Our house and hearts were full this year with the entire family here for Christmas.Even though we celebrated a day late we didn't notice the difference. It made me smile as each of my kids told me traditions that they wanted to do this year. I realized that somehow along the way I've left them with some family traditions that they cherish and want to carry on with their children. It was magical watching the wonder in my grandkids' eyes as they saw the tree on Christmas morning or listened to "The Night Before Christmas" being read by their dad/uncle. I tried to capture it all through the lens of my camera because I know these moments are rare when we can share this time together.
Pictures have a way of capturing the wonder of the time together so I will let them show a little bit of how we celebrated this year.
It was requested that I make all the kids' favorite holiday sweets. Stephanie likes to observe and learn how to make them all herself.
We took the boys to see our local Christmas tree lights. This guy does such a nice display that we drive through every year. The boys were in awe as they watched them all snuggled in their carseats with blankets.
Cory read "The Night Before Christmas" before we put them all to bed on Christmas Eve.
The boys left cookies and milk for Santa. Brayden wasn't sure if Santa needed all those cookies and tried to help out.
Everyone got dressed up for the opening of presents.
We started the day with the traditional cinnamon rolls breakfast. The boys thought that was pretty cool.
I spent the morning preparing the traditional Christmas Day meal of Ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, macaroni and cheese, homemade rolls and corn.
After the kids were tucked into bed, my kids wanted to make and decorate our Christmas cut-out cookies. This is something we've done since they were little and they get more creative each year. Cory got quite artistic with his snoopy cookie.
Papa enjoyed spending time with the boys too. They love the way he reads stories to them. Brayden is always happy in Papa's arms.
