December 2009

The tree in our front room. I was very happy to have two Christmas trees this year. This is a tree that Gregg's parents kindly gave to us since they got a new one. It's not pre-lit, but it looks so life-like to me, that I don't mind the little extra time it will take to put the lights on. Larry (Gregg's dad) set up the tree and put the lights on for us, then Mack and I did the decorating (Gregg is not a fan of tree decorating). We also had our old tree set up in the family room. It looked horrible by the time Christmas was over. You can see a little bit of it in the background of the next picture.

Mack found a big chunk of styrofoam one day, and I almost took it from him knowing it would make a big mess, but sometimes, it's fun to make a mess. We pretended it was snow. He loved it.

The next 6 pictures are from an impromptu photo shoot I tried to have with the boys. I wanted to get a picture for a Christmas card. I didn't love how they turned out (way too many props), so we didn't end up doing a card this year.

(A little hair combing probably would have been nice.)

This was the morning we left for Bountiful. My parents had brought gifts by for us and we decided to open them before we left. Mack opened his the night before (a cute little lego-like Elmo with an ice cream truck... it was a great new/fun toy for the long car drive) and I guess I forgot to get the camera out. Jonas was so happy this morning and loving the camera. Too bad we ruined his day by sticking him the the car for the next 7 hours.

On Christmas Eve (I think) we went to Gregg's Uncle Rick's property and he took us on a sleigh ride!

Rick & Larry hooking up the horses. Grandpa & Grandma Benson waiting for their ride.

Mack was happy to get to ride in the front!

Christmas morning:

(The four stockings on the chair are the ones I made last year. They were fun to make and I like them, but they aren't quite wide enough... so, I'll probably be making more soon.)

Lego Indiana Jones for the XBox for Mommy. Sweetness.

The first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers for Gregg. Mine & Gregg's maturity levels are so mismatched. It's amazing we get along so well.

We put Jonas down for his morning nap and then realized we had missed his present from Larry & Jeannette under the tree.

We didn't take the boys "Santa" presents with us, so the night we got home, I wrapped them up real quick so they could open them:

(Mack has yet to play with this one. It actually wasn't a "Santa" present, I just forgot to take it with us.)

This has been the best toy I've ever bought. Jonas has played with it everyday since Christmas, and even Mack plays with it sometimes.

The City of Henderson has a Holiday Lights competition each year and then they have a tour of all the homes that participated. You can pay to go on a bus ride tour of the lights, or they put a map on their website that you can download so that you can drive the tour yourself. We did it last year and loved it. We tried to do it again this year, but only got about halfway through. We also went to a Sunset Park event where you stay in your car and drive through the park and they a whole bunch of light displays set up. It was pretty cool, too.

Jonas started pulling himself up and standing at things this month (which I think is partly why he loved the music table gift so much). He also learned to whistle. I know, sounds funny. He purses his lips when he gets excited and then breathes really fast and it makes a cute little whistling sound. One day I was whistling a tune and he started doing it, so I think he does realize that he is making the sound. I just might start calling him Jiminy. It's pretty cute.

Mack was so fun during Christmas. He helped everyone in our family open every one of their presents. He LOVES presents. With all the present opening, I think Mack picked up on that when there's a picture on a box, that's usually what's inside. He was in one of our spare rooms one day when he saw a U-haul box with a U-haul truck on it and he kept asking me to get the truck out. He doesn't understand the Santa thing yet, but was super excited to open gifts and eat candy. I'm sure next year will be even more fun with him, and maybe I can start using the "Santa doesn't bring naughty boys presents" threat. I've been trying to slowly get Mack interested in using the potty, but he definitely still loves the diaper. He's a funny boy.

Overall, December was wonderful!