Santa 2013

For the 3rd year in a row we took Deuce to see Santa at the Chesapeake Square Mall in Virginia. He was so excited and immediately asked for a set of Tennessee Football Men. Check out the past pictures with Santa: 2011 and 2012. It's amazing to look back and see how much he's changed (and how he refused to sit with Santa back in 2011 and looked so little in that same big green chair!)

Christmas Eve 2012.

This will be my last Christmas 2012 post.

Promise.

I mean it is almost Valentine's Day after all...

We had family and friends over for Christmas Eve again this year.

It was awesome.

My dad came in from Virginia and spent the night with us.

This was a first.

And I think it was one of the best Christmas' I've ever had.

We ate dinner.

Drank some drinks.

And wrote our letters to Santa.

I was lame and didn't use my good camera. Sorry.

 These boys are like brothers.

I hope they stay that way forever.

 They fight and cry when they don't get their way.

Like when there are 500 crayons but they want the one that Chase has.

 We really enjoy the true meaning of the holidays and all feel so thankful that we had this time together when it's over.

 My mom and sister love being with the boys. They helped decorate cookies.

And our stomach's hurt from laughing so hard.

Deuce would decorate his cookie and then eat it.

It took us about 3 cookies in to make him realize the cookies were for Santa.

 Chase used an entire bottle of sprinkles and probably got about 5 on his cookie.

Hil.A.Rious.

  Alfie, our Elf, supervised their behavior to report back to Santa.

 They each got to open one gift.

 And were beyond excited to have matching PJ's.

I'm sure Austin and TJ will love having this picture of them matching their little brothers in about 10 years.

 Chase thought I should get a shot of his butt.

 We said our goodbye's until the next morning when we would head on down to our parents houses.

 D-Weezy at his finest.

 Last up was our reindeer food that we sprinkled over the yard to guide Santa's sleigh to our house.

Our Christmas this year was wonderful.

I had so much time off from work.

Got to see my dad twice in 2 weeks.

Watched my baby boy enjoy seeing Santa and really experience the magic of Christmas.
And spent Christmas day with all of my boys, my parents, my sister, my brother, my in-laws, my brother in-law, my niece and my nephew.

Can't ask for much more.

Santa Visit.

I know, I'm super late on this but these pictures came out so great that I still had to share them. We took Deuce to see Santa in Chesapeake again, when we went up for a visit with my dad. Last year Deuce was afraid of him so we got these awesome pictures of Deuce sitting in Santa's big chair reading while Santa was hiding behind him. This year he kept saying, "I not cry today." I didn't really believe him but he wasn't lying. When it was his turn he walked right up to him, said hi and climbed right up in his lap. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Deuce responded, "a bear black." And wouldn't you know it... Santa brought him a soft black bear Christmas morning!

First Visit with Santa!

I decided to take Deuce to see Santa for the first time while we were in Virginia visiting my dad. I knew my dad would really enjoy taking him and I am so glad we did it. My mom had told me that the lines to see Santa at Southpoint had 2 hours plus waiting time but the mall in Chesapeake was pretty bare so we only had to wait behind one small baby and a group of navy sailors. And I must say, this was seriously the best Santa I've ever seen. Not only did he look SUPER real {take a look for yourself}, but they were soooo accommodating. I was determined that no matter what, Deuce was going to have his picture taken with Santa. Even if he was screaming his head off. Is that mean? Maybe, but we have a picture of my sister crying her eyes out when she was little and we love looking at it now. So I thought in the long run, he'll appreciate it. Hmmm.

When we got to the mall, Deuce was all about Santa. He was wearing his own Santa hat, waving to him and shouting "hi" from the line. I was totally surprised but thinking this was going to go great! Then when it was our turn, I got him out of the stroller and walked him over to Santa and he seriously gave him a fist bump first thing and then started talking to him like they were old pals. But when it came time for me to sit him down with Santa...no way, Jose! He immediately initiated the death claw grip into my arms and started climbing up my stomach with his feet. He didn't bust out the tears but he was pretty darn close. The staff and Santa immediately told me that if I wanted, Santa would hide behind the big chair and we could put Deuce in the chair to read some books. Then Santa would pop out and pose for some pictures and Deuce would never even know that he was there. So we moved Deuce to where he couldn't see Santa get up and hide and when he saw that chair open, it was like a mad dash to crawl in the chair. The Santa was amazing!

After the pictures, Deuce was back to being all about talking to Santa and calling him  "Caw Caus." And of course, we couldn't leave without another fist bump. After going to just about every mall in the Triangle and the Triad, I am so glad that we went to see Santa in Chesapeake. He was the best Santa by far!

The First Christmas Celebration

Whew it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted.  I kind of enjoyed my break from the computer.  I didn't really get on at all.  I checked my facebook from my phone mostly (of course I definitely had to do it after that football game last week - we'll talk about that later) and I didn't check my email or anything really.  So I have a lot of catching up to do.

This year was what I considered to be our first official family Christmas.  I say this because it's the first time that Ed and I have had TJ from Christmas Eve into the morning plus we had Deuce so we were really excited for Santa to come visit this year.  My sister came and spent the night with us so she could be there when we opened gifts.
 

We spent Christmas Eve making Christmas themed Oreo balls (Ed's request after I made that batch for his work party) & peanut butter cookies,

and baking & decorating sugar & chocolate chip cookies

while Deuce played with kitchen items.

And of course Mac

We all took turns decorating our cookies.

TJ was eating while decorating.

5 for his jersey number

These were the 3 I decorated

And then I made one for each of the boys.

Ed made a smiley face with his version of a "flat top" hair style.

And Laura made a tree

All of our cookies on the plate for Santa

I cooked a spaghetti dinner and we had a great time!  After leaving out the cookies and making a card we were able to get the boys in the bed by 9:30. 

 

By that point, I had not wrapped one single gift.  Not one.  REALLY!  So my sister and I got to work while Ed sat up with us and watched TV.  He would have helped but I'm not sure what his wrapping looks like so I didn't force the issue.  I just told him he had to stay up as long as I did, lol.  My sister gave up at 1am and I was finished by 3am. 

o.m.g.

I was fully expecting TJ to be up at 6am but was pleasantly surprised when I heard him rummaging around the living room at 8am. 

We had a great time opening gifts.  TJ flew through his, of course, and was disappointed when it was all over. 

And Deuce was content eating a small piece of paper off of just one present.

He did enjoy playing with his very first basketball goal that Santa left him.

TJ made sure he knew how to use it.

I made a breakfast casserole before we took off for a long day of house hopping.  Oooooh, it was great!

Auntie gave Deuce a bath while we all got ready.  Thank goodness for extra hands & a kitchen sink when you need them!

We then headed to my mom's house.  I don't have any pictures from there, we took them all with Laura's camera.  We opened gifts, stayed for a quick lunch and then left continuing east.  We hopped over to Ed's parents house for what was a measly 30 minutes to say hello and exchange gifts because we had to have TJ in Raleigh at his mom's parents house by 4:30.  I was so exhausted by that point, but we weren't done.  After dropping TJ off, we continued east to Clayton to my Aunt Rhonda's house where my dad had come in from VA  My cousins were also there along with my Grandma.  We had dinner in Clayton with my dad's family and Deuce got his first rocking horse from my dad.  Pop was so excited to see him on it that I enjoyed watching my dad almost as much as I enjoyed watching Deuce.

Deuce was passed around by everyone which gave us a nice break to socialize with all of the family that was there.  Plus eat a nice meal without little hands in our food.

Enjoying Mountain Dew with Ryan.  Don't worry it was Diet...

...and the top was on.

Talk about a tired baby Christmas night.

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas.  To me, it doesn't seem like Christmas if we don't spend half of the day in the car travelling between houses!  I love seeing family and am so thankful that we can make it all work.  I hope everyone else had as wonderful a holiday as us!