One Last Christmas Party

We finished up our Christmas Season with a family party with Darryl's family.  Darryl's grandma is in her 90's and lives in a nursing home so we have the family party there.  I will admit, it is not the first choice for any of us to meet at the nursing home but it has been the only solution for the past few years. 

 Darryl visiting with his Grandma.  She is hard of hearing (naturally, after all she is in her 90's!) so having a conversation is not easy especially with two very active boys. 

 Josh and Nate giving Grandma (Darryl's mom) some gifts.  Josh had painted two pictures for her and we also gave her the Fingerprint Christmas light pictures. 

 For gifts this year, we did a cookie exchange.  My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I all made cookies and did our little exchange.  Grandma gave us each a bag of truffles (since she couldn't bake). 

 The boys trying to be so patient while they waited for their gifts - the blessing of being young . . .you still get gifts!

 Grandma giving the boys their gifts.

 Funny story, the boys each got a DVD.  When Nate opened his, he handed it to me and said, "I will never, ever watch this movie."  HA! 

 After the party was over, the four of us went out to dinner at my favorite place - The Beltline Bar which is a Mexican Restaurant.  It was so good!  Another funny story, while waiting to get a seat (the place was packed but thankfully we remembered to call ahead!) there was another little boy there.  He would scream and kick; he scratched his mom in the face and then threw his sippy cup over and over again out of anger.  When we sat down, Darryl asked the boys if they say that boy and what did they think of how he acted.  Josh said, he was bad and that makes me want to be good HA!   From there, we headed home but noticed that the Light was on at Krispy Kreme which means free donuts!  We decided to stop and took the boys in - they were enthralled with the donuts being made.  They stood at the window for 30 minutes.  Josh did eat a donut and loved it - Nate is not so much of sweet eater so he just watched the process.

Aren't they so cute?? :-)

As a side note, my mother-in-law and I talked about the Christmas gathering and plan to make some changes.  One, we aren't going to go to the Nursing Home.  Instead each family will take time in December to go visit Grandma for an a little bit and take her a special gift.  Then, for the family party, we can gather at my MIL's house instead.  Two, we are going to exchange gifts.  Whether we draw names, buy for everyone or do a general gift exchange game, we are going to do gifts.  Plus we want to be able to buy my in-laws a gift of appreciation just because.  :-) 

So, this is the end of Christmas!  This year has been really great.  It's been relaxing and fun with great family time.  Compared to last year when I was so sick I don't even remember most of December or January . .. this year was a "perfect" Christmas.  Shoot, we even had snow! 

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe that we are looking at a new year - 2014!  Remember when the year went from 1999 to 2000 and everyone was crazy about what was going to happen and yet here we are 14 years later. 

We are not New Year's Eve party people.  Instead, we stay home, relax, eat snacks, watch all of the shows and go to bed at 12:01.  I am planning a few fun things with the boys like a "countdown" starting at 5:00 so that they end up in bed at 8:00 but we will celebrate like it's 12:00 ;-)  They don't really get the concept yet but we'll still have fun. 

New Year's Day is very quiet around here.  I like to watch Parades and Football and set some goals for the year.  I feel like once we hit January 2nd - we have a long winter to get through before we get to leave the house and have fun again!! 

So with all of that said, from my family to yours

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Day - beware this is photo overload but part of why I write this blog is for my own memory too!

 The boys were so excited to come out of their room and see their stockings.  Nate could hardly even wait for a picture - he was ready to dig right in!

 Josh loves pictures  . . and he loves being silly!

Nate finally digging into his stocking

 Once they had pulled everything out, Josh felt like their should be more ;-)

 Josh asked me to take his photo with the presents before they were "all gone."

 After stockings, we ate breakfast.  This year I made eggs, bacon, waffles and we had applesauce.  We usually have Orange Julius and Biscuits and Gravy but, since Darryl is avoiding Dairy, I left those off the menu this year. The boys ate . . a bite. . .and then wanted to open gifts but I made them wait until we had cleaned up - at least I used all paper products so clean up was pretty quick.

 Surprisingly, the boys were more excited about giving us the gifts they had picked out so we did those first.  They boys were so excited to show us their stuff - especially mine because they had picked out 10 things each for m at the dollar store.  As I would pull an item out they would tell me why they picked it with GREAT joy!  It was so adorable and so neat to see how well they really know me and notice things I do and things I like.  (For example, Josh picked out a box of Whoppers . .. back on Halloween I teased the boys and told them that Whoppers were awful so they could give them all to me to eat  . .. they figured out that I love them!)

Time to open gifts.  While we were cleaning up from breakfast, Josh had laid out all of the gifts so that they could read the name tags.  Reading their names on the tags was so much fun for them that I let them pick out the gift they wanted to open next.  They loved it. 

 About mid-way through the gift opening the boys gave each other their gifts - $10.00 each at the dollar store makes for some fun gifts.  They were so excited to show each other what they picked out. (And they LOVE their stuff - some of those gifts have been played with more than the things I picked out for them)

 This is Josh telling Nate that the gift he is now opening is also from him; which it wasn't; so then he told him it was from Santa.  (which, it wasn't HA)

A favorite, much requested toy - Light Friends.  Both boys got one - it is something they have been asking to get for MONTHS. 

 The final gift - Nabi Jr.  The boys would also steal ask to use my dad's Phone or Ipad anytime they were at his house.  When we saw how much they love that type of technology, I did some research and found that the Nabi's are great for kids and are app based.  This was the favorite toy.  They already have them figured out, love playing the games and listening to music. 

 Nate with all of his toys.  This year I did a lot of games and books with a few requested fun toys thrown in for fun.

 Josh with his toys. 

Playing with their new Nabi's.  This is how Papa and Nana found them when they arrived. 

 Josh also had to set up the gifts that Nana brought in - he is such a helper. (or he just wanted to touch all of the gifts!)

 The first gift was a new quilt that my mom made for each of the boys.  My mom makes awesome quilts and she did not disappoint!

 Giving Papa and Nana the gift that the boys made for them.

 Thomas the train stuff - always a big hit in this house!

Giving another gift to Papa and Nana - this one made Papa cry (it had all of the Grandkids listed on it)

 Josh was a huge help all day - he is really a work horse  . .. but he also likes to do this stuff because he feels like he is in charge and we ALL know how much he loves that!

We had a great dinner of Ham, Cheesy Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Glazed Carrots, Fruit Salad, Christmas Layered Jell-O, and Rolls.  Yum!! 

After dinner, the boys played and the adults talked.  It was such a relaxing afternoon.  My mom had made Christmas Cookies for dessert so we all munched on those and at least one person who shall remain nameless but goes by Nana took a nap. 

On Thursday morning the boys asked if Papa and Nana were coming back with more presents :-) HA!