Christmas Day 2012

Santa and Mrs. Claus had just laid down their pretty little heads for a good night's rest when footsteps came running down the other end of the hallway.

The boys!
It was 12:30am and those boys thought it was go time. I think not.
Luke whispered in my ear that they were awake and asked what I wanted to do. Wiggy was still asleep in her bed and there was no way I was waking her up at this ungodly hour...and I was exhausted. Mrs. Claus deserved her beauty rest!
I nestled back into my bed and Luke got up to greet the boys...and tell them they needed to go back to bed. They did manage to look through their stockings and check out what Santa brought first.
My internal alarm went off around 6:15am and everyone was still sleeping. PERFECT!
The boys woke up a few minutes later after they heard me stirring. They showed me all of their goodies and I oooooohhhhhh'd and aahhhhhhh'd. (They must have been perfect angels this year! Smirk)
Santa brought them each a 22 rifle. Bubba's had a scope on his since he is my wannabe sniper.
We waited semi-patiently for Wiggy to wake up, since she is normally our rooster each morning. After 15 minutes I gently woke her up by telling her Santa came.

 

 

 IHOP Gift card from Uncle Bertsie!

Some eye protection that fits over his eyeglasses. Not on his list....but mama knows what he needs. :)

 

 

 

My beloved Frye boots...which finally arrived after 3 years on my Christmas list.

Santa brought a new pencil sharpener!! I think mom was more excited than the kids....

Merida wig and dress....I wish she had real hair like this. We adore it!

 

Grandma and Grandpa Baer gave Wiggy a Disney princess guitar. I couldn't help but have a little fun with her later int he evening. I played a Taylor Swift song for her and told her to repeat the chorus. I am slightly biased (and easily entertained) but I do think I could get this girl singing/guitar lessons and be rolling in the cash in another 15 years. Haha.
video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqnpV8mh5lo&feature=youtu.be

Bubba got very emotional when he finished opening presents. Most of the gifts he received were Skylanders Giants...but the Nintendo Wii had been broken for the past few weeks. So how was he supposed to play with them...and with no Skylanders Giants game??

Daddy surprised them....again. He stayed up setting up the WiiU for the boys and laid out some new games for them. They were both very excited! Daddy did good!

 

 

After retiring to his room Tubbs piled his gifts on to his bed to protect them from his little sister. Smart guy.

 

Christmas breakfast was simple.....

Hot cocoa, turkey sausage bread, scrambled eggs, and cinnamon rolls.

 

Grandma and Grandpa Hogue and Aunt Jenny came over for Christmas dinner. Luke made some delicious chicken, cornbread and garlic green beans. Grandma made some awesome cheese potatoes!

Dessert was pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cake, and red velvet cheesecake. We were stuffed!

Aunt Jenny stayed the night with us. Wiggy enjoyed snuggling up with her on the couch before passing out on her around 8pm.

Luke bought the boys the game "Battle Ship"......but we all know who he really got it for.

Another wonderful Christmas is put to bed and the year is over. I reminded myself many times leading up to Christmas, how blessed I am to not only have a testimony of Jesus Christ's birth, but to have my family here with me. I love them all so very much!

Christmas Eve 2012

The kids were up wayyyyyy too early this morning because they knew Grandma Hogue had left a package for them that said, "Do not open until Christmas Eve Day."

No joke...these three kids were up and showered before 7am. I was still wiping the sleep from my eyes as I took out my camera to capture the moment. Once they were dressed ...and it was only 7:05....they were looking around at each other wondering what they could get into next.
Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4AOgamgtFM&feature=youtu.be

 

Our dinner menu was breakfast again this year and I was making the turkey sausage bread. Bubba and Tubbs cracked open the 18 eggs for me happily.

 

We left to go to Grandma and Grandpa Hogue's house around 1pm to eat dinner and open gifts. They kids could hardly wait. Tubbs was asking everyone 30 minutes if it was time to go yet. As soon as we got in the car, the kids were out....which was great for us. That meant to crabby bugs tonight.

We ate soon after we arrived and chowed down on apple cinnamon oatmeal, coffee cake, eggs, bacon, sausage, turkey sausage bread, and country potatoes. We were in heaven! I could eat "breakfast food" three times a day! :) I would be severely obese, but I would make the sacrifice.

Grandma and Grandpa opened their gifts first. The three kids went in together on a new TV for their living room. Hard to say who was more excited....Luke and Jake...or Grandpa. :)

 

 

Tubbs was pretty stoked (and surprised) when he opened his Nintendo 3DS XL....

 

 

We left Grandma and Grandpa's around 7:30pm to drive home. After we got home around 9, we set out the cookies and milk for Santa. The boys walked in the door, brushed teeth and got into bed. They were begging for the rest of us to go to bed so Santa could make his way down our chimney. After lying in bed for 5 minutes they both came out to ask for melatonin....and passed out within minutes. We finally put Wiggy to bed around 10.
Santa's final display:

Gingerbread Houses

Tubbs' 3rd/4th class made gingerbread houses at school, out of empty milk cartons. Everyone in the class could sign up to bring something, so we brought skittles and M&M's.
I was able to leave work for an hour to help out with the fun. It was entertaining to see a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds go crazy with all the sugar that was at their disposal. I think each of them consumed as much, if not more, then they put on the house.

This was Tubbs' gingerbread house after he left it unattended and his sister got a hold of it.....

Elf Yourself 2012

My wonderful sister-in-law sent this to me earlier this wek. Wiggy has been watching it over and over...and over. I think it's the closest I will ever get to seeing Luke and Bubba dance.

Christmas Party

My work's Christmas party was Saturday. Always a good time.
I didn't know what to do with my hair so I went to this new place in town that's a "dry bar." You pay $30 and they wash/style your hair. Anyways...I sat in the chair for an hour while the girl curled my hair and it was so relaxing. I almost fell asleep. The only bad thing was I had to go in at 1pm because it was the only appointment they had. By the time we left for the party at 6:30 my hair had lost all the curl. So that was a complete waste of money,. Oh well.
This year the party was at the Convention Center downtown. Grandma and Grandpa Hogue babysat the kids for us so we were able to stay a little later than usual.

 

 

 They had two artists there who drew caricatures. The guy who did ours lives in LA and does it for a living at Universal Studios. When I saw it I couldn't stop laughing. He did a good job.

After we had our picture drawn we got 15 minute chair massages...then we called it a night. We were home before 11pm...which was earlier than expected. BUT...it was nice to be out alone with the man of my dreams. :)

Wiggy's Christmas Concert

Wiggy's pre-school had a Christmas concert. Each class was to learn and sing two Christmas songs. The kids had been practicing and Wiggy would sing the songs at home over and over and over and over again. So, we were excited to see her up on stage singing. She is the most musical of the kids at this point....always singing.

Unfortunately, we almost had to miss the concert. I picked her up from school early with a fever around 2:30. The concert started at 6:30 and when I picked her up she said she didn't want to go to the concert. We were all disappointed! I gave her some Tylenol and laid her on the couch to snuggle up. I checked back with her around 4:30 and she said she wanted to go sing. Her fever had come down so we were very excited. We got her cleaned up and we were at her school ready for the concert at 6pm.

The pre-school's director is a good friends of ours and she saved us some seats in the front row! Thank you Jenny! :) We were very happy to have such good seats.

http://youtu.be/5WZEYJ_XW4o  (video)

 

Bubba's First Band Concert

Bubba took up the clarinet this year. He had to pick an instrument and since I owned a clarinet from when I was his age, he thought it would be cool. (I think his fist choice was a trumpet or the tuba.) :)
He did a great job at the concert and seemed to have a good time. For some reason, when he brought his clarinet to the concert, he didn't bring it in the case. So, by the time he got on stage to perform, he had chipped the reed. So...I am not sure how well he was able to play or how much squeaking actually took place.
No matter what, we are really proud of him for wanting to be in band!