James Girls Christmas Spectacular...

The James girls, including the youngest Sophia, headed into New York City to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular show the Monday before Christmas.

Susie was our fearless driver into the big apple and I do mean fearless. She drove us in and out with ease. The weather called for rain, but thankfully by the time we got in to the city it was just sprinkling. Our show was at 4 p.m. and we made it to our seats just as it started. It was fun seeing the Rockettes and all the routines they put into the show.

Getting ready to perform their famous high kick line.

Dancing to The Twelve Days of Christmas

Sophia focused on the show.

New York at Christmas

Dancing Santas

The living nativity at the end of the show. Beautiful!

Donna, Sarah, Sophia, Christy, Susie and me

After the show we headed to see the famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree, look at some of the windows and have dinner.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Saks Christmas light show on their building, which plays every couple of minutes.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Donna, it was such a fun evening sharing it with the girls in the city at Christmas.

Devo Girls...

Sarah had her girlfriends over right before Christmas to spend a couple hours together. These girls started meeting during the summer to go through a devotional book together and hang out. They have tried to continue getting together once a month, but with everyone's schedules it has been tough.

It was fun having them all over. They spent some time going over their devotional book, making Oreo truffles and then a snowball fight outside.

Emma, Sarah, Kara, Cayla and Gabriella

Back To It...

Happy New Year!!!

This morning the kids went back to school and Jason back to work. Getting back to things was inevitable. We had some great family time the past week as Jason took a few days off after Christmas and we were all home together. We enjoyed sleeping in, relaxing in our PJs, playing the new Lego Marvel video game Brayden got for Christmas, reading, watching movies, going to the mall, putting together Legos, staying up late. No alarms, no lunches to make, no schedules, no homework. It was wonderful.

6:30 a.m. this morning I woke up to my alarm and reality, then hit the snooze button.

I eventually got up, got everyone moving and we actually all survived the first day back. The kids ended up with half a day of school because of the pending snow and now there is no school tomorrow, so we get to enjoy a few more days together.

I have several more posts to share from December, so I need to get moving before we get to far into the New Year.

On Christmas afternoon we got to celebrate Christmas with the James family. From the oldest to youngest it seems like everyone got what they wished for.

A sign for FaFa, our motorcycle lover

New TOMS for Grandma

Nordstrom gift card to buy new TOMS for Amy

Jason gets money for golf

Rangers jersey for Kyle

Fleece jacket for Christy

Golf balls for John

Gift card to New York & Co. for Susie

Sarah gets the Hunger Games trilogy book set

and UGGs from FaFa & Grandma

Sophie gets Despicable Me 2 DVD

and so does Brayden

Our train boy, Sammy, gets a new train book

Not sure these little guys knew what to wish for, but their mommies had an idea.

Toys where you can press buttons or push for Caleb and Stephen

Always fun to be with the cousins celebrating.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

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!