Sunday, December 29, 2013

Christmas Eve and Morning | 2013

After arriving back "home" (my parent's house) on Christmas Eve, we read the story of Jesus's birth and also The Night Before Christmas at the table while the boys had a quick snack. Then, they changed into their Santa PJ's and came downstairs to pick out some of their Christmas cookies to leave out for Santa.

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They each carefully carried their plates over to the coffee table.

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Ethan also insisted on leaving out some carrots for the reindeer...something I always did as a kid.

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Their stockings were ready to be filled and cookies ready to be eaten...and they were ready for bed after an exciting day.

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Fast forward to Christmas morning. This was the first year that Ethan got up and went downstairs to have a look before he woke us up. He felt kind of bad about it for a couple of seconds, but he kept the surprises from Logan. We had them wait on the steps for about two minutes until we could get all of our cameras ready.

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Then we set them free to find what Santa had left for them.

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Logan had asked for a blue dump truck (which Santa could not find...at all). I guess he brought a green one instead since that is Logan's favorite color. Logan loved it, although he did mention that he asked for a blue truck. But that was all he said!

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Ethan asked Santa for a stuffed polar bear and a barn with animals. And that is exactly what he got. Plus some fun things in his stocking like two new cars, which is always exciting.

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Logan pulled out a Backyardigans DVD from his stocking. He got a couple of cars too.

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And they each got a "mini Duke." A little puppy stuffed animal that looks just like our Duke.

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Ethan is finding out just how soft his stuffed polar bear is.

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Besides a dump truck, Logan also asked for a sled/sleigh, which is in the lower left of the photo below. Santa brought him Kristoff's sled being pulled by Sven and with Anna and Olaf tagging along as passengers. Santa hit a home run with that one because Frozen is BIG in our house right now.

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Apparently Santa is really generous because he went ahead and stuffed the stockings that Mimi has for the boys too. They got some fun things in there too...like Mickey pajamas, which might just come in handy for their next surprise.

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Our gift to the boys was "wrapped" in two new suitcases, which had each of their names on them. A blue one for Ethan and a green one for Logan. Their favorite colors respectively. And you can see what they pulled out. Mickey balloons! (Which daddy and Pop painstakingly aired up the night before...quite the process and not as easy as it might look.) The balloons were the first clues to their gift from Mommy and Daddy this year.

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The next clue was a plane "ticket" that I had made in Photoshop with their names on it and our real departure date...for our trip to Disneyland!!! Woohoo! I can say with confidence that I am WAY more excited about this than the boys... and they are super excited. We are going in May and we have a countdown calendar to keep track of the days until we leave.

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The next few gifts all relate to our trip and are just small things. Logan unwraps the first one...

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A t-shirt to wear on the plane, which will be the first plane ride for both of them. (Well, Ethan flew to Colorado with us when he was 2 months old, but I doubt he remembers much from that flight.)

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This doesn't really relate to our trip, but our other gift was tickets to the Disney Junior LIVE show. We went on December 29 (today) and it was a HUGE hit. They absolutely loved it.

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After the boys opened their Santa gifts, and their gifts from me and Casey, it was time for breakfast! Christmas breakfast is always a favorite for me. We always have some sort of egg bake or casserole. This year we had two different quiches and they were both amazing. We always have sausage balls (a favorite), fruit, and some kind of coffee or cinnamon cake. Yum!

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Dad made mimosas this year, which paired perfectly with our breakfast feast.

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Christmas Day, here we come!

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