Christmas Day 2012

Cookies we set out for Santa   He ate almost all but the sugar cookie was still there with a bite taken out.

This picture does not really do justice to the fact that it was 2:52 AM when Braxton woke us up to do Christmas.  Lets be honest I couldn't sleep anyway so it didn't matter to me one bit what time it was, but that is insanely early in the morning.  Santa barely escaped before they were already awake.  I remember when I was a kid we would go out and sort all the gifts into piles, fall asleep on the living room floor, and wait and wait for mom and dad to wake up.  Well Shane's rules are that Christmas has to be done in the dark.  For years we woke up the boys about 6:00 so it would still be dark.  Well, now that the true excitement is inside everyone, there is no protesting from anyone.  We get up when the first kid comes in our room.  It is early, but we had the whole family back to bed by 5:00 so it wasn't too bad.  Then Mom, Dad, Tara, and Troy came over for the annual Christmas Breakfast.  Yum!

The theme of this Christmas seemed to be sharing and getting along.  Each kid got one toy and the rest of the gifts said family.  It was also an electronic free year for us.  Santa said that we are spending way to much time "nerding out" as we call it, so everyone got toys, games, KNEX, and a new pool/basketball/ping pong table to put upstairs.  Many necessities were received this year also: Coats, Jackets, Shoes, Clothes, Socks, Undies, etc. 

I guess Santa knows Cameron's obsession with Avocados because he got one in his stocking.

Yeah, we got snow for Christmas.  We haven't had any this year so far, we are so happy that we got some to play in and go sledding in.  It is a little dry for snowmen yet, but hopefully later in the year.  The temperature around here has been in the single digits, SOOO COLD, so I am hoping for more snow to force out the freezing temperatures.
Shane was able to have off the entire Christmas break this year.  We spent some great time together as a family.  We had lots of parties with both sides of the family, went sledding two times, went to Toads to play Laser Tag, had breakfast at our favorite joint Bella's, played lots of board games, and got a couple of Red Box movies.  Shane snuck out for his annual Playstation fest with his brothers.  Out till 2:30 am, crazy but they have a good time.  So I snuck out to a movie Les Miserables with the sister-in-laws and Tara.  It was a lot of singing but really good show.  I love making memories with those that we love!