Christmas Day

A truly blessed family!

 My honey and me!

 Mema, Jax and Granddaddy enjoying lunch.

 Uncle Jay  - ready to eat!

 Mema sneaking a little party mix and sharing it with....

 Jax!

 YUMMY!

 Jax's beautifully decorated cookies!

 So cute!

 My little man!

 My boys and me!  I love them so much!

 Jax loves opening presents!

 My dad and me!

 My mom and me!

What a wonderful day we enjoyed on Christmas!  After a fun morning we welcomed my Mom, Dad and brother Jay as the celebration continued.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch of poppyseed chicken, HoneyBaked ham, rice, corn casserole, frozen fruit salad, honey-glazed carrots, olive-cheese bread and warm yeast rolls.   We were all stuffed and ready for a nap after lunch but we opted to open presents instead.  Jax loved opening his gifts as well as helping everyone else open theirs.  We kept the gift exchange simple this year but always fun to surprise one another.  After all of the gifts were opened we enjoyed yummy desserts that included a delightful Santa shaped cake, sugar cookies and Santa party mix.  Leftovers were packaged up and sent home with everyone.  As always we enjoyed being together as a family and feel blessed every year that we are able to have this special time together.   

Christmas Morning

Looks like Santa was hungry. Just a few crumbs were left.  He also took the time to write Jax a note.  Santa rocks!

 After everyone was tucked snug in their beds, Santa arrived with lots of presents for all.

 The fun begins.....

 Santa knows I love cozy socks!

 A snowy Christmas - perfect!

 A new lunchbag for my honey - he's so excited!

 Boots for my honey that he ordered himself!  Easy shopping for me!

 CoCo - always content with whatever she gets.

What an exciting morning we had this Christmas!  The excitement in Jax's eyes was priceless as he discovered all of the toys and goodies that Santa left for him.  He loved looking through his stocking and finding all of his favorite things like Cheetos, stickers, "Elmo" juice and Skittles.  Santa left lots of fun toys including the race car that Jax requested along with a big fire truck, wooden blocks, Legos, coloring books and other great stuff to keep him busy.  CoCo's stocking was filled with yummy treats, too!  Santa was so good this year - my stocking was filled with lotions, bath gels, cozy stocks and a Starbucks gift card.  John's stocking including his favorite mulling spices, a Santa Pez dispenser, Skittles, and a few more goodies.  After seeing what Ole St. Nick left for all of us, we enjoyed a breakfast of pancakes, warm syrup, eggs and bacon.  A delicious breakfast behind us we were ready for the task of opening lots of presents.  We enjoyed a relaxing morning by the fire  watching each other delight of seeing what was under the tree.  A few surprises was had by all.  It was so nice to sit by a cozy fire watching the snow as we enjoyed a quiet (well..as quiet as Christmas can be with a three year old) morning as a family.  After the presents were unwrapped it was time to get ready for our Christmas lunch.

Yummy Treats for Santa and his Reindeer

Jax and I had fun on Christmas Eve making treats for Santa and his reindeer.  We made our traditional sugar cookies with delicious royal icing.  Jax had fun decorating his cookies with icing and sprinkles.  After we made cookies it was time to mix up a special treat for the reindeer.  Jax did great measuring and stirring.  He sprinkled the food so fast that John didn't get but a couple of pictures.  We put Santa's cookies on a special plate and poured a cold class of milk.  Then it was off to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas and then to bed.

This is where you go....

Three days before Christmas and Jax gets a new dog at Build-A-Bear.  Doesn't make a lot of sense, right?  Well...let me tell you.... this is where you go when you walk up to Santa's house two seconds too late and it's your second attempt to visit with  jolly ole St. Nick.   It broke my heart to see Jax's little face when I told him that Santa was going to feed the reindeer and we would have to see him later.  Jax had tears streaming down his little face and the "elf" looked at us and said, "Santa will be back at 2:00".  Thanks but I don't think my little guy really understood that so off we went to find something fun to do.  Jax loved choosing his new dog which he named "Rudolph".    Of course, we had another meltdown when leaving because he decided he actually wanted Rudolph the reindeer instead of Rudolph the dog but that's another story.  I definitely learned my lesson about waiting until the week before Christmas to visit with Santa.   John and I met at the mall that same night and waited for about an hour and forty minutes  for Jax to have his 30 seconds with Santa.  Oh...what you will do for your kids.   But after all that we went though it was worth it all to watch Jax give Santa a 100 calorie pack of cookies and to hear him tell Santa he wanted a race car.  Precious!

.

Time to Build a House

John, Jax and I had fun building and decorating an adorable gingerbread house.  Jax did a great job helping Daddy put it together.  He loved eating the candies, too.  I think more candies went in him tummy than on the house.  It's always a fun Christmas project for the three of us.