Christmas at home

After leaving mom and dad’s house, we went straight to church for the candlelight service. I know I have said this about many of our Christmas traditions, but I LOVE this. It helps us slow down for an hour and put the emphasis where it should be. The boys love singing all the Christmas carols in “big people” church. Their favorite part comes at the very end when we all hold a candle and sing Silent Night. Every year it is hard for me to get through that without a tear or two. Especially this year. 4 days before Christmas we got THE call. The call that introduced us to our sweet Molly-Kate. I knew it would come eventually, but I was shocked when the phone rang at almost 8pm that Tuesday night. I don’t think Zach or I slept all night long. I can’t share details yet, but as soon as I can, I will. Just know this – she is precious and beautiful. It is hard to believe that you can fall in love with a little girl through a picture, but I am telling you that it is possible. God makes it possible. Okay, back to Christmas Eve…

After church, we came home, ate dinner, hung our stockings, set out cookies and milk for Santa (carrots for the reindeer), sprinkled magic dust in our yard (so the reindeers could see our house), and read Twas the Night Before Christmas. I could not believe that our children went straight to sleep but they did. I guess they were exhausted!

Quick family photo before dinner.

Can you tell they are excited????

Reading bed time stories with Daddy.

Carter was in our room at 5:50 the next morning with a sleepy Seth in tow. He said that he woke up Seth because he didn’t want him to miss out on all the fun. 🙂 We convinved them to lay down with us in bed until Ethan woke up. That only lasted for 15-20 minutes. They were so excited, they could not keep still or quiet and therefore, woke up their little brother. 🙂 We were down stairs opening gifts by 6:20 and completely done by 7. CRAZY! The boys loved their gifts and were excited with every package they opened. It was SO much fun to watch them and see their excitement.

Each of the boys opening their packages. Seth had just opened Simba (from Lion King). He is snuggled up with him upstairs as I type this. 🙂

Ethan loves working puzzles right now. He got a whole box full of wooden Disney puzzles.

Sweetest gift of the morning – Carter wrapped up this box over 2 weeks ago. He wouldn’t tell us who it was for but gave it to Seth Christmas morning. He had wrapped up one of his game balls so that Seth could have one too. LOVE.

Ring pop at 6:40 in the morning. Awesome.

My parents and Craig came over around 10:00. Mom and I fixed lunch while the boys played. I am so thankful we get to see both sides of our family on Christmas. We love having our families close. After lunch, we left the house to go see the new Chipmunk movie – Chipwrecked. Carter read the book a few weeks ago and has been so anxious to see the movie. Zach’s parents met us there. The boys LOVED the movie. Zach’s parents came back to the house with us until bedtime. The boys showed them all of their new toys. It was a fantastic day!