Christmas 2013

We have been enjoying a wonderful Christmas and break from the school/work routine!  And of course, it has been SOOOO nice to have Adam home for longer than 2 days.  He is taking some vacation days so that he can be home for the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's, which also happens to be my Winter Break from school!  So, we are happy to be spending time together as a family and relaxing! :)

Saturday night into Sunday just happened to bring a good snowfall to Des Moines, so that gave us our white Christmas.  Church was cancelled, so Adam headed out in the morning to snow blow the driveway (SO thankful he was home to do that!!), and of course that means J needed to head outside, too.

Ready to go bulldoze some snow.

On Monday, we hit Bass Pro Shop so that J could visit Santa (pretty much our favorite place for a Santa visit-- hello FREE 4x6 picture!).  Santa arrived at 10:00, and we got there about 9:30 which was perfect.  We walked around a bit and then got in line about 9:45, and we were probably the 3rd or 4th people back.

A trip to Bass Pro is not complete without a visit to the fish and a "ride" on a 4-wheeler!

This 4-wheeler was noisy!

No idea what was going on here.

This cracks me up-- J looks stiff as a board!

Monday night we popped up some popcorn and made hot cocoa (thanks to J's babysitter, Kristin!), hit Starbucks for the grown-ups, and then headed out to look at some Christmas lights.  We didn't drive around too much, just checked out the standard ones-- Beaverdale, and the neighborhood in Ankeny with the gingerbread men and frosty the snowman story (J has been really into "Frosty" this year, so he really liked that one!).

Ready to go!

After J went to bed that night, Mommy/Santa finished wrapping presents!

Our little tree. :)

Tuesday was Christmas Eve!  J was quite excited about this, because he knew he'd get to open some presents. :)  He even let everyone sitting around us at church know that "Now we're in church, then it's Pizza Ranch, and then we get to open PRESENTS!!!!" (with his arms raised and everything). :)

I do want to remember that J's favorite Christmas song this year was "Angels we Have Heard on High," which seems to be an odd choice for a 3 year old!  We sang it in church a couple weeks ago, and J just started singing right along with the "Glo....ria" part.  Oh my goodness, talk about melting a mommy's heart!  So, he has requested I sing that at bedtime a couple times and wants to hear it on the radio or Mommy's iPod all the time.  I just love that he loves that song!! :)

So anyway, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service at 4:00, and then (as is our tradition) went out for dinner.  Normally we do Outback or Texas Roadhouse, but this time we did less waiting/more kid-friendly with Pizza Ranch. :)

He approved!

When we got home from dinner, it was present time for the little man.  He got to open his "sockee" (aka stocking), his "something to wear" gift from us (Christmas jammies!), and 1 gift from Grandpa and Grandma Wissink. 

Checking out the Matchbox carwash that was in his sockee.

His sockee gifts and his "something to wear" gifts from us.

Design and Drill set from G & G Wissink-- it's a hit!

One last Christmas Eve pic-- ready for bed in Christmas jammies!

Christmas Day arrived, and we didn't even hear Santa when he came!  I think it's funny-- J talks about Santa etc., but also doesn't seem to put it together that the gifts under our tree were there long before Santa was supposed to have come to our house..... I'm sure he'll figure it out soon. :)

It's no secret that J was asking for a logging truck for Christmas-- and what a relief!  Last spring I happened to find a Bruder logging truck at TJ Maxx for super cheap!  It was only a coincidence that J saw one in the little catalog a few months ago and decided that's what he wanted for Christmas! :)  HERE is the video of him opening his logging truck-- he was somewhat less enthusiastic than I thought he'd be, but he was excited nonetheless.  This year we went by "something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read" for Jeremiah's gifts.  He opened his "something to wear" on Christmas Eve, but the rest was left for Christmas Day!

Proud of his logging truck (obviously the "something you want" gift)!

"Something you need"= new snow boots, socks, and underwear.

 He deemed the underwear "yucky" and refused to hold them in the picture. :)

"Something to read"= The Polar Express, Snowmen at Work, and a truck book.

This is the first Christmas I think EVER that we did not spend with extended family, so we were a little unsure what we were going to do with the day!  It was a little odd, but we definitely made it a wonderful day of relaxing and family time.

I made my cinnamon rolls for breakfast:

They were delicious, if I do say so myself!

We spent most of the morning relaxing, watching TV, reading books, playing with new toys, and enjoying some Starbucks (thank heavens they are open on Christmas, right?!?!?).

Playing with the new car wash by the sink!

Reading The Polar Express.

YUM.

 J took a pic of Mommy with the gift he made for us at Daycare-- a cute Christmas ornament and plate!  Love looking at the 3 plates he has made over the years at "Shell's House" and seeing his coloring progress! :)

I was going for the "just rolled out of bed" look.  I think I succeeded!

Oh, and thanks to our guard dog Molly up there, we had a very safe Christmas.  She never leaves her post-- even on holidays!!

Later in the afternoon, we took J to see his first movie in the theater!  We went to see "Frozen," which Adam and I thought was very cute!  J got a little antsy towards the end, but otherwise he did well.  He especially liked Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer. :)  However, as we were leaving the theater, he said to me, "I didn't really want to see that movie.  I just wanted to play with my logging truck."  We'll keep that in mind in the future!!

He'll go back to a movie just for the popcorn, though, I'm sure!!

And now we're recovering!  It's so nice to have another week and a half of vacation time together (however, I do have to go to school next Thursday for PD-- I need to write myself a note or something!  I'm afraid I am getting to used to this vacation thing and will forget to go!!).  We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy!