4 Christmases

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

I hate to admit the fact that I

just wasn't into Christmas this year,

but I will confess:

It just wasn't working for me.

My mom even decorated my tree

because I just wasn't feeling it.

Now that Christmas is over,

I feel really bad that I

wasn't in the spirit of things.

I had a friend go through a

really hard trial

that brought up a lot of

emotion for me.

I really hate the hard stuff.

Anyway, I think I'm back to normal now.

Or at least my version of "normal."

So back to my original thought:

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Ours was exceptionally lovely.

We basically had 4 Christmases this year.

Blogger officially hates me,

and I attempted to upload pics

five times.

Literally.

It didn't work, so I had to limit my pics,

which really bums me out.

Stupid Blogger.

Anyway, back to our 4 Christmases.

First, was Christmas Eve breakfast with

my dad and Katie.

We had a nice little visit before

they had to head up to their house

in a nearby state.

Before we headed to Grandma & Grandpa's

for Christmas Eve dinner,

we opened our Christmas pajamas

and the boys each received a book.

It was a tradition I started when Sam was

a baby.

Sam received, The Bippolo Seed by Dr Seuss

Mateo received, Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems

and Ben received That's Not my Polar Bear

 Our second Christmas was our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my parents' house. Do you like Ben's trick? I don't know why dads do this, and it kind of freaks me out, but no one listens to me. Christmas Eve dinner is my favorite. Instead of turkey or ham and all of that stuff, we do soup and bread bowls. I love it. My mom made her cheesy potato soup, Michael made turkey chili, and I made chicken enchilada soup. We had a great time together, but I have to admit it just wasn't the same without Jesse.

 We were all spoiled rotten, as usual! Sam and Mateo have been into Star Wars lately. They've never seen any of the movies, but they enjoy the toys for sure. Mateo had received some of the Star Wars toys for his birthday, and my mom decided they needed a complete set. :) They also received some awesome books, Legos, clothes, and some more awesome toys. Aunt Allison even gave the boys her old iPod touch. Seriously spoiled! I was most excited for our waffle maker. We've never owned one so it is definitely a treat! Manuel loves waffles, so we've already put the waffle maker to good use. In fact, I'm pretty sure we had waffles for lunch last Saturday. :)

 Christmas #3 was our little Christmas. As usual, Santa did not disappoint. Sam had been asking for a Toy Story 3 Lego Duplo train set ever since he saw one at my friend, Kristy's house. When anyone would ask him what he wanted Santa to bring him, he would spout out: "A Toy Story three Lego Duplo train!" It reminded me of Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Santa was sure to bring him his Toy Story train! I have to say that each Christmas is more exciting than the one before. It's so fun to see the kids get excited for Christmas. We had an FHE lesson about the nativity story and we made sure Sam knew why we celebrated Christmas. I was worried that Santa would push everything else to the bottom of the list of importance. We made sure to try to keep Jesus at the top this year. I plan on doing so every year.

 The boys' reaction to their toys from Santa. :) I used to get SO mad at my parents because they would always make us wait to go see what Santa brought us. We'd wait for my dad to have the camera all ready, then we'd wait for my mom to give us the go ahead. It felt like an eternity! We always joked that we'd go down and see before our parents got up, but we knew we'd be dead. :) I get it now though. You go through the entire Christmas season anticipating the looks on your kids' faces when they see their gifts. It makes all of the stress worth it. Christmas is so magical with little kids around! After it was all over, I found myself wishing I hadn't been in such a funk. I feel like I missed out on a lot of things because of it. I know it will always be hard, but I hope the worst is behind us. I really can't wait for a new year.

 Cute little Ben! He liked what Santa brought him too! He got a Sleep Sac and a tray for his Bumbo seat. I think Ben was the hardest to shop for because he really didn't need very much. I felt like he still needed something under the tree. Especially from Santa!

While this is a rather awkward pic of Sam, I had to share this little story. We have a lot of random things in our shed. Sam had found a belt with jingle bells on it. He assumed it belonged to Santa, and had written him a letter that told him Sam would return his jingle belt if Santa brought him presents. Before they went to bed, the boys left cookies and the belt on the counter for Santa. When they woke up the next morning, Santa had brought them presents, ate the cookies, and left a letter! Sam was pretty excited.

Our 4th Christmas, was at Manuel's parents' house. I love Christmas dinner because it's always Mexican food, and always delicious! We exchanged gifts and just spent time together.

Hope your Christmas was great too! I am definitely looking forward to a new year!