Conference Weekend

One of our favorite traditions is when our church has General Conference every April and October. We make omelets for breakfast. Yummy! We only wish we were closer to Cam's family to join in the great omelet breakfast!

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Dinner

We got together with our NC family for Christmas dinner. Emmett loves playing with "Papa Steve" and kept begging him to come play. He got a remote control car and a truck, so the boys all had fun playing with that! Susie was perfect as usual, and kept everybody smiling.

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Breakfast

We always get together with our friends for Christmas breakfast. We had a great time sitting around talking for hours.

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Morning

Emmett surprised us all and slept in until 7am! That was a great Christmas present for us! We had so much fun opening presents and watching the joy and excitement he showed. He wanted to play with everything!

One of Cam's favorite traditions from his family is that everyone gets a box of cereal

 

The room is ready for the kids to wake up!

 Santa Came!

Let the fun begin!

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the kids open Christmas pajamas. This is my new favorite picture,  because I rarely get them sitting still and both of them smiling at the same time!

We leave cookies and milk for Santa.

After that, we read the nativity story and put Emmett to bed. About twenty minutes later, he called me and I went into his room. I asked him what was wrong, and he said "Ho Ho is COMING!" I didn't think he really understood what was going on, but he did and he was VERY excited. 

Christmas Traditions - Maw Maw

Maw Maw came during the day on Christmas Eve to do presents with us.Emmett got a stick horse. Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a 2 year old hopping around? We got a great ornament from Aunt June that tells the Christmas story. Emmett sat and played with it for quite a while. She also set him a fun game, which Maw Maw scolded us about because it was too loud and was waking Susie up!

Christmas Traditions - Gigi's House

Ever since Emmett was born, we've found a night or morning to get together with Gigi, Pa, and NeyNey. We have fun sitting around and talking while the kids play.

 I love Emmett's look of concentration!

 Susie wasn't too sure about all the excitement.

 They both got "tablets," and I love how Susie seems to be saying "How do I work this thing Emmett?"

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Concert

Our church has put on a Christmas concert the last few years on the Sunday before Christmas. I have accompanied someone everytime, and this year I did the same. It's always an evening of beautiful Christmas music. This year, Aunt Jenn came that Sunday and went with us to the concert. And then Emmett got to open some presents and talk to Aunt Nette on the phone. He kept asking where she was all day - we miss her lots!

Christmas Traditions - Sharing Goodies

Normally I'll bake quite a bit for Christmas, but the flu hit me hard and messed up my baking plans (after all - nobody wants goodies from a sick person!). Once I felt better, I knew that I at least needed to make some cookies for Santa. We made some extras to share with friends. I realized that the only paper plates I had were baby boy plates. I guess that's appropriate, right? Happy Birthday Baby Jesus! Luckily, I think our friends understood. Emmett loved helping to deliver them on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Traditions - The Reason for the Season

I really try to downplay the commercial side of Christmas. We did some of the normal Christmas-y things, but I've been trying to talk to Emmett a lot about Baby Jesus and talk about the Christmas story. He has two nativity sets to play with, one magnet set on the fridge, and a sticker cling set on the dishwasher. We also made a little stained glass craft.

Here are some things we've clarified about the Christmas story:

- It's an angel, not a butterfly.
- It's not Baby Anna, it's Baby Jesus.
- Even though they're wearing crowns, they're supposed to be kings or wise men, not princesses.

I think we've made progress. One thing that did melt my heart was when he lined everyone up to see baby Jesus. It's amazing how often children end up teaching adults.

Christmas Traditions: A Visit with Santa

Santa made a stop at our library, so we went down to see him. They had cookies and milk for everyone, and the kids all got bells to ring as we sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Santa read "The Night Before Christmas" and then took pictures with everyone. Susie was perfect (of course), but E wouldn't get anywhere near him. And then when we left, he screamed "I want to sit on his laaaaaaaaaaaaaap!" So I still don't have a smiling picture of Emmett with Santa. Susie's is adorable!

Christmas Traditions - Decorations

We had fun getting out all the decorations, but we left a lot of the old, special ornaments in the box because of one adventurous toddler. We only lost one ornament in the process of decorating the tree!

Christmas Traditions - Lights

We had fun putting up "pretty lights," as Emmett calls them.He loved climbing the ladder with Daddy. This year has been so much fun, because everything about Christmas is so magical to Emmett!