Nothing like a Christmas recap a month later right?? :) We had such a wonderful Christmas and Advent season this year. Each year it really gets more fun as the boys get a bit older and can understand and participate in new ways.
We had an Advent countdown calendar that Michael's mom gave the boys and they had so fun with it. And Joseph made a "Countdown to Baby Jesus" picture at school that he had fun putting a star sticker on each day to see how many more days until Baby Jesus' birthday. They loved the Christmas music and had so fun looking at Christmas lights on a few evenings that we went driving around. I was really surprised by just how into it Andrew was too! He would get so excited and burst into laughter every time he saw another house with lights!
I'll divide this post into a couple of different parts. First we had Joseph's little Christmas party at school where Santa came to see all the kids at school. Joseph did so good sitting with Santa and told him he wanted a big boy bike. :) His little class sang Christmas songs with their music teacher Ms. Janelle and had fun shaking their jingle bell necklaces.
The next week we went to the mall to see Santa. I tried to really play up Santa to get the boys prepared...mainly Andrew. And to my pleasant surprise when it was our turn to see Santa, I was trying to scoot the stroller up and Andrew just took off for Santa, gave him a hug and got in his lap! They both did so great and I was so excited and relieved! And too fun to think about our Santa pic for next year when Santa will have 3 little boys in his lap!!
Here are pictures from our pre-Christmas activities:
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| Santa visit at Joseph's school. Andrew went straight to Joseph and kept patting him on the head to get Joseph's attention. ;) |
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| "I want a big boy bike!" |
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| They let siblings get in on the picture too. The music teacher just kinda grabbed Andrew and put him up there but luckily that went ok! |
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| Mailing his letter to Santa at the mall. It was actually his idea one day...he asked me to write the words and he came up with stuff. |
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| Santa pic! |
And now for Christmas week! So fun! On Christmas Eve we had fun baking Neiman Marcus cookies and candied pecans. We went to the 6pm Christmas Eve mass and luckily it wasn't super crowded which was nice that we could sit down this year!
That night after the boys went down, we got to work on getting everything ready for the next morning. What fun!! Joseph got his big boy bike and Andrew got a new little scooter. They both seemed very happy with the gifts they got and had fun opening everything up right away! After presents, Michael made our traditional homemade donuts for breakfast - yummy! Then we all got dressed and headed to my parents' house in Kilgore.
My sister Kristina and her family were out of town this year so it was just us and Kat's family at my parents. We had a great time though! The kids were all so excited to see each other and to have another round of opening up presents! We had a yummy ham dinner and had some fun game nights after the kids went to bed!
That Saturday we headed to Temple for the Zajicek Christmas. It was nice to see all of Michael's family. Sunday evening we went out to dinner in Temple and then went to one of those drive through Christmas light places. It really was so well done and I was so excited for the boys to experience it as much as they had enjoyed the lights this year. And it was fun that Faith & Jimmy could actually ride with us since we have a mini van now! Anyways, to my surprise Joseph got a little bored with it after the first 5-10 minutes and Andrew ended up falling asleep before we got to the end. I think they weren't used to looking at the lights at such a slow speed. ;) We headed back to our house on Monday to complete our Christmas travels. So blessed again for a safe trip and wonderful Christmas season!
Pics from Christmas!
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| Christmas Eve photo shoot after mass |
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| Sweet silly brothers |
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| Our attempt at a family pic using our tripod. We took so many pictures that were all blurry because one of the boys was typically running off! |
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| 32 weeks pregnant on Christmas Day |
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| Santa's helper putting together the bike |
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| And then trying it out of course |
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| Santa came! |
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| Checking out their new bikes! |
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| Joseph loves his new race track |
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| And Andrew was thrilled to get some new "tractors"! |
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| Michael got the fun job of trying to get everything opened! |
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| Yummy homemade donuts |
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| At my parents house - cousin picture! Jacob, Andrew, Luke, Sarah and Joseph |
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| Mom and Dad! My Dad took over the tradition of wearing the red corduroy shirt that my Grandpa wore every year when he was alive. As well as the Santa hat! |
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| Present time! |
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| Jacob taking Andrew for a ride on his new bike |
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| Michael and Jim had way too much fun with the mini foosball table that Jacob got for Christmas. I'm not sure the kids had too many turns to play! |
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| Mom reading a bedtime story to Joseph and Andrew |
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| Picture with the Zajicek cousins in Temple - Kristopher, Micah, Joseph, Andrew and Noah. Unfortunately I didn't really take too many pics but glad we at least got a new cousin picture. |
