358/365
Thank goodness we let the boys rest between Chris's birthday and Christmas Eve.
I would have hated to miss Christmas!
We had Willman Family Christmas at Uncle Karl and Aunt Erica's house this year.
When we arrived, the tree was surrounded with tons of presents for appropriate child spoilage.
I thought, Oh! I better get a quick picture of the boys together before they go bonkers with new toys and we don't see them together. Good thing I did! Even only moments after our arrival, Jake found his first present, a Fisher Price ridealong musical Thing. And he fell in love immediately and loves riding on it.
We had some snacks, brie, crackers, nachos, lots of goodies, and then we got serious into present opening. The big boys were So Ready. Cole (in the middle) just wanted to play. He ended up being all about playing with the paper this year.
Jacob learned quickly he likes the toys once they are opened, but then he realized he can play with them without having to wait for the boxes to be opened. He was still feeling a bit puny, so he stayed close to Daddy.
The big boys were given Marvel superheroes. Chris had a whole line of them, I don't even know who all - Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, and Sam got Spiderman and a bunch of his friends and enemies, and these 'dolls' are like 12 inches tall, Huge!
I love this pic because all three of my boys were playing with them.
After presents, we played Apples to Apples.
Jake sacked out on Daddy's shoulder, but Jeremiah still had some energy.
Such big little boys.
After Willman Christmas, we fully planned on going home to get the boys sweaters, but I had some goodies to drop off 'real fast' at my Mom's. Well, we ended up hanging out there for a while, which was really great, and the kids were crazy, and when we got in the car, we discussed going to the Fam's church for Christmas Eve service. We've not gone since we were newlyweds, because every year, until this one, one or both of us were involved somehow in the service. This was the first year, that we weren't. I'm glad I'd said no to singing, because I would have been singing bass, because of fighting these cooties the boys gave me. And Eric surrendered bell choir this year, so Chris could do Cub Scouts. But I think that's not going to last, he misses bells, and choir, so next year, I think he'll do one of them. Anyway, this year, Alexis was going to be playing her cello, and I'd never seen her play live. I wanted to go see her, and since we weren't doing anything at our own church, we made the last minute decision to go to church with Mom and Dad.
We arrived during practice time, and Kaylee was happy to have her cousins to play with again, even though it had only been an hour and a half since they'd seen each other. They think they NEVER get enough time to play together.
Jake held up like a champ all day, he didn't take a proper nap, but he kept dozing off on Eric's shoulder. I was ok with that, it meant he wasn't screaming at us!
Alexis played up in the loft, so I got a very special seat, to watch and listen.
I didn't have my video camera, Mom got the song on Video on fb.
Here it is.
I was busy taking photos. That was hard for me to do, as I was blubbering, my eyes would not stop leaking. This is my favorite Christmas song of all, and to hear her play it on cello, and so beautifully; It was Perfect.
She has beautiful fingers for cello, long elegant things, not stubby things like I had. No wonder she has such an amazing talent. She was Born for this!
I didn't realize this, but apparently we were attending the Child Friendly service.
Turns out that was Great! The sermon was a question and answer to the kids, and I was never more proud of my eldest as when he kept jumping up to answer the questions that Pastor asked.
Oh yes, my boys Know the Reason for the Season!
And for the last song of the service, they passed out bells to all the kids.
They were a big hit!
Even Jacob got a bell to ring.
He was not inclined to give it back. ;)
As soon as we got home, we gave them their new special Christmas Eve pajamas,
they suited up, and I was able to take a few pictures of them being adorable in them.
They were so precious.
They were also crazy. And they almost lost their privilege of seeing their trains in place before bed.
Eric put the trains together, so that Santa could bring them a new car, which he does every year.
I think Christopher's train is getting so big, it may not be able to pull itself soon.
Next year may be the last year for a car, and we may have to start requesting some towns and background for him from Santa.
Sam was pretty content watching his train go around.
Instead of putting Jacob's on his own tree upstairs (where he was pulling the tree down, and it would be just too tempting) Eric put Jake's on the table we were given from Grandpa Willman. Jake enjoyed watching it. But since he was in my arms, half dozing, I couldn't get a picture of him with it. He liked watching them go around from above too.
We read the Nativity story at bedtime, and called it a night.
It was a perfect ending to our Christmas Eve.
And God Bless Us Everyone!