Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 was a good one around here.

It involved mostly staying in town, a quick trip to Chicago (more on that soon), visiting grandparents and a change of pace for our family.

Over our break we had a few fun dinners at GiGi and PaPas house...

The "club" decided to have a campout.  PaPa might have holes in his socks but he's the coolest "Club President" and grandpa I know.

A few years ago my parents pranked us by leaving a giant inflatable polar bear in our front yard on Christmas Eve (this is a prank because giant inflatable animals with Santa caps don't exactly jive with our understated Christmas decor...no offence to anyone ;)).  The kids were ecstatic to discover this giant white bear and named him "Toby the Bear."  He is now one of the highlights of Christmas. 

This year Toby took a journey back to his original owners.  Wes and I executed a covert operation in which Toby was staked smack dab in front of my parents new house.  I think he only lasted a hour until my mom happened upon Toby's extension cord and swiftly removed him from their yard.

We knew the retaliation would be brutal...

The Christmas Eve gathering at our house was just getting started when there was a knock on the door...
Toby was back and had brought a few friends!  My mom read a poem to the kids about how Toby got lost and found some friends to help him journey back home...it was hilarious and the kids believed every word :)

Santa (at the mall) had told the kids that his favorite cookies were sugar with frosting and sprinkles so we made some for him...YUM, Santa realllllly enjoyed them :)

Finally Christmas morning came!!! Despite a 5am wake up call from Strat we managed to delay the gift opening until 6:15am.  Toby the Bear, his new buddies and a lot of Natalie and Strat's stuffed animals had gathered around the presents in the night ;)

The kids had a ball!!!

One of the biggest hits was the last gift opened from Santa...

Old School Nintendo...Mario Cart has not gotten old yet ;)

So much fun playing with new toys

MiMi came over for brunch

And then we played some more....

Strat got going on his new bike without hesitation

Oliver just took it all in :)

Sweet baby's first Christmas!!

After afternoon rest time it was off to GiGi and PaPas where Santa had apparently made one more stop for the kiddos! 

We missed uncle Matt and Aunt RiRi...thanks for the fun toys! Oliver especially likes his new octopus.

PaPa put together stellar gifts for the kids...can't beat a basin, surgical masks and materials for a dressing change :)  Amazing.

We had a lovely dinner at my moms (thank you thank you) and headed home for the night. 

Later that week we got to spend the afternoon with some of our best buddies...Rach and Cory were in Michigan all the way from Austin, TX...It was a tease to see them for an afternoon but we will take what we can get!  Addie and Natalie used to see each other almost everyday when there were babies in Chicago...It was cute to see how they have grown!

It was a great Christmas...So much to be thankful for...especially the BEST gift of all...Jesus.