New Year's Eve and New Year's Day AKA Our Christmas

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and . . .our family Christmas!!  Our Family Christmas was one of those things that was moved due to illness.  The only day that worked due to my husband's schedule was New Year's Day and really, it worked better then we thought it ever wood.  I even prepped the boys on New Year's Day and let them know that we would be celebrating Christmas the next day.  Of course they were excited about gifts :-)

Like most people, my husband had to work on New Year's Eve Day so the boys and I hung out at home.  It was actually the very first day in over three weeks that I felt completely almost healthy.  I cooked, cleaned and finally organized the classroom,which has been in disarray since Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in my Menu post earlier this week, I was trying something new this year for dinner hoping to start a new tradition - I made two kinds of soup. Italian Wedding Soup (Meatball Soup) and then Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup, which was a new recipe.  I'll be sharing that one in the weeks to come - it was fantastic.  After dinner, the boys took baths with some new body bath paints  they got for Christmas and then we played until bedtime.

Darryl was playing monster and was hiding behind the couch . . .this is the view of the boys running to the couch just before they run away screaming HA!

After the boys went to bed, Darryl and I wrapped their Christmas gifts and then did our normal thing on New Year's Eve - we ate snacks and watch the countdown shows.  I made a "new" recipe called "Loaded Potato Chip Dip" only to discover that it is the same thing as my Bacon dip ;-)  I also made fruit dip to go with pineapple and strawberries and we had cheese and crackers, fudge and truffles.  It was all so yummy! We did manage to stay up until midnight but knowing the boys would be up by 7:00, we headed to bed not long after mid-night.

New Year's morning, the boys did not disappoint - they were up at 7:00 on. the. dot.  :-)  We got up and fixed a wonderful "Christmas" Breakfast.

We had Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Mini Cinnamon Rolls, Fruit and Dip and Orange Julius to drink. After we finished eating, Josh helped me clean off the table and get everything in the dishwasher.  When we were done he said, "Can we open presents now, mom?"  Obviously he had an special motive in helping me ;-)

The boys had so much fun opening gifts one at a time - Josh had to take photos of everything.  I mentioned to Darryl that I think by the time he is 15 we will be buying camera equipment for him for Christmas.  Between Josh and I taking photos, poor Nate always has to wait to open his gifts so we can get the perfect shot.

 This picture makes me laugh out loud.  Nate was making funny faces while we took photos.

 Yes, that is an MP3 player for a 4 year old.  Josh loves . .LOVES music and this is a BIG hit.  We have music loaded on it and he loves to listen to his "Phone that plays music".

 The Crayon banks are something the boys picked out back in October when we took them to Toys-R-Us to go "window shopping".  They loved them when they found them and asked for money right away to put inside their banks.

 I like to get a photo of each of the boys with their Christmas gifts but they both wanted to be in the photo together so we squished everything into one shot.

 The boys playing with a big part of their Christmas gift from us.  The castle is another favorite item the boys had picked out AND have asked for since we took that trip to Toys-R-Us.  We also got them the Ogre, Dragon, and other little pieces to the castle so they had a full set to play with and it is so awesome - even better then we thought it was when we got it.  They played with it together and individually throughout the entire day.

 Josh listening to his new MP3 player.  :-)

 A last minute gift was the piano's - they were on clearance at Walmart for $7.00 each and I knew the boys would love them. 

 I originally had planned a big "Christmas" dinner for the afternoon but after the big breakfast, snacking throughout the morning, and well, not wanting to cook, I put together a fun, simple late lunch.  I had taken leftover ham out of the freezer to use today anyway so I cut up the ham and served it with cheese, crackers and pickles on a "snack tray".  Then we had leftover fruit an dip, bacon dip, and sweets from the night before plus some chips and dip.  It was the perfect New Year's Day lunch.  I will have to remember this for next year! Later in the evening, the boys had some Mac and Cheese while Darryl and I just had leftover soup from Monday.

One last photo.  Josh's "special" gift was his MP3 Player.  This is Nate's "special" gift - something just for him.  It is a Dinosaur box that turns into a play mat and it is so cool.  Here, he is playing with it as a mat but the four sides have zippers so when you are done, just zip it all up and it makes an awesome storage box for all things dinosaurs :-) It is so fun watching him set up his "friends" and play.  Sometimes, because the boys are so close together, we forget that Nate is "only 3" and even then just barely three.  He is still a toddler and loves to just play with toys and have fun.

The boys played all day and it was fun.  The boys requested to take an early bath so they could play with their new body soap paints and bubble bath soap (Umm Nana . . they LOVE it all, just saying!).  Once they were out and in PJ's (again HA) they actually started asking to go to bed.  I was a mean mom and forced them to stay up.  What?  It was only 5:00!!!  They were not going to bed 2 1/2 hours early because I did not want to be up at 4:00 AM!!  We pushed them until 7:15 and finally let them go to bed and yes, they were asleep about 45 minutes earlier then last night (it took them forever to go to sleep Monday Night!)

I would say we are done with Christmas but we aren't.  They actually have one more gift but we are waiting for it to be delivered (We got them each a Home Depot Kids Tool Box with tools - they love to help!).  We'll wrap them up and give them to each of the boys once they arrive.  Plus, we still have to "make-up" Christmas with Darryl's mom - we still have to set a date for that one.  For now, though we are done and the decorations will start to come down . .today :-)