Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. There is always so much joy and excitement surrounding it, and I love watching my boys open gifts that were selected with thought and care. This year was a little more hectic, as I had just gone back to work, and I had one more little guy to buy for. On top of those fun times, this is the first year that Cullen has really truly believed in Santa. It was more work, but oh so much fun!
This is our year to spend Christmas with the Bailey side of the family, so we headed to Lake Jackson for Christmas Eve service. Even though Cullen had attended a candelight service and taken communion before, things were different this time around.
During communion, Cullen officially decided that he didn't like grape juice. He told James that he wanted orange juice instead. In an effort to stop the talking in its tracks, James told Cullen that the church was out of orange juice. As any four year old might, Cullen responded with, "They need to go to the store tomorrow and get it."
After church was dinner and a few presents with my parents.
Harrison was pretty excited about his first Christmas.
We got the boys ready for bed at my parents' house, with the plans of putting them straight to bed when we got home.
On the way home, we talked about Santa and his reindeer. Somehow this sparked a talk with Cullen about James going deer hunting. Cullen offered James the reminder that he should never shoot Santa's reindeer. Good call.
I had put a lot of effort into prepping Christmas prior to Christmas Eve. It was a lot of time out of our day to drive to Lake Jackson and back, and I wanted to put the boys to bed, put out Santa's loot, and head to bed. James had picked out Cullen's Santa gift at Costco months before, and he knew all we needed to do was set up some train track. I had already assembled everything else, so he headed upstairs to assemble the track while I got ready for bed. Half an hour later, as we closed in on midnight, James came down to tell me that we had a problem. The track James bought was actually a train table requiring an excessive amount of assembly. We were up until 4 putting it together. Harrison hung out with us for a large part of the time.
Even though the 4am thing was not a part of the plan, we got it all done and ready for the morning.
I set up a super-crafty obstruction to keep Cullen from seeing the Christmas tree before we were all up, and I asked that he come get us before he checked out his gifts. Instead, he flattened himself against the wall, went around the barrier, and then came down to tell us what Santa brought. Next year, he will sleep in our room, or the tree will be downstairs. I'll figure it out later.
I got the boys matching pajamas this year. I never thought I liked the whole kids-in-matching-outfits thing, but I really do. I mean. Look at them.
Cullen showed off James' creative use of wrapping paper.
It was such a nice day of family time with a focus on the boys and their presents. This time around, I got a ham and just made a nice dinner that required little prep work. Perfect.
James was pretty excited about his Superman socks(complete with cape).
And Cullen was pretty excited about his Superman shirt (also complete with cape).
Less than three hours of sleep caught up with James and Harrison by mid-afternoon.
And that gave me the perfect opportunity to enjoy my new wine glasses.
Christmas is so much work, but the magic of the season makes it all worthwhile.
xoxo ashley
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