On the 23rd, we drove the almost 3 hours to Nana and Grandpa Sam's, also known as my mom and dad's. The boys were excited about a change of venue and very excited to see my mom and dad's dogs!
On Christmas Eve every year, my mom hosts a gathering for all of my dad's family and their kids and their kids' kids. As it sounds, it gets "extended" and crazy!! But, it's a ton of fun and we always miss it when we don't get to head that way for the holidays. The boys got to run around with some older cousins and the weather was beautiful and really cooperated this year. With Louisiana Christmas weather, you never really know what you're going to get! After the get-together, it's our Christmas tradition to head over to our church for 6 PM vigil Mass. The boys were really good this year, and only Colin ended up in the cryroom. Daniel was fascinated with the Christmas trees IN CHURCH! Our church hadn't put them up yet before we left for down south.
After Mass, it was back to Mom and Dad's for some present-opening. If only some of these pictures had audio!!!
I'd told my sister that William really wanted a sled for Christmas. Now, I'm thinking about one of the little one person ones that are about 2 feet in diameter. But, in true Auntie style, she bought the biggest one she could find! In case you were wondering, it seats THREE! You should've seen William's face when he pulled it out of the box!
And, of course, little brother immediately had to try it out:
My mom bought animal hats for all the boys this year. Daniel is in love with all things "penguin", and not knowing that, she bought him a penguin hat!! We got a stuffed penguin in a Happy Meal a couple of years ago and his tag said his name was Chill. From that point on, all penguins have been "chills". So, here is my smiley boy in his Chill hat.
William's was a tiger:
After all the presents were open, it was off to bed with the kiddos so Santa could come. William decided Santa wanted Oreos this year, so Oreos and a big glass of milk it was. Santa must really like Oreos because he ate them all! But, he was probably in a big hurry, they decided the next morning, because he left a lot of crumbs ;-)
The next morning, Colin's favorite presents were the talking Thomas and the talking Percy Santa put in his stocking.
William's didn't even come from Santa--it was a toss up between that enormous sled and the Lincoln Logs my mom and dad gave him. Apparently, Grandpa Sam really liked Lincoln Logs when he was a little boy, so he wanted William to have some. As far as I knew, William had never seen them before--none of our friends have ever pulled them out when we've been over. But, the minute he unwrapped them, he started screeching, "Look, Mom!! LINCOLN LOGS!!" Apparently, when he tells me they build stuff in his PM centers at school, they use Lincoln Logs. Who knew? I never asked--just assumed he was building with blocks. Here is a snap of our two construction men going after it with the Lincoln Logs:
And, the finished log cabin:
Later on Christmas Day, my mom's sister and her husband (Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim) came over to have lunch with us. My boys just adore her, so that was a huge highlight! Overall, it was a Christmas filled with family, so what more could one want????
