Christmas Fun

We had a good family Christmas his year. My mom came in early to help with cookies and other preparations, my brother drove in from Phoenix, and Mireille and Jerry came from Seattle. Plus we had Randy's parents who live in town. Christmas morning gets more difficult every year trying to get the kids to wait to open stockings and presents. Of course, it is a lot to expect given that they come from sneaky genes that have been known to sneak downstairs Christmas morning and peak at presents, and then went back to bed to wait for the official present-opening. (That would be their father!) Travis was allowed to open his stocking before the others had arrived and then when we all sat down to open stockings Travis got to open one Santa present. (Remember he asked for trucks, helicopters, and a firetruck...) So he got a truck that has a drill that can be used to take the truck apart. He really thought that was "Cool!" He managed to get that thing apart in record time!

Then we ate breakfast/brunch. I love breakfast foods, so there is always a plethora of foods in which to indulge on Christmas morning at our home. And it's kind of like my cookie fetish: never the same thing twice. I do make a slight exception at Christmas and we have some of the same foods every year, but there are always new things at Christmas. This year I think I made 4 new dishes. It's my Christmas present to myself. :) Justin was being a ham at the table so we got a few shots of his silliness.

And this is Justin before the big present-opening. I think he looks cute. Randy thinks he looks mad.

We received an e-mail a few weeks ago from my sister's mother-in-law saying that she found some John Deere tractor fabric at the store and she wanted to make some matching pants for the boys. I asked if she would have enough to make "worker" aprons for Travis' tools. She came through in a BIG way and the boys both have the cutest pants! Travis was a little more impressed than Justin. Especially when she also sent a calendar of tractors for Travis. He loves that he gets to rip off a page every day.





Justin's favorite gift might have to be a set of maracas. They taste good and they make a cool noise!

And then there is Travis' favorite gift: This has been Jerry's dream for most of this year. It might have been last Christmas that he "claimed" a bike as his gift to Travis. He researched and test drove and ordered this bike for Travis. Everything can be adjusted so this bike can grow with Travis. Jerry really did ride it around the bike shop! They ordered it and we picked it up when we were in Seattle in October. It has been in a box in our garage for 2 1/2 months. When Jerry and Mireille came into town on the red eye on Christmas Eve, the first thing he wanted to do was pull that bike out of the box and put it together. He assembled and adjusted and even took off the warning labels because they didn't look "cool". (You know, the labels that say you can die if you don't take appropriate precautions. Yada, yada...) He put a big bow on the front and covered it in a blanket in our garage until Christmas Day. Travis never even noticed because of the other big thing in our garage (my best present!) which I will tell you about later!


He did a great job riding! It took him a little bit to get the hang of it, but then he was off like a shot!

The other thing that Jerry brought was ice cream! Oh yeah! 4 gallons and 11 pints! All different too! Travis think Uncle Jerry is the best and so now when he plays ice cream man (a frequent favorite) he delivers Uncle Jerry's ice cream. We have egg nog, dulce de leche, egg nog chocolate chip, Mireille's wedded bliss, peanut butter oreo, chocolate oreo, toasted coconut, and several others. The freezer is full! We had no pie for Christmas, but we had lots of ice cream!