So it was Christmas....

I am sitting on my couch at 2:00 pm on Christmas Day typing up this post. All three of my boys are napping upstairs and I'm feeling so full of peace and joy today. This peace and joy comes from the reason for the season- my Savior Jesus Christ. I feel so incredibly blessed to have a testimony of Him and His life and mission on earth. And I feel so thankful that because of Him, I get to be with these beautiful boys of mine forever!

Christmas has been magical this year. I haven't been in any hurry for the 25th to come, not because we weren't ready (I had shopping pretty much done by the first week in December) but because there have just been too many fun things to do this season! Seeing the lights, shopping and wrapping gifts, little Christmas art projects, listening to Christmas music and Chase's constant requests to sing carols, acting out the Nativity with his little finger puppets, attending Christmas parties and watching the beautiful snow fall. 

We had Christmas Eve dinner up at my parents house. It was beautiful as always. We had a simple meal by candlelight- which confused Chase at first, but he ended up deciding it was fun. 

 I love spending time with family. Last weekend we had a big family party with the White side, which was amazing. On Monday night we all went out to an amazing dinner and to see ELF the musical in Salt Lake, which was a blast. Pretty much anything we do with these people is fun.

 After dinner we headed home to put our tired and grumpy Hudson to bed. Then everyone else came to our house and we had dessert and watched The Muppet Christmas Carol and played games. My favorite moment of the night was Heidi's comment of "I'm more deadweight in this game than I thought I would be..." and then she answered a super hard question correctly for the win for our team :)

Ben made these "Santa footprints" in the carpet-
(and later when asked about certain toys Chase would say,
"Santa brought them for me. I saw his footprints.")

 The boys piles-

and the much anticipated combine Chase asked Santa for.

 Christmas morning was so fun! We had to prod Chase along in the opening process. Once he saw the combine and the construction toys Santa brought, he didn't really care to open anything else! Of course, he did open other presents, and seemed really excited about them, but always went right back to playing with the combine and his little "big machines." Hudson, on the other hand, was particularly psyched to find sippy cups in his stocking- along with white onesies, baby food, and clothes. He did get that little bead/wire toy in the background which he really liked.

 Hudson's clear favorite though was this little rocking caterpillar he got from Papa and Nana. He stayed on this thing for the rest of the present opening (which Hudson didn't really get at all) and happily rocked away and chewed on the antenna. It was pretty darling!

My parents and Heidi had come down to to watch the boys open their stockings and had breakfast with us. After they left I got a little nap and the boys played away with their new toys. It was so fun to see the excitement Christmas brought to Chase!

Later on we went to my parents house for Christmas dinner. My mom made a beautiful meal, which we all enjoyed, even Chase although he burst into tears when I put the green beans on his plate. (Christmas excitement = poor napping and ridiculous tantrums). After dinner we settled down to play Trivial Pursuit as a family- but Chase and Kate had this little Mickey Mouse board game going on the side.

That night when we put the boys to bed Ben and I both had huge smiles on our faces- this was the best Christmas yet. Having little ones on Christmas- especially a little one as excited and truly thankful as Chase- was just the best. We are sure thankful for these amazing little boys!