The magic of Christmas morning

I am grateful to be able to say that Christmas morning has always been a magical time in my life. My parents sought to make this an amazing day for us growing up, and I in turn have tried to do the same for my kids. It really is a hard balance between the real spirit of Christmas and the excitement of gifts. We talked a lot about how giving gifts can show people we love them, etc. I'm sure the lesson was lost on my kids for the most part, but maybe a little bit of it sunk in between the sheer excitement of seeing what Santa brought and opening all these presents. My parents and Holly joined us for Christmas this year too which made the present count under the tree that much more impressive.

From Santa: (Boden)-tool bench to play in the garage while dad works on the car and little moover truck. (Rowan)-crane truck and a garbage truck (this is what he switched his list to at the last minute). He no longer wanted a cement mixer from Santa but thought it would still be "pretty awesome" if he got one for Christmas, so Santa and my parents traded gifts for the second time, which worked out perfectly.

They also got a few bath toys and a roll of paper for coloring where Santa left a "Merry Christmas" for them.

We all slept in our room on Christmas Eve, so Grant came out first and then I followed behind...

Rowan fell over with silliness and excitement when he saw all the gifts that Santa had brought...

Boden on the other hand didn't waste a second...candycane in mouth and riding around on his truck!

LOVES his new crane with things to lift that Santa made and cars all of the way from Okinawa thanks to some special elves who helped us get them here.

I love when Christmas is on a Sunday, because Christmas already usually feels like a Sunday to me. It's a somewhat effortless way to incorporate Christ into Christmas morning. It was a perfect meeting where we just sang a bunch of Christmas songs with readings from Luke 2 between each song. I loved it!

After church, we came home to a delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and eggnog (the kids' first time trying it. They loved it at first, then it got to be too much. That's sort of how I feel about it too). They got to try out their sweet new Panda cups from Holly though!

They played a little more while the rolls cooked and then we changed into comfy clothes for some present opening.

The thing that might have touched my heart the most that day, I didn't even witness, but so glad that Holly did. She saw Rowan coloring on the note from Santa and he was dictating what he "wrote". "Dear Santa, I love all my presents, thank you SO much." I was touched that he had gratitude in his heart amidst all the excitement of the day!

And I realized we're going to need a bigger house ;) All the toys are getting bigger and "better". I hate toys in some ways, but I really do love watching my kids play with them. And they are really imaginative and have a lot of fun...so if I can keep some order, I guess I'll let them stay :)

Kids took a nap while we prepared an amazing roast for dinner. My parents took over the planning and most of the preparing of this meal, so that was super nice!

It was a fun fun day, and I am so thankful for the knowledge I have of my Savior, and that we can celebrate his birth!

Christmas Eve!

We were so happy to have Holly and my parents to share this wonderful holiday with. Christmas is getting more and more fun as the kids get a little bit older and this was the best one yet. It really brings back the childhood excitement in me.

We decided to do Mexican takeout for dinner, with chips and salsa from the farmers market we got that morning.

 I wanted to make sure the kids started to learn the real meaning of Christmas, so even though we only had a few people, we acted out the nativity, and it was perfect! My mom was Mary, my dad was Joseph, Grant the angel, Rowan and Boden were shepherds and wisemen, and Holly was another wiseman, while I directed and narrated. 

This cute shepherd just ran back and forth over and over smiling at us. It was SO cute!

 A teddy bear had to be the baby Jesus since in this house of boys we have no baby dolls and I didn't really plan ahead!

 Kisses for baby Jesus

 The wisemen in their huddle before trekking years across the desert after seeing the star

 "We 3 Kings"

After our nativity, we opened our Christmas Eve PJs. My mom bought these awesome Santa robes and cute slippers for them, adorable.

This was the first time that Rowan really anticipated Christmas morning. He has been saying, "Christmas is taking too long" since Thanksgiving and finally when there were only "4 more sleeps" before Christmas, he was able to do the countdown on his fingers and he told everyone about it! On Christmas Eve, he had a hard time falling asleep, so excited for the next morning!
 After the kids went to bed, we got to do one of the most fun things, help out Santa :) And then before we went to bed, we brought the kids into our room to sleep the rest of the night. We stuck Boden in our bed and brought Rowan's bed into our room because their room is on the other side of the living room from us. It was kind of fun to have a Christmas Eve sleepover!

Jungle Bells

Having a zoo pass is so nice, because I feel like we can go anytime, even if only for an hour or two. We decided to take my parents since I get someone in free and have several free passes, and I had been wanting to go see "Jungle Bells" which were the lights.

Rowan really wanted to ride the Skyfari, so that was first on the agenda, and my mom who is terrified of heights even enjoyed it! We had a great view of the park, especially the gorillas!

We were then pleasantly surprised to see that Santa was there! (with no line and for free!) Since the kids didn't really get to talk to Santa yet, we thought this was the perfect option. Boden begged to differ.

Rowan got to tell him that he wanted a big crane truck with stabilizers, a cement mixer with real cement, and a trash truck

 And then we met some zoo pals who happened to be out as we walked around

 It was really such a fun afternoon and evening together at the zoo. So glad we were able to take Mimi and Papa with us!

Temple Lights

Something I missed a lot while living in Oki were pretty Christmas lights. There were some places with displays, but not nearly as abundant as here. We had fun this year, especially with the kids looking at lights. Our neighborhood was pretty fun to see at night. I took the kids for a walk in the evening several times to see the lights. Also, a few nights before Christmas we went to a neighborhood that was all decked out! 

On the Monday before Christmas, for FHE with my parents we decided to go walk around the temple and see the lights there. It was beautiful, both the temple and the lights!

Gorgeous!

Moonlight Beach fun

One day before Grant came back, Brea and I decided that we needed a beach day! The weather was great and off season is always the best at the beach. The other fun thing about winter at the beach is that they are often moving sand around to build the beach back up, so there are often large trucks and best of all, HUGE sand piles. The one this day at moonlight was the most impressive I've seen yet! The kids are entertained for hours. Why don't I go everyday? Rowan saw a picture of him at the beach in Okinawa and said he wanted to go back to Okinawa. I asked him why and he said because he misses going to the beach everyday. Me too buddy, me too.

And here is an overload of adorable Christmas beach photos of the boys. They wore their reindeer antlers and Santa hat almost the entire time at the beach :)

 Beautiful blue sky and warm temps, just a slight cool breeze

 Seriously impressive sand pile.  I was impressed that Boden made it up...and continued to do so over and over.

 Chasing seagulls, one of his favorite past times.

 I love that they're at the age when they can all play together now!

We miss some things about Oki beaches, like the warm water and snorkeling...but overall I think playing at San Diego beaches is a lot more fun!