Our Northern Christmas

Our Christmas up North this year with Eric's side of the family was on December 30th and 31st.  With BLISTERING cold weather (about -15 degrees), we piled into the jeep and headed off to Nana and Bumpa's house.

For the first few miles, we could barely see out of the windows (our five warm bodies in the vehicle and the crazy frigid temp outside drastically inhibited our views!).  But, with a few scrapes of the windows (from the inside) with a credit card, some wipe-downs with Ramsey's winter stocking hat, and then a turn to head North, the issues subsided and became manageable.  COLD, but manageable.  :-)

We arrived to warm greetings and hugs.  And food.  Lots and lots of food!!

Before things got too crazy, we wrangled the kids and got a few pictures.

Then, we wrangled the grandparents (*wink*) for a few more.

 Good thing... because it did get crazy (in a good way)!   Isaac became Connor's airplane and was getting spun around.

Ramsey was using The Force on everyone.  The lovely Miss Sadie sat back and watched the chaos.  :-)

Soon thereafter, we chowed down on the holiday tradition (pizza!) and headed downstairs to open presents.   Of course, the kids goofed around even more (Isaac was some sort of a "pet" to Connor in the pic below).

Isaac had to make sure he could still fit inside the end table.  I'm not sure if he will make it next year!  

 With what could be a case of mild claustrophobia (!!), Isaac needed to escape.

 Ramsey gladly took his place.

 Then decided ten seconds inside the standing chest was enough!

 There were times for happy smiles, intermittently throughout the evening, of course.

 Uncle Troy told Ramsey "secret stories" about Star Wars too.

His reward was a bow on his head.

 Uncle Cory was anxious to open presents (as was everyone else!).

 So, the kids doled out the gifts to everyone and made their piles.

 Since Ramsey is the littlest, he got to open up the first present of the evening (a V-tech music mixer).

 After each gift, hugs and thank-yous were given.

 As was "The Force". 

 Since pre-teen boys are a bit difficult to buy for, we gave Isaac a money tree.   He'd been wanting to get a hedge hog for a pet (not sure if that's still in the mix or not).

 Regardless, we thought cold hard cash could go towards his "hedge [hog] fund".   Bad pun?  Wuh wuh.

 Connor was excited for his gifts!  His gift from Uncle Troy, Auntie Sarah, and the kids was a bluetooth speaker.  We spent much of the evening listening to tunes, provided by "DJ Connor".
He was pleased to get two new games for his XBox One (Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty WWII).  They definitely gave him big smiles!

While watching others open gifts, Ramsey and Eric played Star Wars.  Ramsey sat between Eric's legs and steered the Millennium Falcon, using Eric's feet as the blasters.

 In this picture, I think Eric thought one picture was enough! ha!

 More gift-opening....

 By the time all of the presents had been opened, the kids were exhausted... and very very happy!

 That evening, we enjoyed the time together, hanging out.  We watched TV, played games, and visited.

 Ramsey wanted to learn how to play Skip-Bo too.  Sadie and Nana amused his curiosities and gave him his own pile of cards.

 New Year's Eve day was another hang-out/fun day with the fam.  The kids played in the house (lots of Hide & Seek, Star Wars, and general gaming).

Riggs was in heaven to be able to play with Max and with the kids.

Ramsey has an affinity for butter.  At one point, he grabbed Nana's butter dish and took some bites off of the stick.   After it was taken away from him, he found it again and and tried to "hide" underneath a chair and snarf more of it.  He really thought he was being sneaky.

The drive home was another frigid experience!  It was -15 when we were getting ready to leave Nana & Bumpa's house.  The poor Jeep was crying and didn't want to start and had to be jumped (odd that it started just fine the day before when it was colder).

We drove home with the heat and defroster on high the entire way home.  And, when we did arrive that evening, it was -22.  Brr!!!  

(Incidentally, New Year's Day was -28. Egads!)

Nonetheless, we are so thankful for our family and the blessings that we have!  We are thankful for the time that we have with each other. I may say that a lot, but it comes from the heart.

Happy New Year!!!  Our best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2018!

Gifts Made and Sent with Lots of Love

For Christmas each year, the wonderful grandparents in the boys' lives get some special gifts. 
I am posting this one after December 30th, which is when were to see Nana & Bumpa up North.  We can't ruin the surprise!  :-)

This year, Connor's gifts to them were Russell Stover's chocolates.  Mmmmm! 
With Ramsey still being a little guy, we decided to make home made pictures, with frames.

I found a fun little post on Pinterest that I decided to copy; Rudolph with Christmas lights, tangled in his antlers.  Rudolph's head and antlers were Ramsey's little hand.

We did a practice run on a regular sheet of tablet paper, to ensure we had adequate paint coverage.

 We did enough for the grandparents, plus an extra for our fridge.  I drew on Rudolph's eyes, nose, the Christmas lights, and a little greeting.

 Then, I put them in some 11x14 frames with 8x10 mats, which I had customized for the grandparents.   I figured new art work could be placed in the frames later on.

 And, a gift from both boys were snow globes with their pictures inside, with "Merry Christmas 2017" written on the base.

 We had a few different pictures of the boys, but the one below was my favorite.  They were actually singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (and enacting the twinkling stars with their hands) during picture time.  When you shake the globes, it looks like they're reaching out and grabbing for the glitter and "snow".

Christmas is such a special time of year, no doubt.  We are very thankful for our special parents/grandparents who have guided us and been there with us every step of the way.

Getting Ready for Santa

Ramsey was SO EXCITED for Christmas this year!   This is a fun age for Ramsey during the holidays.    He knows Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birthday and doing nice things for other people.   But, of course, he loves Santa and was so excited for him to come!

On Christmas Eve Day, we had to make cookies for Santa.  It's tradition to make frosted sugar cookies, but Ramsey also wanted to make gingerbread men.

He picked out seven different shapes of cookies cutters.  Some were traditional Christmas shapes (tree, stocking, snowflake) and the rest were Star Wars (BB8, Darth Vader, and R2 D2).

He had fun rolling the dough, playing with the cutters, and stamping out cookies.

He loves frosting, so he was all about decorating (and taking little nibbles in between).

Santa was going to get his special gingerbread man that he decorated!   That was very important.

He had a hoot with the sprinkles too (got a little carried away in some cases).  Unfortunately, as much as he loved to decorate with them, he doesn't like to eat them!  Good thing he ate a few cookies without the sprinkles beforehand.

He was quite proud and pleased that we were able to make so many cookies for Santa.  He wanted to give them ALL to Santa.  We told him Santa would get a few, but if he ate too many, he'd get a tummy ache!

After his shower and before he went to bed, we placed Santa's cookies on a Star Wars plate, with a nice cold glass of milk.   Ramsey thought he "heard something", so he nestled his ear up to the glass.  Maybe it was Santa?  Hmm.

Eric kept checking the "Santa Tracker" to let Ramsey know where Santa was.  While Ramsey was sitting on the hearth (thinking he heard Santa), Eric announced that Santa and his reindeer were in Ireland.    So, guess he wouldn't be here for another six hours or so!

I have to throw in a bit of a "funny" here...   Eric is always joking (we all know this).  While Ramsey was playing with his toys in the living room, Eric announced, "Well, I sure hope Santa doesn't fly over North Korea.  They'll shoot him down!".    Without ANY hesitation, Ramsey snapped his body, pointed his finger at Eric and exclaimed, "HEY, you stop staying sh*t like that!"

Eric and I both LOST IT!  It was like he'd been saying that phrase his entire life!  I had been walking into the living room from the kitchen.  I was laughing and crying so hard, I had to return to the kitchen to try to gain my composure.  Eric was shaking up and down (the "silent laugh"), with tears streaming down his face as well.   After about ten minutes, Eric was finally able to contain himself.

So, after Ramsey went to bed, Eric, Riggsy, and I watched a movie and hung out.

The next morning, Ramsey was excited to open his gifts from The Man in Red.  He got a purple light saber kit (with a mini blue saber included).

He also got the Wonder Crew Super Hero Buddy doll that he had asked Santa for a month earlier.

"Baby J-J" will have a new friend now too!

We asked Ramsey what he was going to name his new friend.  At first, he wasn't sure.

After thinking about it for a few more minutes, he announced that his new buddy's name was going to be "Tom"!

Riggsy wasn't left out; he got a Christmas teddy bear from Santa.  He was so happy to have it that he wouldn't hold still for a picture.

Merry Christmas!