Christmas

To start off the holiday season Ryan and I went to a Christmas Tree display the day after Thanksgiving while my mom spent some Grandma time with the kids.  They had all sorts of trees decorated all different ways.  Our favorite one was one that was decorated with elves (sorry no pictures).

On Saturday December 7th was Ryan's work Christmas party and our ward Christmas party.  Our babysitter wanted to go to the ward party so we dropped the kids off at the church and left our van for them to take our kids home, then we headed to the work party at a winery.  Ryan is the only one at the office who does not drink.  After dinner we played a bunch of "minute-to-win-it" games.

Ryan Playing

As a tradition we started to give the kids Christmas themed jammies...

On December 19th we headed to "Santa's House" in downtown Sioux City.  Last year we took the boys to Santa's house in Cleveland so we had to come up with a good story to tell them.  We ended up telling them that the Santa was remodeling and we had to go to a different part of the North Pole while they worked on the other part of the house.  They seemed to be OK with that explanation. 

Emily, Christopher, Santa, Benjamin, Nathanial

Emily was hesitant to go any closer to Santa.

After we finished at Santa's house we drove around looking at Christmas lights when Ryan noticed this...

"Right in the middle of the front room window!"

On Christmas Eve we went to the Wheelock's home for dinner.  After dinner we came home and we opened our Christmas PJ's from Grandma Julie...

After we opened our PJ's we set up "camp" downstairs and let the kids watch Christmas movies until midnight and then they fell asleep.

Shortly after the kids fell asleep Santa made his magical appearance...

The kids were spoiled by everyone this year.  The boys finished opening presents around 4 in the afternoon and Emily finished opening hers after a nap around 6 pm.  As much as we miss our families at Christmastime we have enjoyed our "slow" Christmas mornings.  The kids open a present and play with it and then when they are ready they open another one...  

Nathanial holding Benjamin, Christmas morning

Benjamin

Christopher and his Ninja Turtle remote control car from Santa

Emily and her new doll and cradle from Santa

Ryan flying Nathanial's new helicopter

Ryan "showing" Nathanial how to fly it

After a slow moving day we finally made Christmas dinner and ate just after 6. We had ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, cheesy broccoli, and rolls.  We kept it simple and had all our favorite things.

Christmas Dinner 2013

Nathanial made this tree in art

Nathanial learned a new song in school and thought that it was pretty funny to sing...

We had a wonderful Christmas once again and want to thank everyone for their wonderful gifts.  We love seeing our children's eyes light up when they open their gifts.  There really is something magical about this time of year.

My favorite thing this Christmas season was a billboard that was posted throughout Sioux City that has the dark night sky with the 3 wise men being led by the star to the stable where Christ was born and across the top it says, "Jesus is the reason for the season"