Santa down the Chimney–Nope, not Here!

I don’t remember last year being a big deal about Santa coming… but I know the year before, he was scared.  I remember totally understanding his fear – we are telling him a big man (that we don’t know) will come down our chimney while we are all asleep. 

So this year the fear reappeared.  He was so worried that the night before Christmas Eve he was already worrying about it.  The night before Christmas, Hagen was still very nervous – so we decided Santa didn’t have to come in our house – he could just leave the presents and stockings on the back porch.

Here is Mason leaving the cookies and our stockings on the chair on our back porch.

Here is Hagen posing with the items.  They both went to every door in the house and made sure all the doors were locked tight.  (Worked like a charm, he slept much better than the night before!!)

I loved it and I think the tradition will continue.  Who needs to use the chimney, I mean, I think we are actually speeding up Santa’s delivery time

Here are the boys running to the back porch to see what he left them!!

I love the squeals of ‘He came!!  He came!!’

Scooters and watches (both requested)

Although we might be super busy the whole month of December, running from this house to that house, rushing to buy presents, wrapping behind closed doors, stressing about how much money we spent on this or that… it is worth it to see the boys enthusiasm and excitement. 

Above all the gifts, though, my continued hope and prayer is that they see it is not about the gifts, it is about showing our love to others and sharing the story of Christmas to others that might not know it.  The true reason for the season is not to help stores get ‘back into the black’, but it is to celebrate our King’s birth. 

Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

More Christmas-ing

Grampa and the boys

Listening to Jeremy’s Mamaw tell the Christmas Story

The boys and Cambry and Trae singing Jingle Bells

 

Mason has become such a ham lately… one little funny – Cambry, Hagen and Mason went to feed the cows with Uncle Poo.  It was dark, and Cambry told the boys to watch out for coyotes, they eat cows and people.  This statement freaked Mason out.  He was very worried. 

Before we left, we called Santa one last time.  When Mason’s turn came up to talk to Santa, he reminded him of what he wanted and then he said, ‘Ummm, Santa… if you see a coyote – RUN!’ 

Below are the pictures of them talking to Santa – so cute!

Christmas with Gran and Paucci

Jeremy has a friend from work that takes the whole month of December off to drive his horse-drawn sled through the streets of Dallas and Coppell to look at Christmas lights.  We did this two years ago with two other friends of Jeremy and their families.  Click HERE to take a look.

So, this year we decided to do it again with my family.  Gran (going with the theme) got all the grandkids mittens, gloves, and flashlights.

I love Conner’s Mohawk hat.

Gran with all the grandkids

The boys got to get up on one of the horses to pose for a picture.

It is such a beautiful sleigh… and so much fun! 

The whole group all bundled up.

The Johnsons’

Gran with Hagen and Ruby

Each of the boys, Ruby and Lily got a turn driving the sleigh.  They had so much fun!  I only ended up getting a picture of Mason driving it on my camera (Paucci has the other pictures on his phone).  *No, Dale (our driver) did not have his eyes closed for the whole trip *

Sweet boys.

I asked for new towels for the boys’ bathroom.  Here is Mason’s expression when he saw the towels --- crack me up!

Daddy couldn’t resist trying out Travis’s new gift!

Lily and the boys playing a game.

So sassy, that Lily!!

Christmas with Grammy, Grampa, and Aunt Erin

The boys were so excited to open their gifts.

Grampa got a really neat helicopter for all the boys to play with, it took some skill to fly… Mason did not understand why he couldn’t play it. (love his sad little face in the second picture, Daddy trying to explain about the ‘high tech’ helicopter).

Grammy and Mason

On Friday, Grammy had to run up to her school to do some last things before the Christmas break.  After introducing the boys to everyone, we got to play in the gym for awhile.  The boys LOVED this.  The gym was stocked with every kind of ball imaginable and we discovered a rock climbing wall.

Pre-Kindergarten Christmas Program

So sad, this will be our last Christmas program at their Preschool. We have loved their preschool and we know the boys love going, too.  Last year the boys just stood – the entire time – while all the other children sang and even did hand motions.  This year both boys told me they would sing.

Here they are lining up.  I was kind of on the side and Mason was so close to the middle (second row), you can’t see him really well, but Hagen is second to the end.

They actually sang, or mouthed the words, during most of the program.  It was an improvement from last year.  But the funniest part, they both yawned through the whole program.  *I guess we need an earlier bedtime*

It’s kind of blurry, but they sang a reindeer song and had noses for the song.  Both boys actually remembered to use them and switch them at the correct time.  The pictures are kind of blurry, but here they are.

Mason was in a position that we couldn’t really see him , but Hagen was really close to us.

A picture in front of the Christmas tree.

Taking Pictures

I thought it would be fun taking a picture of the boys in their Christmas pjs by the Christmas tree.  Oh the fun of taking pictures of boys with their cheezy grins.  Thought I would share – most are taking one after the other with only the blurry ones deleted.

(I liked this one)

Me: Okay, look at me and smile.

Me: Mason, I said smile.

Me: No, make it natural.

Mason: Natural?

(that’s better)