Christmas Part I

The week of Christmas was a busy one! Ben had PTO still left at the end of the year so he was mostly off the whole week of Christmas (although work did hijack at least a few hours every day). One snowy night we met my parents up at Christmas Village in Ogden. The boys ran enthusiastically from one display to the next, usually yelling out "Come on guys! Let's run!" from Hudson. That place is so cute and magical, one of my very favorite Christmas activities! My parents treated us to pizza afterwards. It was super delicious, but pretty slow, leading to Hudson repeatedly yelling in the waitress' direction "Where's the FOOD" and then saying "Papa, waiting is hard!" 

 We have had so much gorgeous snow this year, which made Christmas time extra magical! We went sledding one day in my parent's backyard. My dad, Kate and Nora joined us and it was so cute and fun. Nora and Huds are more fair weather sledders, while Chase could go all day (in Hudson's defense, it is hard work to trek back up to the top of the hill over and over).

 Christmas Eve started with a gingerbread house making party. Both boys ate copious amounts of candy in the process and all the houses turned out so cute and fun!

We went home for naps (Hudson needed it) and then headed back up to my parents for more Christmas celebrating. Christmas Eve is also my mom's birthday so she opened her gifts (my favorite was when Chase handed her ours and said "Here Nana, it's a calendar") and played a bunch of fun Christmas themed games. We watched the video I put together of our year and took a family photo. Then we settled in for our candlelight dinner. We've done this every Christmas Eve for 24 years and it is by far my favorite family tradition. Even with two wild children, the glow of the tree and candlelight, surrounded by love and family, just radiates Christmas spirit like nothing else. I got a little misty eyed looking around at my family, filled with so much gratitude that we were all there together! 

After dinner we acted out the nativity with puppets- Chase at this point was super wild and less than reverent, but it was fun and festive. Then, since Will, Katie and Nora will be with Kate's family tomorrow we let the boys exchange gifts with Nora. They were super excited to give her the playdough they picked out (which she promptly sat on, someday she'll figure out what you actually do with it) and were super excited to receive The Incredibles from her (and then Chase recapped the show quickly for everyone. There is a mom who goes on a trip with her evil friend and there is a nice robot who is actually a mean robot. He hasn't seen it in at least a year so I think the details were a little fuzzy for him.) Then all the kids got gifts from Nana and Papa. My mom, as usual, really came through for the grandkids, and the boys were so excited to open each gift from her (clothes, puzzles, CandyLand) and then were SUPER excited for their main gifts- a big crane for Hudson and Chase's much anticipated backhoe loader! (It's possible that Santa already had his shopping done when the boys asked Santa for these toys- so Nana to the rescue!) They could have sat and played with their toys all night- but we needed to head home to bed so Santa could come!