A Very Jake Christmas

I hope you all had as blessed of a Christmas as we did.
I was just telling Chad as I was going through the pictures, that I really LOVE how Christmas went this year. I feel like we really struck a nice balance between celebrating the reason--our SAVIOR's birth and embracing the fun and whimsical--Santa and Izzy the elf. We have started some really great new traditions and I love it.

I also took a step back this year from overly decorating and trying to cram a bunch of "memories" down all of our throats. We just went with the flow and it was nice and relaxing.

I was part of our church vocal team's 6! Christmas Eve services. We had 2 each day starting on Saturday. At times it was long and draining, but it was so worth it to be apart of something so fantastic.

Every year I fail to take a Christmas Eve "best" picture...so here it is. Not so great as 1.MW has a meltdown every.single.time we want a family photo op and 2. My husband looks like grizzly Adams, he is going all Duck Dynasty on me over break...NOT HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. 3. I am exhausted from our services and sick. :( At least Lo looks cute!

Sunday afternoon Chad and I headed to my parent's for our family Christmas, the kids were lucky enough to spend the night before hand.

My sister got the kids these cool digi cameras! As you can see Lo was THRILLED. She loves taking pictures and scrapbooking. Thanks Auntie 'lissa! Even MW loved going around "trying" to work it. HA!
MW finally got his long awaited helmet...if you know him, you would understand.

Tickle monster gloves! And Jake and the NLP figurines...let's just say between both GPs the kids may own every Jake and the NLP figurine, toy, book, dvd and bath accessory there is and if not, I predict by birthday's end they will, which is in 1 month's time! {Thus, the Very Jake Christmas reference.}

My sister, Meg, knows my love for coffee and got me the perfect gift. ;) A shower coffee pot! {prank gift} HA!
Look at my eyes...I was having a severe allergic reaction to the fog machines from church and I was miserable, but trying to stay with it! :(
MW eating per usual. Lo got a darling tea set from her great grandma.
I made my mom a cute photo collage that says "WE LOVE YOU" by each one of her kids.
And I may or may not have a spray paint addiction, so my mom got me a special kit to mix my own...look out world! HA!

Leighton and Papa trying to keep the "Tree Ghost" from coming into the house! The imagination this girl has. She kept looking out the peep hole {see 2nd pic} and shouting "WATCH OUT! The tree ghost is coming!!"

 

 

{Christmas Eve}
Monday night I got home just in time to get ready for Santa.
Letters. check.
Cookies and chocolate milk. check.
Carrots for the reindeer. check.

 

This year my friend Ginger turned me onto this manger idea. 

If the kids were caught being selfless, kind, or serving they could put some "hay" in Baby Jesus' manger. The goal was to have enough for Jesus to come on Christmas night.

However, I took it a step further by asking each of us (minus MW because he is too young this year) to write out a gift for Jesus. Just a characteristic we want to work on to be more like HIM.

Then we laid them in the manger. I will keep them so we can see how we did next year. Lo's was sweet with "I am going to pray to Jesus for my sins."

My attempt at cool photos...clearly I need more help, but it is a start.

{Christmas Day}

What time did your kids get up?
Lo got up at 230AM! I kid you not. Dressed and ready. Apparently she peed through her pull-up and  wet her bed, so she got dressed and came to our room asking when can we open presents?! I told her Santa hadn't come yet, go to sleep. Well, she laid there talking. Then I started my coughing fit. Finally by 345a I got up and said I am going elsewhere in hopes she would GO BACK TO SLEEP. She must have because daddy and her came in to get me around 730a. Wow...thought I had a few more years before the 3a wake up calls!

Moving on...

Baby Jesus came! We sang Happy Birthday to Him before diving into the other gifts. Santa may or may not have covered up his gifts, because Santa doesn't wrap over here. ;) Just to minimize distraction. Just keepin' real.

Christmas morning fun!
We keep things very simple at our house. Sometimes I feel bad that we don't get the kids a lot...but the truth is the GPs spoil them so there really is no point.
They each get 1 Santa gift +stockings and 1-2 small gifts from us.
Santa brought MW as scooter. This boy goes into our neighbor's garage anytime it is open to "steal" their scooter...so best he has his own now! He LOVES it!
And Lo got a Bucky {Jake and the NLP} ship.
From us Lo got her beloved dog...when we turned it on it literally ran around yipping and jumping. Chad was like "really?!" we already have TWO dogs that do that! BAHAHA! Truth.
And MW got a farm house. And wait for it...a JAKE dvd!

The sweetest gift was Lo's. She worked so hard making a picture for me and daddy. She even wrapped it up in paper, bow and all and put it under the tree. What a great girl! And look how proud she is!

 

In the midst of playing with their new toys, they stopped to go be "Mary and Joseph" to baby Jesus. It was so sweet watching them play together and love on baby Jesus. Seeds planted.

Then over to Grandma Rachel's for more food and gifts.

Jesus' Birthday cake.

They each got these cool super hero capes now they can be "real" superheros.

MW loved two things this Christmas. Eating. And opening EVERYONE's gifts. That boy and gift wrap. My MIL saw this thing where you could wrap that press and seal saran wrap around your kid to make a "bib." Best idea Evah. Pin it... :)

Leighton getting her scrapbook on. She may just have grammy beat on it. HA!

A great Christmas complete with a Christmas day nap with MW! I was shocked by it, but that was a sweet gift he gave me, even if he didn't know it. I love having my little family to celebrate with.

Merry Christmas!