Merry Christmas!

 Christmas morning started out with Blake appearing by our bed at 5:00 AM. He had woken up and noticed the new ornament Santa put on his tree. Luckily, I was able to convince him to climb in bed with us and he fell back asleep. Phew! The official festivities began around 6:45 with both kids running to the tree. Emerson was very surprised at all the presents. She screamed with delight, "I can't believe it! I only asked Santa for 3 things!".

 Of course, they wanted to open the largest presents first. Blake is excited to get his boxing bag hung:)



Emerson was in awe over her new art center. She didn't even want to open more presents right away after opening this. She told us that she really needed to get started right away. So, we took a little break for her to complete an art project.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our sweet Savannah. She received lots of presents and lots of kisses on her special Christmas birthday. Check out this wet one!

 I always look forward to seeing Jeremy's creative wrapping techniques. This year he wasn't sure where I kept the tape (same place for the last 7 years!) so he used painters tape! :)

 

The kids received scooters from Grammy and Grandpa, so we took a midday break from opening presents and headed out for a ride.

 Assembly time- ha ha

 Tired birthday girl

 While Jeremy fixed Christmas dinner, I took the kids out to try their new skateboard. I was impressed- they started to get the hang of it right away!

 Gotta love the Halloween shirt on Christmas!

We absolutely loved staying home for Christmas and taking our time opening presents all throughout the day. Such special memories for us all! :)

Christmas Eve

We had a very quiet, simple Christmas and Christmas Eve this year. Christmas Eve we started our family festivities with a Birthday Party for Jesus at church.

 We headed home for a quick dinner, then were off to the zoo for Zoolights.

 

 Scattered the reindeer food, set out cookies and milk, planted our magic elf seeds, said our goodbyes to Mr. Elfie, then off to bed! The kids were beyond excited- so much fun!

Salvation Army

Our newest favorite tradition- ringing bells for the Salvation Army. Jeremy's stepdad, Bob, "staffs" a location a couple Saturdays in December. I helped him out by recruiting some co-workers and students to ring. It was a great opportunity for the kids to learn the joy of service and giving around the holidays. Such fun and so heartwarming to witness the incredible generosity of others.

My job-share partner and her kids rang before us. Blake and Emerson were excited to ring with Kourtney and Aiden for a bit:)

 Em loved ringing and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas:)

 

Blake-O handed out candy canes.

 Here is my sweet student, Ireland, and her mom who rang after us.

 

We headed into the mall afterward and Emerson asked to try the big trampoline- brave girl!

Fun Day!!!