Christmas Memories- Part Three: The Best Gift of All

On Christmas morning, the first thing we open is our baby Jesus. We wrap him up and put him on the altar for the kids to find in the morning time. The kids love finding baby Jesus and take turns kissing him and singing to him. We then enthrone him in our advent wreath. We love how this sets the stage for Christmas morning. BECAUSE God loved us so much, he gave us the ultimate gift, the gift of his son. On Christmas morning, we imitate this giving of gifts to show our love for each other. (PS - Henry is puckering up for a big wet one in his picture.)

Christmas Memories- Part Two: Christmas Eve

Can you tell we were excited?


The kids went to bed in their Christmas outfits; with the plan to wake them up to go to Midnight Mass!


We didn't know how the kids would do being woken up in the middle of the night, but they did great! First they slept on us on the way to the car...

...After waking, they then stayed up till 2am!!! We thought that they would pass back out in Mass, but the didn't. In fact, they were one of the only kids awake! When we took our seats they were delirious, goofy but quite happy! Everything made them laugh. This didn't last the whole time, but they were still very good for being at a solemn high mass (read: 2 hours+) in the middle of the night. They were so awake when we got home from Mass that we thought we'd let them go ahead and open up a present. They were so excited to see the Christmas tree all dressed up (Jason and I wait until Christmas Eve when the kids go to sleep to decorate it) and got busy exploring the presents.

After playing for a while, we put the kids in their PJs and settled down to bed.

Christmas Memories- Part One: Setting the Stage

While it didn't snow on Christmas, we technically did have a white Christmas. This is what is looked like outside...


Beautiful huh? I still am scared to drive in it...

Making Our Gingerbread House

Margaret Mary counted down the days till Papa was off from work so she could make the gingerbread house that Grandad sent us. She was so excited about making a house; she was MOST excited about making a door to the house. She was insistent that her house have a door. When it came time to decorate, she was a pro. Jason used the icing to make designs and MM placed her precious candy on them. She calls it her "Elizabeth" house. We aren't sure if thats because she learned about St. Elizabeth on her Jesse tree the day before, or if "Elizabeth" is just her way of saying gingerbread.

Mommy Son Pictures

Thanks Jason for capturing these! Henry is as joyful and fun as he is hard to figure out. He's a challenge that we love (and that makes for one tired mama at the end of the day).

Negg-Nog

Drinking "Negg Nog" with papa is quickly becoming one of Margaret Mary's favorite seasonal activities. (She has the un-spiked version of course!). I love the little mustache it gives her and can't help but snap away.

Fun with Camera: Random Pics

I got a wonderful camera as an early Christmas present (a Nikon d40). There is def a learning curve, but we (Jason and I) are having a lot of fun figuring things out. I love the way I'm able to capture my children; the camera snaps away fast enough to capture their crazy facial expressions.

What is the sweetest is how much of the family helped out in getting me this great gift. Everyone pitched in. Tammy hunted down the perfect camera on craigslist, haggled the price, and helped with the funding, to which my parents also helped greatly!, and Martin went, picked it up, wrapped it up and then shipped it. I love it so much and am having so much fun taking pictures. It is the PERFECT Christmas present. Thank you so much everyone, I love it! (if i haven't already said that enough :) ). Much, much more pictures to come!

Go Jason!

I couldn't get it in the shot, but DEANS LIST is posted on the left side of the letter! So proud of you Jason!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

What we woke up to on Thursday Morning! It really only snowed about eight inches, but the snow plow pushed it all onto our front porch, making it look pretty dramatic!

My sweet boy is finally getting used to the cold. He now loves the snow and makes a mad dash for the front door whenever it is open, even if he is just in a diaper. We let him "escape" outside the other day to see how far he would get, and he started screaming real fast once his bare feet touched the snow.

Margaret Mary LOVES this dress and asks to wear it all day whenever we are home. It's a great spinning dress, which is what she does ALL DAY LONG.

"Papa's Home!" snuggles. Margaret Mary's favorite part of the day, well... all of our favorite part of the day! I'm still learning to use my AMAZING new camera, (more posts on that later), and I find that when I take a sideways picture, my hand covers up the flash. This pic still turned out sweet though.

Winter Wonderland

filled with lots of geese poop...

Me: Baby, walk toward the geese.
MM: No! They will bite me.

Its true. The geese around here are vicious.

Family Walks

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Now that we all have snow boots (although no one has them on in these pics), family walks are becoming very common around here. There's a lot of hand holding (Henry is still a bit unstable in the snow), some skipping ahead ("Mama, Papa, Look at me!"), crisp air, and good times. When Jason isn't running on the ice trying to scare me, its very relaxing!

Heres to...

...eating strawberries in paper boxes. Apparently, life can't get any better!

The Nutcracker

Jason and Margaret Mary go on papa/daughter dates all the time. They go to movies, to get ice cream, go on walks, etc. It is a time that both of them treasure. Tonight, they got dressed up and headed off to see the Nutcracker at a beautiful opera house here in Denver. I can't wait to hear how to the night went! My parents took me to the Nutcracker regularly as a little girl and the whole experience was so surreal. The fancy performance hall, everyone in their best clothes, the gingerbread cookies for sale, but most of all, the dancing was amazing. Margaret Mary LOVES ballet and counts down the days till she is old enough (3) to take ballet lessons, or go to "ballet class" as she calls it. I know she will be captivated by what she sees! I've told Jason to take copious notes so he can fill me in on her reaction to everything. Here's hoping for a beautiful night!

(We decided not to take John Henry as we have had some really bad experiences lately keeping him out past his bedtime...)

Trying to get a good Christmas Picture