White Christmas

We had a beautiful white Christmas. The snow had been around for a while, but stayed long enough so we could have a white Christmas. Sam and Jackson had both been sick, so Jackson slept in bed with us part of the night and Sam came in about 7:30 and woke us up. When asked about whether or not he thought Santa had come to our house, Sam replied, "No. I forgot to leave cookies out for him." So Brandon brought the boys down in their new PJs to see if Santa had left us anything under the tree. To Sam's delight Santa had come and also left stockings (Brandon's attempt to redeem the fact that I haven't finished or bought any stockings yet.)

We had our traditional cinnamon rolls before opening presents. Brandon's parents spent the night and opened presents. It was fun to have them spend Christmas morning with us.


Jackson loved playing with the wrapping paper and I am sure he would have gotten the idea of ripping the paper off if given the opportunity, but Sam would offer to help and opened everything for him. Jackson got some toys, jumperoo, bath toys and an outfit. The bathtub is his new favorite playground.

Sam loved opening presents and was soaking everything up. He knows how to spell his name, S-A-Am, so he was looking for it on all the labels. He loves that Santa still gave him the couple of things that asked for regardless of not leaving out cookies. And promises to do better next year. Sam received a motion control car (remote control), leapster game system, coloring books, a fishing pole and some socks (to which he BOOed. Thanks Nicole!)


Brandon got a new Wacom Tablet so we wrapped up his old one for Sam who wanted a "pencil like his dad." I had them open them at the same time and as Brandon opened his and Sam saw what Brandon was getting he lost interest in opening his own and watching Brandon. He was so excited to get his own.

Christmas Eve

Our families usually get together on Christmas Eve, so this year we hosted. It was so much fun. We had a soup smorgasbord. Broccoli, clam chowder and minestrone with rolls and our favorite cheese ball. Mary brought over some awesome 3D glasses change Christmas lights into different images.



We played a Christmas wrapping game and had a White Elephant Exchange. We all got a work out with as much laughing as we did. And Jackson enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper.


There were great gifts including Valentine socks, glow sticks, a half filled crossword puzzle book, some old dress up accessories, old Russian chocolate, Berry cotlets, a disco ball headband, some marshmallow snowmen mugs, old VHS tapes (what are those?), an old computer monitor we had left at my parents for the last year + since our move, Elmer Fudge jackhammer pen, scissors, matchbox cars, chocolate, and our favorite a pair of women bell bottom ski pants.


Before everyone headed home to get ready for Christmas morning the boys opened their Christmas eve pj's. We had so much fun. Thanks everyone for coming. We are planning on doing it again next year and can't wait!

Sledding

Brandon decided to take the kids and my sisters sledding. We don't have any big hills by our house and Brandon didn't want to pull Sam again this year, so he decided to pull the sleds and inner tubes behind the explorer. They received a couple of disapproving nods and thumbs up, but everyone had fun.



We took Jackson for a short ride around the neighborhood and he fell asleep.

Snowing Outside and In

We have been enjoying the snow outside for two weeks and a day of snow fun inside.



Brandon received a package full of styrofoam peanuts. And suddenly it was snowing in the living room. Sam thought it was fun to throw the "snow," but didn't like that they stuck to his clothes. Jackson was mesmerized and more interested in trying to eat it. I am still finding strays every once and a while.

Play time and Nap time

While Sam has a tendency to fall asleep while eating, Jackson is showing signs of falling asleep while he is playing. It is so cute!

Picking Out Tree

It's not Christmas until you have the Christmas tree all set up. And for us that was just a couple of weeks ago. The boys and I went to our favorite tree farm and picked out our Christmas tree with the help of my mom and STRONG Jilly. Usually Brandon and I will wander and look at every tree to find the perfect one. This year, there were so many good trees just about any of them would do, but I think we found the perfect one. Sam even found a couple good "Sam size" trees.

Thanksgiving

Still catching up...

...We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Eastern Washington at the Harris' new house. I didn't really take any photos so these are all borrowed from Shauna's blog. We had a wonderful time hanging out, letting the cousins play, shopping, and bowling. Brandon and Tim also tried to perfect their Guitar Hero skills with daily trips to Walmart. We had so much fun!

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving with a little Turkeyball. At least for Brandon.




For the first time we had all the Dorman grandkids together. So we tried to take some photos after our family photo shoot (more to come after I get them all touched up.) All the kids were tired and not cooperative.

Shauna and Kayla were able to spend a couple of days before and after Thanksgiving with us. We enjoyed shopping and hanging out with them. And the kids had fun playing with each other. Jackson and Kayla are two days and about 6 pounds apart.