Christmas 2012

I have been home sick with a stomach virus for a few days so bear with me. But I wanted to get Christmas blogged before Spring! Since we did so much I'll just post some pictures with descriptions becasue this post is already going to be really long as it is.

I worked on Christmas Eve but as soon as I got off we headed straight for my dad's house for Christmas with my side of the family.

Then we headed home and made sure to put out the reindeer food we made at the Christmas Bash.

And made cookies. I cheated a little and made the dough the night before since I knew we wouldn't have enough time to make them on Christmas Eve.

And since we don't have a chimney we left Santa a key just in case it had been a long night and his magic was a little hit or miss.  (Keep in mind with the key I'm crafty not stupid.)

Time for presents!

The Toy Story Toy was for sure the most loved gift from mommy and daddy.

The last gift was to the whole family it was Christmas jammies for everyone, candy, popcorn and a new Christmas movie to watch.

Movie time before bed!

Then Max left cookies and milk for Santa and headed for bed to read "The Night Before Christmas."

Then Santa came to visit!

He left new beds and a treat for Herman and Maddie.

Max made out pretty big this year too.

The first look. He woke up at 6:30 and we weren't expecting that so we had to put him in our room until my dad could get there. My dad likes to make the rounds to all the local grand kids and we didn't expect Max to get up so early. I think my dad just likes to compare breakfast at each house, ha ha. Of course, we had monkey bread as usual, yum!

We even had a little snow.

We laid around watching Christmas movies all day and playing with our new toys Some of us may have even squeezed in a nap. It was the best day!

We even made time to decorate a gingerbread house too when Granny came over. Max almost ate more than he put on.

And we finished the night off with one of my boys favorite dinners and hot cocoa. This was Max's first time to have hot cocoa and the kid is addicted! My parents came over for dinner too and made it really special. It was nice to have people you care about around you for the holidays. I wish my whole family could have been there but we all have our own kids and traditions. It helps me cherish the time I do get to spend with them. I'm so sad that it is over but I'm already thinking of next year.  

Time to Cook

To get ready for the Christmas Bash Max and I made all of the stuff in advance to make sure that we would actually be able to do it, and to give everyone an idea of how it worked up. Also just in case I was busy with party stuff and didn't have time to do it with Max he will have gotten to do it too. It worked out pretty good. Especially because his bulb ornament broke so we still had the original we made. Max has really shown an interest in cooking lately and he has been using words really well when we do. So I have been letting him whenever we can. He even knows to get out his stool to stand on and is a big helper. He loved making the play dough. I figured he would loose interest but it never happened. Who knows maybe I have a little Bobby Flay on my hands!

The Brown's Christmas Bash

On a whim I decided to have a Christmas party for Max and his friends on the 15th. And for some reason I thought that a week was plenty of time to plan the bash. Luckily I kept it small so there was time and it went really great. I got jealous when my sister told me about an ornament party she was doing for her kids at the church. So I thought in true little sister fashion I want one too! Everyone came dressed in their favorite jammies and we had a ton of fun activities. We decorated Christmas tree magnets, ornaments including salt dough, made reindeer food for Christmas Eve and decorated plates for cookies for Santa, . We ended the night with a movie and treats. I got a few pictures but thanks to Christie who got several pictures to share I can now share them with you too. I think I have decided to make this an annual party so next year I will have plenty of time to plan it and people will have more than a weeks notice too.

The Snacks

Christmas Tree Magnets

Plates for Santa's cookies

Mrs Christie read "The Night Before Christmas"

 

Reindeer Ornaments. We made salt dough too but I never got a picture of those, sorry.

Making Reindeer food

Ending the night with a movie and snacks. It was a success!

A Whirlwind Christmas

Christmas seemed to be flying by and it makes me a little sad because I love this time of  year so much that I don't want it to end. I haven't blogged much because I have wanted to be so in the moment that I haven't had time to record all the moments yet. We have had something going every weekend since Thanksgiving. Of course, we visited my sister's family in Texas Thanksgiving weekend. Then of course there has been plenty of shopping, and the first weekend this month we drove to Yukon for the famous Christmas in the Park which is 100 acres of Christmas lights! Then the 2nd weekend this month we went to the Parade of Lights in Downtown Edmond and went to all our favorite spots to look at Christmas lights around the metro. Max has gotten so into Santa and the spirit of Christmas it has made me love this time of year even more which I didn't think was even possible. We really enjoyed the parade as usual and thanks to Papa we had some tasty hot chocolate to top it off and keep us toasty warm while we took it all in.

Christmas in the Park

We loaded up in the car after dinner in our jammies and hit the road! Jeff and I knew it was going to be good when we were making our way off the exit and to the begining and there was Santa on the back of a motorcycle waiting to turn left. I wish I could have gotten a picture but Max really got a kick out of it. As we turned into the park all Jeff and I heard for the next 45 minutes to an hour was "oh, mommy daddy look", "Oh pretty", and sound effects that went with the theme like "vroom vroom" for the car display. We have never been to the light festival and I think we will definitely be back again next year. I took so many pictures, but her are some of our favorites.

And so it begins!

  The big trucks

 Elves hauling in a Christmas tree.

 This poinsettia tree was my favorite!

 Dinosaurs

 Santa's Workshop, it was bigger but I could only get this much in the shot.

 Edmond Parade of Lights

The next weekend we parked the car in downtown Edmond and walked over to Taco Bueno to grab some dinner before the parade. My dad came too and we made a night of it. I brought blankets and popcorn and Papa brought the hot chocolate. Max's little friend Nicholas even spotted us at the parade and came over with his grandma to say hi and ended up watching the parade with us in the Jeep. After the parade we went and hit all of the hot spots around the metro. Some old favorites like Chesapeake and new little neighborhoods too.Once Max fell asleep we knew we had the perfect amount of fun and ended the night right.

Apparently we were not the only people who decided to grab dinner before the parade cause when we got there it was packed! But it slowly started to thin out as the parade got closer.