CHRISTMAS!

We had such a great Christmas! We battled some sickness (Jake had a fever, cold, and even threw up once on Christmas Eve night, but thankfully the throwing up was more of a "fluke"). The sickness kept us "in" .... BUT didn't keep us from having FUN! I've mentioned that things have been a little different the past 2 months - just with being in a furnished condo and not having our own things ... and only having 1 vehicle ... and basically having the deployment loom over us, BUT I am beyond THANKFUL for the family time that we have had. I wouldn't trade any of that. I am thankful we were all together for Christmas - and made some special memories.

With that being said .... Christmas morning was CRRAAAZY with the boys. Good crazy, but crazy! I'm not sure the boys took a breath during all the present opening and excitement. Phew. I'm still tired thinking about it, but it makes my heart happy to think about all the cheers and smiles!! Here is a taste of our Christmas morning.

First ... our Christmas Eve meal ... :-)

Oh so YUM! Wish this food was in front of me again right now!
Christmas morning !!! The Angry Bird back packs were the "stockings" this year.

Daddy reading Jake the note Santa left for the boys.
The ONLY items not wrapped were the pirate ship for Cole and the Mac car carry case for Jake. The FUNNY thing is ... both boys ran out - and ran to the opposite toys (Jake, the pirate ship ... and Cole, the Mac truck). It just made me laugh :-) They pretty much share everything anyway.

Never before has anyone been SO EXCITED about underwear. Good job, Santa!





Pop the Pig Game ... the MAIN thing Jake wanted Santa to bring him (video below). Thank goodness Santa came through :-)





Smurfs :-)

Pretty excited about the Eagles jersey .... although, we're starting to think it should've been a Tebow jersey ;-)



Despite the face, he was loving the pirate ship!

Angry Birds game :-)









Angry Birds blankets :-)






Yay - Chris's kindle!!
A travel mug from the boys with their pictures on it.


Tebowing with his new mug.
Dog tags from the boys for Chris to take to Afghanistan ....
This was my gift from Chris - and kind of made me laugh (because I don't wear perfume ever), BUT ... the real gift was diamond earrings :-) I'm loved!
Christmas Brunch!
Playing Pop the Pig!

You can't tell, but the boys are racing their Matre and Lightning McQueen race cars w/ their remotes.

Playing Angry Birds


Puzzle Time!





Christmas Dinner .... compliments of Aubra who sent us Corky's BBQ. We're thinking this may be our new Christmas tradition meal!
Who knows?!

And the BIGGEST deal of the day was celebrating Jesus's birthday! We are thankful for the TRUE meaning of the season - and never want to lose sight of that - even with all of the commercialism that follows this season around. We are thankful for the LIGHT and HOPE He brought to the world all those years ago.


Pop the Pig action ... :-)

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas ... and 2012 is a great year for all!!