A wonderful, wonder-filled, White Christmas!

This year we stayed at home for Christmas!! Since we had already celebrated with two of our three sets of parents (and weren't getting together with the third set until New Years), we were home for Christmas Eve and day. I've been wanting to be at home on Christmas morning since Jameston was born, something that Brett and I differ on. That's what makes the world go 'round, huh? We'll see what we do next year :-) 

This year, I feel like Jameston really took in all things that we did in preparation for Christmas. We started an advent calendar this year,

found our Elf on the Shelf (named "Monkey Elf" like last year) every morning, 

and, of course, we decorated a (store-bought; Aldi's) gingerbread house

 

He was mainly concerned about eating it, as all kids are I suppose :-)

We also "wrote" our letter to Santa (he is REALLY into coloring/painting/all-things-art-related right now, so we had fun)

And mailed it at a local Macy's

This was Jameston's first year to be a part of the Christmas program at church. Our little star:

And his buddy, Emmie. They did great, even though their part was toward the end and they were the youngest participants!

These are out of order, oh well...The weekend after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas around the house. It is really hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is in the 70's outside. But we tried our best! And drank "cold chocolate" instead of hot...he couldn't believe Mommy was letting him drink milk in his pj's!

Blake was a cute little helper!

JW was OBSESSED with the tree/ornaments this year. Luckily he wanted to "help" me (i.e., rearrange) with the ornaments for only a few days after we put the tree up!

Sweet brothers in matching pj's!

And Blake, at 7+ months old, was obsessed with the lights and tree, as to be expected! I'm just glad he wasn't crawling yet :-)

My boys!

Trying to get Christmas sweater pictures with these two was almost impossible. Love that they love each other so much!

My favorite of our little post-church photo sessions:

Before the snowstorm hit, we had some nice weather, and Brett was home a lot, which we all enjoyed! Going on a walk around the hood (crazy that Boomer looks almost a big as the wagon!)

Me and the crew!

We have a fun cold-weather hat collection going at our house!

Christmas Eve we spent at home, just taking it easy. I cooked a full meal (ham, broccoli-rice casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, bread and bought a pecan pie), and we opened one gift that night. I was so excited to have them wake up in our house Christmas morning! Here are their stockings stocked!

Jameston was pumped about Santa's visits, although we had to wake him up that morning :-)

Checking out his "big" gift, some new CARS!

Blake loved his Baby Einstein treasure chest...but he probably would have loved an empty box, too!

Sharing is not a problem...right now, at least

One of Jameston's favorites from all of Christmas? A new cup...it's the little things!

I love the dog hat I found on Etsy for Blake. Like I said, hats galore!

 Jameston putting his new toy into action!

Blake kept playing peek-a-boo with the box

Daddy's favorite new toy of Jameston's: Lincoln Logs!

Jameston also LOVES his new guitar, from Mommy and Daddy. He loves to sing an "play!"

We had a WHITE Christmas for the third time in four years (in Texas?! I know, crazy!) Blake was not impressed with his first snow:

Jameston, on the other hand, ate it up! When we woke up from his afternoon nap to see there was snow everywhere, we could not get him bundled up fast enough so he could go outside!

Throwing snowballs at Mommy!

Sledding with Daddy (and Boomer) on a trashcan lid...didn't work as well as we expected!

Brett even took him to a small hill in our neighborhood so that he could go on a "real sled" that the older kids in the 'hood had. But Mommy and Blake were back inside, so no pictures to show for it :-(

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas, and Jameston has already begun his countdown until December!

Christmas, round two

The weekend before Christmas, we headed to Wichita Falls to see my sister and her family. The oldest of the cousins had a great time like everyone else.

Making silly faces at Sevi's Burritos Shop

And running off some pre-nap energy at the Fantasy of Lights display

The littlest ones took their afternoon naps at home, while Lynnlee and I took our oldest kiddos on an afternoon "date" to lunch and then to see Christmas lights. We had so much fun!

Jameston and me in front of the Peter Pan display:

Santa's little helpers

Winning! They both were too excited to see each other about about the night's festivities that they told us they didn't want to take a nap. We put on "Rudolph" and they were out like a light within 20 minutes!

That night we exchanged gifts. Lynnlee and Thomas' beautiful gals, Aspen (almost 3) and Josie (6 weeks)

cousins!

Bright-eyed and awake, Josie girl!

Brothers both infatuated with the tree

These two LOVE each other so!

Again, Blake with the paper :-)

It was a short trip, but we had a blast with my sister's crew!

Christmas 2012, round one

We headed to Austin the first weekend of December to celebrate Christmas with Brett's family. Aunt Kayla, who now lives in Seattle, came in that weekend, so Blake was sure to get in a lot of time with her!

(Great) Memaw was in from west Texas as well, and her great-grandkids had a grand ole time hanging out with her!

These four adore each other! Riley, Layne, Ruby and Jameston

Little boy wonder

Blake was in the festive spirit!

We ventured out to Marble Falls for their Walkway of Lights display

And it did not disappoint!

The six Winters' cousins (with another on the way this summer)!

Our little family

That night we had our Christmas for the kiddos. Best group shot I got from my angle!

Our boys

Blake LOVED everything about it. He was a ham!

And, of course, Jameston loved opening presents. He was so courteous, though, and wanted others to open theirs before he opened his (for every Christmas celebration we had, and we had four separate ones)!

Helping little brother

They received winter hats from their cousins/aunt & uncle. Mommy's favorite gift, as we have gotten a lot of use out of them (and compliments as well :-)

Big Cousin Riley (6) wrote Jameston (and Layne) letters for Christmas. So sweet!

The weather that weekend was BEAUTIFUL and in the upper 60's. Perfect sand-hill and tricycle time outside for the older kids!

After two full days of fun, we headed home. This little guy had so much fun he fell asleep not 30 minutes down the road!

And Blake was a great little traveler for us! Until next year (oh wait, I have three more Christmas posts to write :-)