Christmas at Nana and Pop's House

After eating a real breakfast, we got down to business and started opening the pile of presents at Nana and Pop's house. The first stop was the stockings from Santa. Can you guess what was in those stockings? Candy, of course! Henry was thrilled!

The boys got a Magna Doodle
and lots and lots of dinosaurs.

Pop got Gene and Mike copies of John Masefield's Salt Water Poems and Ballads, which he reads from every Christmas Eve. It's a beautiful tradition that we can carry on with our own little families.

I got Mary this cute little apron. She wore it all morning while she took care of her baby doll.

Gene and Mike opened wine bags to find not wine, but Portuguese olive oil! They were thrilled!

I make photo books on Snapfish for the grandparents each year.

Here are four of the boys (Will was watching Toy Story 3).

At the end of a busy Christmas day, the boys got lots of cuddles and tickles from Pop!

I hope your Christmas was as good as ours!

Christmas Morning at Home

Each Christmas Eve, we leave magical reindeer food on the front lawn and a plate of cookies and a glass of milk inside for Santa himself. Santa always drinks all the milk, eats the cookies, and leaves a note for the boys. They love it! Fortunately, Santa had no trouble finding us in our new house this year, thanks to his trusty elf Frosty.

Our house must be one of Santa's last stops of the night because he doesn't leave our home until right before sunrise. We know this because we hear his sleigh bells and a booming "HO HO HO" as he takes off in his sleigh. The boys actually stay in their rooms until they hear Santa's bells, and then they race downstairs to find their loot.

Henry just asked for candy this year. He was so excited to find three candy canes in his stocking!Last year, the boys ate animal crackers for breakfast and the tradition got worse this year. They just ate candy canes! Fortunately, there's always a huge spread of real food at Nana's house when we arrive! After the candy canes, we opened some presents. Gramma remembered that the boys love their workbooks. They actually stopped opening presents to work in them!
Santa knows that Henry loves rockets, so he brought this really cool rocket toy that lights up and makes all kinds of noises.

Will got Legos from Gramma and Grampa, but Henry really loves building skyscrapers with them.

One of Henry's favorite books is Toot Toot Beep Beep. Thank you, Aunt Amber, for getting it for him!

And here is Will on his big present from Santa. He wasn't sure about it at first because he didn't ask for a bike, but he's getting the hang of it!
After a couple of hours of crazy present-opening at home, we were off to Nana and Pop's house for yummy breakfast and lots more gifts!

Getting Ready for Christmas

The boys were so excited about Christmas this year and we promised them we'd set up a Christmas tree and some outdoor lights at the new house. We decided to get the tree before we actually moved in, which turned out to be a really good idea because we were too tired after the move to do anything but string some lights. The boys decorated it all themselves and were so proud of their handiwork!

On Christmas Eve, the boys went outside to sprinkle some magical reindeer food for Santa's reindeer. Do you see the lone snowman in the background? That's the extent of our outdoor Christmas decor this year!
Then it was back inside and out the side door for church and a traditional codfish dinner at Nana and Pop's house. Check out their cute matching outfits from Nana!

Henry was in a goofy mood and grabbed on to Gene's ankle and wouldn't let go!

One of my favorite treats of the Christmas season are bilharacos, which are fried butternut squash balls rolled in sugar. They are a delicious Portuguese dessert and we only get them on Christmas Eve. Gene snapped some photos of the boys enjoying their bilharacos because I was too busy munching on them to grab the camera!

Gene also captured this photo of his parents, sitting at the dinner table after all the rest of us had vanished. They were enjoying a few minutes of well-deserved peace and quiet.

When we got home from Nana and Pop's house on Christmas Eve, the boys set out milk and cookies for Santa and both decided to show me very goofy faces.

We got our stockings up. You can see the gaping hole in the wall where the previous owners had a flat-screen TV. We have since covered it up with our painting (much prettier!).

And one last shot of the decorated tree in the library. Santa had visited by the time I took this photo. Do you see the blue bike for Will in the corner?

After all the excitement of the move and getting ready for Christmas, we weren't sure how well the boys would sleep. But we needn't have worried. They knew Santa wouldn't come if they were awake, so they read just one book and then scurried into bed and fell fast asleep until Christmas morning.

Reindeer Antlers

Mary loved wearing her reindeer antlers on Christmas Eve. Isn't she a cutie?

She had an extra set that she really wanted to share with Henry, so she chased him around the kitchen carrying those antlers.

She did not understand why Henry wouldn't put on the reindeer antlers. She finally cornered him at the dishwasher, but he was not into the antlers.
So Mary found Will, who was a much better sport.

Cutie patootie.

And once his brother had the antlers on, Henry decided that he wanted to wear them after all. Typical!

And then the antlers found their way onto Daddy's head. Pop even got into the spirit of things. Next year, I'm buying antlers for the entire family!

Home

Moving at Christmas is crazy, but we did it and we are settled (mostly) into our new home and are absolutely loving it! Here's one last picture of our old house. Gene was making pancakes right up until the day before we moved. You can see boxes everywhere and a very bare pantry in the background.
Does this look familiar? We're cooking again in the new house, but without the sea of boxes (THANK YOU, Katy, Jaime and Heather for unpacking the kitchen and most of the rest of the house!). Gene and Will made Swedish pancakes last week. YUM!! We have been so lucky to have so much help getting settled into our new house. Nana and Pop kept the boys for two days so we could focus on moving and unpacking. Mike, Jess and Mary were there too, to help keep our little guys entertained and happy. Nana and Jess even made Christmas cookies with the kiddos, which meant we had cookies for Santa this year! And of course we would not be as settled as we are without the help of our good friends Katy, Jaime and Heather, who, all total, helped us unpack for 22 hours!

We moved on Sunday, December 19 and the boys came home late on Monday. After dinner, they opened their advent calendars to find a chocolate house. What could be more perfect on the day they moved into their new home?

Here are my three boys on Christmas Eve, in front of our new house. Come on in, guys!

We adore our new home and are so happy to be in town and so close to so many good friends. If you are one of the few who hasn't stopped by yet, I hope you'll come for a visit soon!

In a One-Horse Sunken Sleigh

All month long, the boys have been making adorable Christmas crafts at school. Here are some of my favorites that they've brought home. Henry made an angel out of his hand- and footprints. His teacher says he hates to get his hands dirty with paint but he does it because she tells him it will be so special for his mommy and daddy.At Lunch Bunch, Will decorated these cookies especially for us. He was so proud of his handiwork!

They have also been practicing for Will's big Christmas program. Their favorite song is "Jingle Bells," but they both sing about riding "in a one-horse sunken sleigh," which just makes me smile. Perhaps we're a little too obsessed with pirates around here??

Yesterday, Gene and I were at school all day long. Will's class party was at 10:30, and when we arrived, all the preschoolers were in the lobby listening to one of the teachers read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Will told us all about the stockings they sewed, and they were displayed on the whiteboard in his classroom.

They had a book exchange.

Then they sang a little prayer before eating a snack.

Aren't these snowmen adorable? My friend Belinda made them. I want to steal the idea, but she said they were a lot of work and kept falling over. I think it was worth the time, though, because they are so cute!!The preschool Christmas program was at 11:30. Henry's class got to go and hear the "big kids" sing.

We were so proud of Will! He sang and gestured and had so much fun bopping along to all the songs in the program. If you remember, last year he just stood on stage, so this was so fun for us! After Will's program, Gene and I got to go to Henry's class for a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party. The little ones don't normally have parties that parents can attend, so this was a first for me and I loved it! Henry ate his whole lunch and then ate another entire plate of dessert. He wanted to take the leftover desserts home, but there wasn't much left!

Here are Henry's sweet teachers with the birthday cake. Henry sang "Happy Birthday" with the other kids in his class. And then he dug into his plate of sweets.

I know I've said it a million times, but I adore the boys' school, and yesterday's celebrations were perfect. And now at our house, at least, we can never sing "Jingle Bells" without thinking of that "one-horse sunken sleigh!"