christmas 2013 {before 2013 is over!}

I was a horrible photographer this year, so I don't have much to show for it (except really I do because Ben took lots of video of the morning), but Christmas was lovely.

On Christmas Eve we baked cookies for Santa, wrapped some presents, went out for Chinese and to the first half of the Christmas Eve service (before Owen and Bob started getting too unruly), then home for some carols by candlelight before stories (The Night Before Christmas, The Spirit of Christmas, and the Jesus Storybook Bible) and bedtime.  Bob had been telling us for days that he was going to stay up all night and see Santa, or at the very least he'd hear footsteps and sneak downstairs in time to see him pop out of the fireplace, but by the time he was to his bed he was too exhausted to think about it.  There was a quick attempt at grabbing A Christmas Story (a super sweet book about Mary and Joseph's donkey's baby with gorgeous illustrations, by Brian Wildsmith) off the shelf after I left his room, but I caught him and he went straight to sleep.

our little elf left a couple of small gifts at the breakfast table on Christmas Eve...

 Owen kept tearing the paper into little bits even after the present had fallen out...

 Bob could use an entire roll of tape and bag of bows on a single gift if left to his own devices...

 play doh and pizza...

 baking cookies for santa...

Owen reading his fortune out loud (he likes to copy Bob and pretend he can read too)...

 our makeshift candlelight service, since we didn't last through until the lighting of the candles at church...

And then we had our traditional late night cousin Christmas Eve with Nate and Erica, where we eat and drink and play games and half-watch Elf and finish off the kids' gifts and set them up all cutely.  This year's game was a masterpiece made by yours truly for Bob and O's cardboard gift of the year - and it was a hit, for adults and littles alike.  (See pics at the end of the post.)  We painted a chalkboard race track on the coffee table, wrapped up the new hockey goals and sticks and balls, filled the stockings.  Stuck bows to the new step stools (red for Mario-Bob and green for Luigi-O), and set everything up just so under and around the Christmas tree.

We finally wrapped things up and said goodnight around 2:30am or so, and I was so exhausted I didn't even take a single photo of the scene.  But as tired as I was, I couldn't resist snapshots of my babes with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.  (Owen had already awoken and was nestled in our bed by now.)

I forget whether Bobby or Owen woke first, but much too early and not a moment too soon they were both climbing over and between us on the bed, and pulling presents and goodies out of their stockings on the "puppy bed" on the floor.

Eventually we lugged ourselves downstairs and started slowly picking through the present pile.  The boys were so sweet, wanting to play with each toy for a while before remembering there was more to open.  Us parent folk actually had to hurry things along a bit so we could get the turkey in the oven on time.  Yep, we hosted Christmas dinner in the log cabin.  What could be cuter?  The rest of the day is a blur of cooking, playing, relatives arriving and more presents, eating, chatting, and later on watching The Sing Off with Ben's mom and bro, in town for a Christmas visit.

my cousin jake picked up my camera and snagged this lovely shot of me climbing on the island trying to get the turkey out of the roasting pan...

 as promised, the mario bros game pics...

And then suddenly the next day I was back to scooping mac and cheese and portioning out nuggets.  But nonetheless, it was a beautiful holiday with so much to be thankful for.