Have yourself a Merry Lego Christmas!

Let's start at the beginning. With a stroke of inspiration, I found a way to get the boys involved in holiday decorating this year. We spent Black Friday morning creating our tree ornaments using two bins of legos I found on a great deal at Smiths. The boys were terrific and the tree turned out even better than I thought it would. Here are some of our favorites:

Here's a look at the finished product:

We spent Christmas Eve with Brian and Lynette and their girls. Though we have our differences (male vs. female ratios mainly!) we sure enjoy hanging out with them. We had a nice dinner, nativity and ended the evening at Temple Square. What a great night!
Jacob decided that Santa needed a cheeseburger rather than more cookies this year! (I found out later that this was Calvin inspired!)
Continuing on our lego theme, the boys all received big Lego sets for Christmas this year. Santa picked the right ones too...the boys played legos for 2 hours before even opening any of their presents!! It was awesome - though after sitting on the floor for about 5 hours, Phil and I were feeling pretty old and decrepit!
The legos were the biggest hit, but the two other big successes were a pogo stick (for Ben that Jacob has mastered!) and the soundtrack to A Year with Frog and Toad, a play we went to see in November. They have kept it on all the time and I feel so happy to hear them singing along with the songs. A little culture here and there...it's all I ask. We had a great day and love, love, love these boys!
Sunday night we had our Stevens family party at our house, complete with Christmas dinner, gifts and a little entertainment by the Phil Stevens' Boys, singing and Kate dancing. We also got to welcome sweet little baby Alex into the family (apparently I was too busy holding him to get a picture, but he is unbelievably cute!) We love getting together with family and hope that 2011 brings much more of it!!

(then maybe I can take some decent pictures...this is all I got!!)

Gingerbread Lane

Phil and I have been doing gingerbread parties since we were first married in Seattle. I think we've only missed one year out of 12. We finally feel like we're figuring it out. I found a recipe I love. I have a great cookie cutter that cuts out the houses, the pieces interlock and we don't have to spend the night fixing fallen houses. We love getting together with friends and even a little bit of competition.

As the kids have gotten older, I thought it would lose some of it's fun and charm, but it's been just the opposite. It has been so fun to see their creative juices flow as they put more candy on their houses than in their mouths. They look forward to it each year, and so do we!!

Sugar high? I don't think so...that's pure enjoyment on his face!
Micah's Mario Land
Some of the other great houses!Yum!!

Blast from the Past

Check out this great video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvwbhI-ze98. I love how loud they get as the song progresses (this was unrehearsed by the way!) These boys have sure grown up, but they still get louder as life progresses. Deck those halls!!

Traditions

There are a few things we must do each year at Christmas time. Gingerbread party. Books by the Christmas tree. Caroling. And now that we live in Utah, we have to add Christmas lights at Temple Square. I love it!! My pictures always look the same every year. But they make me happy so I have to post them.

Hot chocolate makes it even better!

Secret Santa

We've done a few secret santas over the years, but it's the first time we've ever been a recipient. As we went to bed on Sunday night, Phil said, "Did you put lights on our tree?" "Lights on the tree?" No. We go look out the door and our tree in our front yard has been lit as if by magic. We found this note in the door:
Phil does not like to get on top of the house to put lights on our house, so our boys have felt very deprived as EVERYONE ELSE has lights. Until now. How cute is that?? Suddenly the magic of Christmas is back at our house.

A Christmas Miracle

Jacob wore levi's to school last week. Twice. Without me nagging, heckling, or belittling (not that I would do that!) Levi's in Jacob's eyes are for special occasions and he almost always wears warm ups. But lo and behold, I put some in his drawer and waited 9 years and he finally put them on!! He looks so good and it is fun to see a new side of him. Shhhh...if he finds out I'm blogging about this I'd be in TROUBLE... (and it would be the last time he'd put them on) but I had to share my small mothering victory!