Christmas Day!

Christmas Morning came very early. Not only did we stay up late, we couldn't sleep and then Tyson came in at 6:30. We told him to go back to sleep. We had to wait until everyone got there to start opening presents. Tyler's whole family (the ones in town) wanted to come over for Christmas morning.

I had to run over to my moms to help her with her morning pills at 7:40. So I went over and when I came back all 3 of the boys were in my bed anxiously waiting Grandma, Papa and Taylor and Trent and Jessica to come. HayLee and Justin were staying at our house.

We kept them on our bed until we got our surprise (that was staying with Kris and Alan) in the basement. I was a nervous wreck for some reason.

Then we let the boys out. We were all crammed in our front room. The smallest room, but that's where we have our tree. So we set up benches and our long ottoman out for everyone to sit on and we started opening presents. It was fun to have everyone there to open presents.

We didn't rush, even though Kris could hear the surprise in the basement. But the noise level was just high enough that no one else could hear, except Mocha, HayLee and Justin's dog.

After we were all done, Tyler stood up and said. Oh no, I totally forgot about a present that I hid in the basement a couple months ago. Let me go grab it. He grabbed the same box that we used the night before for the pj's. The boys were like, Dad, how could you forget a present in the basement.

When he came up, we had them all go into the living room and sit down around the box. I was videoing and ever camera in the room was out and ready, except mine. It wasn't cooperating.
Tyler made them say something nice about each other like we did the night before and then they took the lid off. All 3 of their faces immediately went in towards the box and Mason reached in the box to grab, what he thought was a stuffed animal. (He told me later that he thought it was a webkin) And then their new puppy surprise moved and all 3 of them jumped back. Mason was the first to realize what it was. He was so excited.Just a side note: We have a tradition on Christmas eve that we write our letters to Santa and then put them out next to their stockings. They write what they want, and thank you for last year. I helped Mason and I didn't give any help as to what he wanted on his list. The last thing on his list was a "REAL DOG". No Joke.
They were all so excited. She was shaking and a little traumatized. We let each of the boys hold her and then we wrapped her up and I held her until she calmed down. She was so cute though. As soon as she wasn't shaking anymore, Tyler took her out potty and she went. Then we put her down and she started playing Mocha. She was jumping him and chasing him and he was playing with her. They were really cute together.
Then we opened a few more gifts and then we all ate a yummy breakfast of Egg casserole a la Tyler, and pancakes with my homemade buttermilk pecan syrup.

Everyone left and we just hung out and played with the dog, and the boys opened a few of their gifts and played. We had to decide on a name for the puppy, so we got all of the boys together and started going over names. We had a list of names we liked. They really liked a few so we tried each one of them out and we checked off our list the ones we didn't like. We finally settled on Sophie. The boys even came up with a middle name for her. LeeAnn for both their grandmas.

Then we went over to my mom's to see her and show her the puppy and exchange gifts. She was downstairs for the first time and looked tired, but she hung in there. She loved the puppy and held her. She was excited we'd finally decided on a name.

We stayed over there for a little while and then went home to rest for a little bit. Well, everyone rested and I stayed up and played with Sophie.

That night we went over to Tyler's parents for a Christmas dinner of turkey and all sorts of yummy food.

When we went home, it was another blizzard and we got all inside and warm and hung out and played until bed.

It was a fun Christmas. It was so fun to have such a fun surprise that the boys absolutely love.
They just keep saying. We can't believe we have a dog and she is so cute.

Christmas Eve

We had a nice Christmas Eve. We decided to have our annual Tyler's side family Christmas eve dinner at our house. We had tons of yummy food.

Kris also put together a nativity story. The boys and Taylor were the men and shepherds. They were very cute. Tyler narrated the story and I got to hold the flashlight on the star. We sang songs that went along with the story and Jessica played on the little keyboard and HayLee led the singing.

After that we gave the boys their Christmas PJ's. We put the in a box and told them before they could have their surprise, they had to say one nice thing about their brothers. They were cute and said, you are the best brother, I love you because you play with me, you help me with things. It was cute. Then they opened their jammies.

I tried to get pictures in their jammies and that was fun, they were too excited to hold still. But I got a couple.

Then we had bread pudding for dessert, yum.

After everyone left we got the boys settled in for bed. They had been playing in the basement all day and had built a fort. They wanted to sleep in there. Last year we let them all sleep out on the couch, and I wanted them to do that again, but Tyler said they could sleep in the basement. So who was I to spoil the fun. We got them all tucked in their tiny fort and headed upstairs to start our wrapping.
I realized earlier when I went to find the video camera to charge it that Tyler had taken it down to work so Justin and Tyler left to go get it.

HayLee was so nice to help me wrap Christmas. This year, I'd planned to have it all wrapped in time, but my mom had surgery the Monday before Christmas, so those plans went out the window. So I hadn't wrapped a single present and with HayLee's help and then when Tyler got home, we were able to get them done in a couple hours. Then Tyler got the Christmas eggs stuff ready for morning and we set everything up, took pictures and went to bed.

I was so excited and nervous (about our surprise the next morning) that I couldn't sleep and neither could Tyler. We probably didn't fall asleep until about 4 or 5.

Tyson's Teacher Gift

I always struggle with what to get the boys' teachers for Christmas. This year we were talking about it in November and my sister mentioned that her son made his teacher a scarf a couple years back.

I told Tyson about the idea and he wasn't sure what he thought about it. So I told him he could just try it and at least it would be something fun to learn. He wasn't sure if boys knitted. I told him that it didn't matter. As long as you are enjoying it, who cares what everyone else thinks. If you don't like doing it, then you don't have to do it.

So we went to the dollar store because they have yarn sometimes. And we found some black yarn.
I taught Tyson how to knit on the long loom. It's really easy and he picked it up really fast. Before I knew it he had several inches and he was really having fun. So he decided that this would be cool for his teacher's Christmas gift.

He worked on it off and on until we ran out of the yarn and then we couldn't find anymore like it.
Oops, my bad. Oh well, we found something similar and he worked on it. He ended up finishing it the night before the last day of school before Christmas break. He was so proud of himself and we wrapped it up and he wrote a cute note to his Teacher. I really hope she liked it.

We had to take a picture before we wrapped it up, just to prove that Tyson knitted a scarf when he was 8.

Mason's Preschool Program

We only had to go to one school Christmas program this year. Mason was so excited that he got to be in his first school program. He was so excited to learn his line and had it memorized in a couple days. He would repeat it all of the time.

Well the time came for the program. It was a snowy night and happen to fall on the same night as Tyler's company party. So we were in a rush. Luckily the program was short and sweet.

It was at a nearby church. We got there a few minutes before we started, so I was nervous because Mason hadn't had a chance to practice or even know where he was supposed to be. We found his seat and went and sat down. I thought for sure he would be done after a few minutes and want to come and sit with us. But oh was I wrong.

He sang the songs and we were almost to the back and we could hear him singing. He was belting it out. It was so cute. In all of the school programs for my kids, this was the first time I could actually hear them singing. Tyler and I were beaming.They did a bunch of different class songs and poems. But Mason was the first one up at the microphone by himself. I was so nervous. His teacher handed him the mic and he said in the clearest, loudest voice. "Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was sturring, not even a mouse." I was so proud. Parents all around us were shocked too. And we were rooting for him so they could tell he was our son, and a couple parents turned around and said Wow, he did awesome! Oh yeah, proud parents we are not! :)

Anyway, the program was cute and they sang all the classical songs. Mason loved all of the attention and is definitely not afraid of crowds. After it was over we grabbed a cookie and a present from his teacher and bolted.

Putting up the Tree

Every year the kids look forward to our tradition to kick off the holidays.
DECORATING THE TREE.

Not because our tree is the most beautiful, in fact it is pretty charlie brownish. It's not because they are excited to get presents or Santa coming. Nope, they are excited because that means.

Chocolate Fondue Night!!!

Ahh, they are definitely my boys.

We had a yummy spread this year. When we had it all set out, Tyler asked me who we were inviting over because we had so much. It was just us and Grandma F.

Grandma showing Mason how to properly eat an 0reo

Cute little chocolate mug

Tyson and Grandma

We started our first round of eating, and then we had to pull the kids away from the fondue to decorate the tree. Luckily our tree is small and we don't have a lot of ornaments on it, just mostly homemade or ones from our childhood.

And we got a surprise this year. Grandma and Papa M. and Taylor dropped in and got to watch the boys decorate the tree and even partake of the yummy treats.
We ended up doing a second round (well Mason and Preston did) of Fondue and we watched our DVD of The F0rgotten Car0ls. It is my absolute favorite.