And Then There Was Christmas

It's taken me forever to post these pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day because my dumb picassa uploader hasn't been working.  Frustrating.  And then I decided to try and get some more photos from Jacob and his mom but gave up that idea.  So, you get a pretty limited selection here.  I didn't take many photos.

We went to Cabela's on Christmas Eve day with Jacob's parents and sister and her family.  It was fun.  But Grandma Brunson probably has better photos of the adventure.

And this is the picture of the lost shoe.  See how Ben only has on shoe on.  That's because he stuck his foot through the fence and then it popped off, into the display area, when he tried to pull his foot back through.  That was awesome!  I tracked down a worker and while we waited for the maintenance crew, some teenage boy took matters into his own and and hopped the fence to retrieve the shoe.

After Cabela's we went by Scheel's.  Isaac and I rode the Ferris wheel and those photos are on Jacob's phone and Grandma's camera.  I'll see if I can get them later.  I'm sure they are awesome.

We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with Jacob's family.  It was sure nice of Rachel to host us all in her new apartment.  Grandma chose to sit at the kids table.  I was grateful for a chance not to have to worry too much about my kids during a meal. Thanks Grandma!

After dinner and some time playing we let Isaac and Ben open their Christmas pjs.  

And then we tried our best to get a good picture of all three kiddos in their Christmas pjs.  It was comical.  As you can tell from the header of my blog, the picking the nose and giving stink eye, was the best brother shot I got.  Cute Ruby knows how to pose though.  Look at those little hands clasped together.  Cute.

We then shared the nativity story accompanied by holding up the right figures from the wood block nativity set we made for Rachel and family.

And after that it was time for the traditional Brunson reading of "The Magic Curtain."  I love Isaac holding Grandma's hand.

We then packed up the kiddos and drove back to my parents house.  I thought for sure Isaac would fall asleep on the car ride home but no chance.  He was so excited he actually talked for the whole 30-40 minute drive.  Non-stop.  It was funny.  But it made getting things ready a little late.  I was certainly tired.

But here it all is laid out the night before.

And the next morning...

They boys were happy.  Santa brought stockings and new books.  Mom and Dad gave tools and cars to Ben and Isaac got tools and train tracks to add to his ever growing collection.

I love this rare photo of my mom reading to Isaac.  Isaac talked for days after we got home about missing his grandparents.  He keeps telling me he wants to go back to my "grandma's house."  He can't seem to grasp that his grandma is my mom.  I'm sure that's a hard concept.

I also like the picture of grandpa getting in on the train playing action.

Later that day we said goodbye to my side of the family and headed up to SLC again to see more of Jacob's family.  These little cousins enjoyed each other's company.

And more presents were opened.  (If you are wondering about Isaac's pjs, this was the only accident he had all week in Utah and it's the only time I didn't have extra clothes in my bag.  Oops.  So we did a quick rinse in the sink and threw his clothes in the dryer just in time for dinner at Jacob's uncle's home.  And for any who are curious or can offer help...he's back to daily accidents again.  And now the m&m's on the fridge aren't working.  I'm out of ideas and really out of patience.  What I'm full of is frustration and apparently tears today.  Blah!)

I also really love this picture of Grandpa Brunson and the boys because if you look close you'll see that Grandpa is wearing one of Ruby's necklaces.  Awesome.

All in all it was a really fun Christmas and Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed the time we had with both sides of the family.  It was our first year having to split time and I think it went really well.  And don't worry, I have lots more pictures from our trip to share in other posts.  

But before that, here are some things I really want to remember about this Christmas season with our cute boys.

Isaac was so excited to see Santa.  He was certain that we had to go "to town" to see Santa because of the "Santa Clause is coming to town" song.  Good thing we were able to go downtown to see Santa.  I think he thought that was good.  

After watching A Charlie Brown Christmas Isaac was certain that he needed to write a letter to Santa.  I did help him write one but I didn't try and get it in the mail.  The letter was pretty simple, something about wanting a hammer for Christmas I'm sure.

I had been talking to Jacob about going to a local nursery, Bath Nursery, to see live reindeer that they bring in for the holidays.  I then asked Isaac if he thought he'd like to go to Bath Nursery to see some reindeer.  He excitedly asked "What's bath nursery?"  He didn't care so much about the reindeer he was more interested in what this bath nursery was all about.  I'm sure he was thinking of his church nursery class all having a really good time in a big bath.  And that probably would be awesome!

We put up the Christmas decorations Saturday and had left the tree for Sunday.  When we picked Isaac up from nursery he was inviting all his nursery leaders over to our house to see our decorations.  He thought they were ultra amazing, apparently.  

Ben loved all the fun things we did this year.  He was really cute about saying "ho ho ho."  He learned it from Isaac playing Santa.  He had turned a bin over and gotten a stuffed reindeer to pull his sleigh.  Ben thought it looked fun and hopped on behind Isaac.  Isaac started saying "ho ho ho" and Ben followed suit.  Initially Ben would only say "ho ho ho" when he was sitting on a bin but he soon learned to associate it with Santa.  It was so funny to see him sitting on a box saying "ho ho ho."

Ben also really liked the music from the polar express.  Especially the "hot chocolate" song.  Jacob started doing a little dance and singing that song and Ben could not get enough.  He was laugh and laugh.  Then, when we were putting the boys to bed that night Jacob started doing the dance again.  I left Jacob talking to Isaac while I headed into Ben's room to put him to bed.  Ben started bouncing in my arms and saying "hot chocolate."  No one ever have known that's what he was saying, but it was.  He would say it every time Jacob sang that song and danced.  Awesome!

It was really fun having these two cuties around this Christmas.