Nativity and Christmas Eve

Sorry, I realize that these posts are a little bit out of order, but it will have to do. So we had a really fun progressive dinner with my family on Christmas Eve, and then ended it with a little cousins nativity, Porter was Joseph, and Ronan a shepard, and they opened up all their Christmas jammies. It was a fun time, and I thought the boys looked so cute! Uncle Grant was the donkey though, and Porter did not agree with just Mary getting to ride in on the Donkey. So in our house the donkey carried Mary and Joseph:) What a silly boy.

Christmas Morning

So Santa came, and we had a great morning! Here are some pics to remember the event, Porter is in his "can't seem to smile right for a picture phase" so I apologize for his stoic faces. The boys had lots of fun, and we loved watching them get to open the presents! Christmas is my favorite! After it was done, and I was gathering things up I realized that they got a lot of clothes, shoes, and hats this year, and definitely less toys than last year. I don't think Santa was trying to do that intentionally, but hey, now they are looking good, and we already have a ton of toys! Way to go Santa, giving them things they need:) They both got one big toy from Santa though, and the little people nativity, (which they both LOVE) from Noah's parents though so they were thrilled! Hope you all had a great morning too.




Showing off his new cowboy gear-including his first pair of real cowboy boots!

Polishing off the rest of Santa's cookies, he didn't quite eat them all!

so funny...

so I just had to write this down, because I thought it was so funny. For Christmas Eve we are doing a little Nativity scene with the cousins, and I'm making up some costumes for the boys. Porter will be Joseph and Ronan is going to be a shepard. so anyway, you know how they have those things on their heads right, well I unfolded a piece of fabric and put it over Porter's head to try and measure how much I needed, and he says " wow mom, are you making this costume for me? (note a quizzical tone of voice, not sure what is going on- from my 3 year old) what am I going to be, a tent?" I just started to laugh. What a silly boy. This also goes along with a couple of days ago-he has been really proud of pooping in the potty lately every time he makes it there, and he came running out saying, " I pooped one in the potty, (and then shouts) and IT LOOKS LIKE A CHICKEN NUGGET!!!" And would you know it, it DID look just like a McDonald's chicken nugget. Very observant son. So I apologize to anyone who is offended by the potty talk, I just thought it was hilarious!

Christmas Cookies

So I LOVE frosted sugar cookies, if you didn't already know that. So one of my favorite things is to make some at Christmas for Santa. Porter has really loved doing these kinds of things lately with me, so we broke out the old cookie cutters and whipped some up. The ones for santa will stay nice and fresh in a ziploc bag until Christmas, but the rest are going to good use in our tummies! Porter helped me do every stage, and LOVED decorating them. It is one of my favorite Christmas traditions:) ho, ho, ho!

Porter's first "crap" (craft)

So despite our repeated attempts to teach Porter the word "craFT" he still thinks it is called a "crap". But anyway, being that he has a pretty crafty mommy, and I seem to do a lot of projects he has picked up on them. He likes to do different projects with me, and is usually a very good helper. The other day though, he saw a craft on PBS kids where they made animals out of sticks. He begged to do it, and had a very specific vision. He was so cute, he worked for literally hours, probably at least 6 or 7 total before it was good enough. He made a cow, if you can't tell:) He colored all of the spots, and then even helped me cut them out with his safety scissors. He drew all of the facial features, and glued everything down just where he wanted it. He was extremely picky, much to my surprise, and then we had to take it everywhere with us for days. He loves his cow! What a cutie:) A chip off the old block!

Appetizers! Help please-

So for Christmas this year we are doing a Progressive Dinner. The appetizers are at our house, and I need some more cute ideas. I have one shrimp appetizer that I am going to do for sure but I need one or two more really good ones, that are also a little fancy or pretty. If anyone has any ideas for me, please please let me know. I am totally stumped. Thanks a million!

Gingerbread Fun!!

Thanks again Art and Steph for another fantastic Gingerbread Bonanza! We had a great time and were quite pleased with the finished product! We have decided after doing the Eifel Tower, that from now on we were going to do different landmarks from around the world, then we can compile a world tour as we go through the years. It is just fun to try to copy something real. So in a crunch, we didn't prepare very long, we decided to do the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We'll go other places next year, but this was one that seemed easy enough for the dimensions and we were in a crunch for time.

And this was our finished product. We used animal crackers and teddy grahams for the carvings, and notice all the sourpatch tourists!


here are some of the other pics we took in the process. It was a fun family activity. Porter really wanted to help, not just sit on the sidelines. It was fun:)