Christmas 2014

We ended up being very busy the week of Christmas. So much to do and so little time to fit it all in. Monday we spent the day visiting friends and Grandma in Hollister. That night grandma babysat the boys while we went to Dave's work party.
Tuesday I spent the whole day in the kitchen baking. It ended up being way more work then I realized to finish up all the baking I wanted done for Christmas. I started off by baking a cheesecake for Christmas dinner. Then I made some Oreo Truffles as a dessert for the Christmas eve gathering at Grandma Dickson's. Then finally I started on the sugar cookies I had promised Nathan we would bake and decorate. by the time we were all done it was  an hour past the boys bed time. Next year I will have to plan a little better.

 Brady only lasted until he put a small amount on this star cookie and then he ate it and was done. Nathan last almost the whole time and between the two of us we got all the cookies decorated.

Wednesday The boys and I spent the morning grocery shopping and just hanging out until it was time to head to Sunnyvale for Christmas eve. My Christmas present from Dave arrived just before we needed to leave so we headed over to the store first to pick up my new phone. Of course I took some really great pictures at Grandma's and then when I transferred all the data from the old phone to the new one that night, it deleted them all. But we all had a great time. We started off enjoying the talent show by some of the younger grand kids. Then it was time for the nativity. Photo credits to Annette. Luckily I was able to get a few off of her blog(hope that was ok).

After the Nativity  everyone enjoyed the fish pond. The kids love fishing for their gifts from Grandpa and Grandma.
                                            All the guys modeling their Giant's shirts

                                           All the girl cousins with our in a Pikle bags.

 Once everyone had fished it was time for Christmas Jammies. Then we headed home so we could get the boys to bed at a decent hour. Before bed though Nathan put out milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.

Santa arrived late that night once the boys were asleep. And spent hours setting up the boys new Cars track table.

Luckily for us the boys slept until 7:30, and their reactions were priceless.

Brady has been obsessed with the Hulk for the past several months.Every time he sees him on tv, at the store, etc, he gets excited and says "Hulk Smash". Santa brought him some Hulk gloves. It didn't take him long to getting the idea down.

For breakfast we had eggs and the traditional sour cream twists, yum! Then we spent the rest of the day in Hollister visiting family.
Merry Christmas!

Winter Program

Today was Nathan's last day of school for the year. They spent the whole day playing and having fun. The morning started off with their Winter Program. The Kindergarten Classes sang "Merry Christmas". About an hour later I came back to school to help kindergarten and first grade with gingerbread houses. Sometime during the morning Santa came to their classroom. Nathan was super excited(and I was surprised) to come home with a toy guitar. Not sure when schools started giving gifts to the children, but it sure made them happy.
                                                       Curtains opening, ready to perform.

 

                                            Excited to start on the gingerbread houses

  Brady discovered this giant pile of marshmallows and kept going back for more.

                                              Happy to be chowing down on sugar.

Santa and Firetrucks

Saturday was a busy day for us. For some reason it was the day for Christmas activities. We started off the day by going to Nathan's school for Breakfast with Santa.

  Brady wanted nothing to do with Santa, until he was offered a candy cane. Then he made himself nice and comfortable on Santa's lap.

 

They also had a craft table set up for the kids. Nathan had fun creating his own gingerbread man.

After we were done we headed straight for Grandma Dickson's home for her annual grand kid Christmas party. We had a great time eating pizza and visiting with family. After lunch the firemen showed up and all the kids got to give the firemen toys for them to give to needy children. Nathan loved getting in the truck this year, Brady was not so excited.

After the party we headed home stopping at a couple stores to finish up some Christmas shopping. Once we got home Dave took the boys down to the local fire station while I started on dinner. Every year at the Fire station they do a tree lighting with Santa. Nathan got to check out more fire trucks. no pictures, but it was a great way to end the day.

O Christmas Tree

Friday after Thanksgiving we spent sometime in town and while we were there we stopped a the Christmas tree lot to pick out one for the house. Dave went immediately to the biggest fullest tree on the lot. Of course I thought it was the perfect tree but wasn't sure if we needed such a big tree. But Dave insisted that it would be perfect because we have 10 foot ceilings and this was the one holiday I went all out for and I should get what I wanted. He didn't have to twist my arm to much and soon we were on our way home with the beautiful tree.
The plan was to start decorating it that night but after putting on the lights we had I realized I would need to buy a few more strands to cover the whole thing. Saturday evening I finished putting lights on the tree and Nathan was excited to finally get to decorate the tree. It took us until Sunday to finally finish placing the last ornament. I think it turned out beautiful.

                            

               Not sure what these crazy faces are for, but this was the best shot I had with both boys.

           Nathan wanted to try and take some pictures with my camera. These last two pictures are his. Not bad, maybe he has a future in photography.