Monday, January 11, 2016

Christmas 2015

I'm late again in posting, but better late than never right?  We had an amazing Christmas season - it's definitely my favorite time of year!  I love the magical feeling in the air and all of the decorations and lights around town!  I also love seeing Matthew get so excited about the same things now that he's old enough to better understand it.  I had hoped to do a lot of the traditional Christmas things with him (Christmas cookies, Santa, etc), but time got away from me.  Also, Mike and Matthew went to Illinois to visit family right before Christmas so there just wasn't time.  We did manage to go see Christmas lights and introduce Matthew to the crazy inflatables at the house on Convington Drive in North Little Rock!  He now wants a lot of inflatables for our yard - ummm...no!

While Mike and Matthew were in Illinois, I had some quality time with Samuel!  We hope to be able to take Samuel to Illinois next Christmas so he can meet our family there, but only time will tell.  It just depends on his health, and the health of others.  Thankfully, we have 11 months for him to grow and for his lungs to get healthier before we have to make a decision.  I loved getting to focus on Samuel and his therapy during our alone time.  I was also able to play with him more than usual - he's so much fun!  I did miss my other two boys though.

He was in little boy heaven with all of the trackers!

Climbing to the top of the silo with daddy!

Christmas day, we went to my parents house.  We had a yummy breakfast before opening presents.  While Matthew tore into his gifts, I opened Samuel's for him.  Matthew got a lot of cars, a car transporter, remote control cars, clothes, and other toys & games.  My parents surprised us with a full blown cowboy outfit for Matthew and it's the cutest thing ever!  He now has a hat, boots, belt, shirt, handcuffs, gun (suction sup), and a star badge.  It's pretty awesome!  He also got a ride-on jeep...this was definitely his fave!  After opening all the gifts and relaxing a while, we had lunch.  It was just like when I was growing up and I love that my boys get to experience the same thing!  

My favorite gift that I gave were signs that I found on Etsy.  My grandparents got a sign that reads "Great Grandkids" in the background and underneath it says "Make Life Grand".  There are several clothes pins attached at the bottom for them to display pictures.  For my parents, I found an Etsy site that custom makes signs also.  My boys call them Emie and Pops and there are never any grandparent things with those names on them.  Their sign says "Pops and Emie Established August 2012".  I wanted them to have something with their unique grandparent names and I thought this was perfect!


 







The day after Christmas, we headed up to Conway for the Fleisher Christmas.  This one cracks me up because it's 5 kids under the age of 4 ripping into presents.  We pass them out one at a time and watch as they each open a gift.  Samuel got more clothes and a multitude of light up toys!  Matthew stocked up on Octonaut characters and their ships, plus Paw Patrol & Jake and the Neverland Pirate toys.  His big gift from them was a big boy bike!  We haven't put it together yet because we are waiting on finding a new house and for the weather to warm up.  I know he will love it!






Overall, Christmas 2015 was a huge success!  Matthew keeps asking about when Santa will come again, so we are trying to teach him about the concept of waiting 11 months - haha!  I want my boys to know to true meaning of Christmas, so it's my goal this coming year to do a better job of incorporating the story of Christmas.  Any ideas are welcome! 

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