Nana and Pa's Christmas Visit

We all love having Terry and Marlene visit us, especially at Christmas!  They stayed with us for a few days after Christmas and the boys (and Sean and I) loved having them here.  We tried to keep them busy with small construction projects...

Lots of Uno....

Book reading...

Unless you're Gus and you'd prefer your mom to do it for some reason...

 And the highlight was an afternoon of sledding at Ruby Hill near our house.  It was a perfect sunny, cool day with fast snow and steep hills.  We all had a blast!

We bought this little red sled for Gus when he was a baby.  Ryan and Pa discovered it was really, really fast for kids and adults!  The first time Ryan went down in it, he was like a little rocket ship (almost Clark Griswold on his saucer) and about half-way down the hill, he raised both hands and did a fist pump in the air... it was so fun/terrifying to watch!

I used my amazing (?) Photoshop skills to remove the snot coming out of George's nose in this one:)

This video makes me smile and cringe at the same time - the same face Gus had the first time going down the hill with Ryan!

George wasn't ready to go home yet...

Our Christmas

Christmas with little kids is awesome.  That's as simple as it gets.  Our boys loved every minute of December... Christmas music and books and movies and Elves on Shelves (this year his name was Payton Manning, it changes every year), and Santa and advent calendars and cookies and decorating and candy canes. This year, George asked Santa for "Hockey Guys" and "Soccer Guys" (we LOVE these toys, he already had football and baseball).  Gus asked for Darth Maul's double bladed light saber and Qui Gon Jinn's light saber.  This family revolves around Legos, Star Wars, and sports - can you tell?!

This is Gus' gift from the Crists... Yoda!

Football cards in his stocking...

For Christmas dinner, Anne and Josh came over to help make turkey and play games until my parents got back to town from San Jose that evening.   

Checking out his new Kindle Fire from Bumpa and Gaky...

Christmas Day is so magical, but by the end of it I always feel a little sad that it's all over.  The boys are as happy as can be with their gifts but also so happy getting to spend the week with everyone who loves them so much!

Wagilia 2014

I only have a couple pictures from Gus' Christmas pageant at St. John's because this is how he looked almost the entire time:

This is a short video of the whole group singing and Gus gives an eye roll at the end that had us laughing so hard!! 

 I have no clue why he has always been anti-Christmas performance, but that's how he's always been.  When I asked his teacher about it, she said, "Actually I was impressed... in rehearsal all he does is cry and ask for you!"  So I guess his quiet indifference was an improvement :)

After the "performance," we snapped a quick picture with my parents and then hit the road for Joliet, Illinois for the funeral of Sean's sweet grandmother, Julia.  

 I LOVE that my kids have such a special, meaningful tradition for Christmas Eve.  Wagilia is one of my favorite nights of the year.... and the kids love being with their cousins so much.  Here's George saying what he is thankful for this year.  Everyone says something, then breaks off a small piece of the wafer and passes it along.  This year, George said he was thankful for his cousins, his school, and his grandparents.  Gus was thankful for Elf on the Shelf, Santa Darth Vader, and Santa Jango Fett (Lego Star Wars characters from their advent calendars).

These two boys are BFFs.  They had so much fun together this week.  George has even been invited over for his first sleepover this week!

It's always wonderful when Terry and Marlene are here for Christmas!

 


Hooray for Wagilia and Christmas Eve and family and matching Christmas jammies!  (You can see
the first version with Gus here.)