yet, but we sure have had fun!

  This baby doll was also a good buy that both boys have loved.  It is the first doll in our home.

Flashlights are always entertaining and LED lights last forever even when boys leave them on for all hours!

  Elijah got a tricycle because he has been trying to ride Josiah’s big tricycle and bicycle to no avail.  He loves it!

  Josiah saw this big monster truck when he was shopping for my present with Daddy.  Daddy can’t say no to this boy when it comes to a mutual love for trucks, even though we had finished our shopping already.

Enjoying some paper rolling!

I tried to tell him screwdrivers don’t belong in the microwave, but he wouldn’t listen!  Actually, Daddy used it to put this kitchen together so Elijah just figured it must be essential to playing with it.  Josiah has always loved a play kitchen, but we’ve never found one small enough to fit our small space, until now.

Elijah hasn’t played with this since Christmas day, but as it turns out, Josiah is great at it!  And yes, we made it taller for him.

Our poor pets have been removed from our Christmas list for many years now, but who needs a gift when you have a discarded box?

Well, that wraps up our Christmas!  I hope you all had a good one, too!