Christmas in a Nutshell

Well I have been slacking on the blogging lately (worried I will reach my max soon) so here is Christmas in a nutshell:

We cut down our tree at the same lame tree farm we went to last year that I swore I would never go to again...Jon had to move somebody ALL MORNING/AFTERNOON/LATE AFTERNOON (not that I'm complaining about my hubby doing service or anything) so we went a lot later then planned which axed the idea of going to a really cool farm with Santa, hayrides, etc. because it was too far...so, we settled for something in Snohomish. However, because I was pouting I didn't actually look anything up so we just drove around aimlessly until we found this place (which is basically what happened last year)...UGHH!! But, the tree we picked was beautiful and very tall (like 18 or so ft!).

Looking for the perfect tree.

Perfect tree found.

Cutting down the tree.


No trip would be complete without at least one melt-down!

We did gingerbread houses this year with the Higgins. Chandra and I baked all the walls (which means nothing matched up) and we got together at her house (thanks for that!!) with the kids to make/decorate their houses. The kids had so much fun but spent a lot of time hiding under the table "sneaking candy" (I swear I let them have sugar once in awhile!). A few days later Josh and Jon and I made ours. Josh really let the creative juices flow and made his very intricate while Jon and I settled for simple (I know we don't have to actually live in the house but that's just our style).

Christmas Eve we opened our new jammies then sang carols and acted out the Nativity with Josh. Clay was the angel and enjoyed sounding his "trumpet" and Kai was the baby Jesus, not quite so happy to be up past his bedtime. Josh slept over and we wrapped presents until way too late then crashed! We woke up and opened stockings, ate breakfast, showered, cleaned up (yes, we dragged out the whole present opening as is tradition in my family) then finally opened presents. Santa brought Clay a Mack with Lighting inside, Eph a dumptruck like his brothers, and Kai a "piggy bank". Jon made me a really really cool paludarium (part water part land terrarium) for my salamanders and I got him an air compressor (which he of course returned-Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Jon returning his gifts). The Higgins came over that night for a "Mexican Fiesta" (we decided to bag the traditional turkey and stuffing dinner for a quicker and more delicious (at least for Jon) meal). After dinner we played a few rounds of TWISTER-so fun. We had a great Christmas (although we missed our family)!

Modeling their new jammies.

Acting out the nativity-utter chaos!

Stockings.

Presents.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!