Music and Lego...

This year our Christmas morning was filled with gifts of music and Lego.

Brayden woke up at 7 a.m., but I told him to play in his room for a bit until we were ready to get up. I finally got up when he came down and told me "If I lay down my tummy hurts, I can't lay down anymore." I guess the excitement was just to much for him.

 

Once we all got up and were presentable for pictures we were ready to start enjoying our Christmas morning together opening all the goodies in our stockings.

On to the gifts...

iTunes gift card for Sarah.

Lego Batman clock for Brayden.

Their gifts to each other. Sarah got a Cinderella Pook-a-loz and Brayden an Angry Bird.

Money, Batman shirt, Angry Bird case and Lego gift card were gifts from the Hutchcrafts.

Sarah and Brayden's gifts from Daddy and Mommy were both a huge surprise.

Sarah got a guitar. She has been taking voice/guitar lessons since October and her teacher, Shannon, has been letting her use one of her extra guitars since she started. We decided back in November to get Sarah her own guitar even though she hadn't asked for one.  Shannon went with us to pick it out since neither I nor Jason knew what to get. We got a really nice one picked out that can even turn to electric with the push of a button. It was hidden at FaFa & Grandma's house until Christmas Eve to keep it a secret. She was so surprised and had no idea.

As I have mentioned many times before Brayden loves Lego. We are always amazed at the larger Lego pieces like the Star Wars Death Star and the Millennium Falcon. We talk about all the pieces, how long it would take to put them together and how fun it would be. Without Brayden asking we decided to buy the Millennium Falcon set knowing our little Lego fan would LOVE it.

It's funny because after we made the purchase, whenever someone would ask him what he wanted for Christmas he would say the Lego Millennium Falcon. YES! From that response and his reaction Christmas morning I think we made the right choice.

"I think this may be it!"

"This has to be the Millennium Falcon!"

"Did you get me the Millennium Falcon?"

"Oh, Man!"

"Ohhhhhh, Man!"

"I wanted this baby!"

A happy Lego boy.

Stay tuned for progress on this set.

Brayden made us a special gift at school, which we got to open on Christmas morning.  It was a snowman magnet with a picture of Brayden for our fridge.

Another fun Christmas morning with our kids. Happy, Happy, Happy!

A Christmas Miracle...

You might remember my post in November 2011 called Looking for Baby Jesus. We couldn't find the baby Jesus for our advent calendar. He had disappeared and we were desperately searching for a new one.

With the original baby no where to be found, for the past two years we have been making due with this little porcelain baby who we declared the new baby Jesus.

He doesn't go with the rest of the advent calendar, but Jesus stood out from the crowd anyway when he was here on earth so we made it work.

I love the look of this calendar. MeMe gave it to us when Sarah was a little girl, so I was not overly anxious about finding a new one and deep down I was really hoping that at some point baby Jesus would just show up somewhere in the midst of our decorations.

Well, I finally got my wish and we experienced a Christmas miracle in the beginning of December when Brayden found baby Jesus stuffed, and I mean stuffed, down in day 15. How he got stuffed I don't know.

That really doesn't matter though because once Brayden found him I think the heavens opened up and we all heard the angels singing...

 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests". 

So baby Jesus took his rightful spot in day 25, the grand finale to this Christmas advent,

 and today He was able to join the rest of the story. Ahhh, so thankful even for this sweet small detail.

It truly was a Merry Christmas with Jesus being at the very center of our celebration this year.

Cookie Decorating Time...

On Friday night we held our traditional event of decorating Christmas cookies with Cayla. The kids had so much fun and I was there to laugh at their silliness, assist with frosting when needed and try to keep them focused on the task at hand so that the cookies would be decorated before midnight.

What a way to start!

Brayden decorated some really pretty cookies this year.

Cayla did a lot of detail work this year on her cookies.

Sarah seemed to be about trying new decorating techniques.

The silliness begins..."145, 288, 145, 288?" Don't ask.

Oh man! These girls are to much. I guess I wasn't helping by taking pictures.

I think from the look of these they like mini chocolate chips.

Every year they each make special BFF cookies.

They worked hard to make the ugliest cookie they could. I think they accomplished that.

Time to clean up the fun.

On the Other Hand...

Our nephew, Sammy, shows quite a bit of enthusiasm when it comes to singing. I think he will follow in his cousin Sarah's footsteps of loving being in the musicals.

This year Sammy showed off his singing talents again in the preschool program. He wasn't afraid to show his excitement, which I love.