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Merry Christmas!
Beauty under the Blue Tree.
This year Eric set up all the Boys' trains upstairs in the loft.
It's a little tight up there, but in the dawn light this morning, it was Beautiful.
The kids woke up at a reasonable hour, 7:30.
We woke to the sounds of the phone ringing, it was crank caller, twice they called back to back, someone foreign kept saying Hallo Hallo. Finally, I took the phone off the hook, but the two younger boys and I gave up. We were up to stay.
In addition, there was some sort of critter making skittering noises above my bed. At first I thought it was coming from behind me, birds like to build nests above our posts, and they like try to get up under the soffits, or into the attic. It wasn't a case of the soffits. The boys came to me with this crazy idea, the bird was in the wall by the linen closet. It sounded wacky. But nope. They were right. There's a Bird in the freaking wall. He's been fluttering around all day. And that was enough to wake us fully.
Some people may have been up late.
Santa brought lots of Goodies to the boys.
But we got a hold of some dressers for Jacob. He really only needed one, an adult size one, but these pair came for the right price... Free.
The Living Room on Christmas morning.
I'm proud the boys waited for Chris to get up before attacking. Though with the bird, the dog, the phone, he didn't get to sleep in much.
By 8, they were Ready to open presents.
Jacob got a pineapple squishmallow.
It was going to be a no toy year from us, but we can't fight Santa.
And Santa brought squishmallows.
Sam loved his sloth squishmallow.
Chris never would have asked for a stuffie for Christmas, I mean, come on, he's 16.
But these little guys are precious and so soft.
Even this teen was happy.
Oh yes, Sam was so excited to get a new (to him) phone!
Jacob gets a new (to him) ipad... even with his old yellow ipad cover!
Chris was happy to see a new phone under the tree.
It's the only thing he asked for.
Once they opened their screens, they didn't want to do much else... for the day.
I think this is almost my favorite picture, it sums up our morning pretty well. ;)
Eric was surprised by this double waffle bowl maker.
He'd bookmarked it, but I don't think he ever expected to see that one. I loved being able to totally surprise him. He did a wonderful job of surprising me for Christmas. I knew a phone was coming... because the kids now have ours. We didn't need new phones, but they did. My computer mouse on the other hand was dying. I didn't realize how badly until I was working on our Christmas letter with Eric, and he sat down to make some corrections and lost his mind. I mentioned how I wouldn't mind having a new computer, and moving this carnage back into the loft, because the kids have been using the computer in my craft room, and trashing my space. I wished they could have their own space to trash.
Eric brushed me off, with the completely logical argument of how it would be too expensive to get pieces, especially since we'd just taken a major trip. But he Surprised the snot out of me. He got me a new monitor and the beginning guts of a new computer, and while I napped this afternoon, (with earplugs) he moved it around, and set the kids back up in the loft. Facebook got very angry at me for getting a new computer and a new phone on the same day and has completely locked me out.
But I find I don't mind.... maybe I'll finally get to catch up on Blogging. Ha.
Meanwhile, it's a Very Butler Holiday.
Santa brought tickets to a Butler Basketball Game for this coming week!
Oh yes, and we got the kids some new fun T-shirts.
Jacob had asked for a new Hamilton shirt because he'd outgrown his.
All the boys are growing, and this was a get new T-shirts sort of Christmas.
Chris got a couple Hamilton shirts too.
Sam's is more Science based.
You know how we said it was going to be a No Toy year.
Yeah well, Santa didn't do so well at that. We found a Green Lantern Lego Buildable Figure which they don't make anymore. So Jacob got Lego toys. But he's 8.
He was pretty happy about that. We may waffle around on how it's been a hard year and a good year, but I'm a sucker for one of his smiles. Legos make him smile.
Doesn't this look like Green Lantern lighting the top of the Christmas Tree!
I thought so too.
Eric made Pumpkin Rolls and Christmas Bacon.
Christmas Bacon is a Willman recipe from Aunt Betty, and it's Amazing. It usually takes forever, but he made it yesterday, so he just needed to heat it back up a smidge.
The rolls came from the new Aldi in town. Sam doesn't usually get to eat such things, because a lot of pumpkin stuff gets stuffed with Red 40. When we found these rolls with No Red 40, we snapped them up. They tasted very pumpkiny, like real pumpkin pie. Delicious!
We had this sugary breakfast, and a cheese snack for lunch, so we'd be hungry for dinner.
Oma puts on a beautiful spread, so we wanted to save room.
Ahsoka got some toys for Christmas too!
She got a new Kong bone. She pranced around the house with her new goodies. I hope they last more than a couple days.
She got a Christmas colored rope bone, and though she isn't as familiar with playing Tug, she's learning. ;)
Ahsoka got a stuffed Darth Vader toy.
I don't care if she destroys it tomorrow, it cracked me up!
Trains by Daylight.
They still look Awesome.
We never got around to turning them on today, we'll try tomorrow.
For boys who "don't need stuffies" , these three were having quite the adventures with their new ones this afternoon. They didn't really put them down. They are heckuva cute!
We got to Opa's for Christmas, and all my Boyz curled up on the couch together.
Everyone was getting along so well.
Annie and Charlie were getting along so sweetly that I just wanted to record it for my sister Lisa to show her later.
The Spread.
I've waited almost two years for the full MB Christmas dinner!
We missed it so much last year. By the time we were done eating tonight, we were perfectly content with a delicious meal and good company.
Grandma Pat's tree.
We could feel Grandma Pat today. She loved it when we were all together, all the laughter and noise.
I miss her. She was the kind of Grandma everyone wants and should have.
I passed by this tree on my way outside to take pics of the kids.
It was 60 degrees out this evening, and that's a rare Christmas gift.
I suppose some (Sam, Eric, and I) would've been happier with a White Christmas, but it was nice.
Sweetboys by the Tree.
It was so nice, the kids got their energy up, so we sent them outside to play.
I made them pose for a sweet pic first.
But this is how they normally roll.
Cuckoo!
But wait... there's More!
I'd have been content with going on home after an amazing dinner, and spending time with my family.
Lisa, James, and Charlie got Covid a couple weeks ago, and it just felt so good that they were healthy, that we are all healthy and able to get together.
Such Blessings!
Panorama of Christmas Prep.
My Dad and Stepmom are so generous.
Annie and Sam get crazy with the Colts hats!
Sam models 3 hats all at the same time.
My sister open this, and both she and Annie at the same time, said
Awwww.....
it was so funny.
Jacob stacked up his hats all on top of each other too. :D
And then it was done.
Frantic for a half an hour, we all watch the kids open their things.
Then we got to sit back and watch MB open her stuff.
Lisa and James put this beautiful picture collage together for Dad and MB.
They were surprised. There were some really great pics that made us laugh here from the last year.
I told James I wouldn't put this on the internet.
I fibbed.
Honestly though, I don't even think anyone reads this blog anymore. Let me know if you do.
But this one was Awesome.
James received this beautiful leather case from Dad and MB, because not only was this Christmas, but James just finished school. You're looking at a man who is going to be a Teacher!
He just finished his last finals.
Ah so...
Now the Student becomes the Teacher.
So he gifted us all with a fashion show with it, visions of what it will look like when he goes to work in 2022!
What a Beautiful note to end on.
My new phone gets artsy with photography, it took a tree photo I took and created a black and white.
Kind of nice, and good to document and freeze this moment.
It was wonderful to be back having an almost regular Christmas.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas too.