Category — Celebrations

The day after Thanksgiving we broke out the Christmas decorations. And by we, I mean Bill. Will really enjoyed getting out and decoration the tree this year!

I’m not exactly sure what Will was doing here but I think making sure the tree branches were just right.

Putting on the ornaments. Will has enjoyed being able to touch the ornaments this year – as long as he’s gentle.

Thomas wasn’t sure what all this activity was all about! But he was definitely curious about the lights.

Will has played with the “tivity” every day this December. He prefers to set it up on stairs and then yell whenever anybody goes up or down “don’t step on my tivity!”

Thomas has surprisingly not gotten into to much trouble with the Christmas tree. Just once have I caught him playing with an ornament he took off the tree.

We didn’t get most of our Christmas decorations out this year but we did decorate the mantel.

Merry Christmas!

Since Will’s first Christmas we have gone back and forth on whether we would “do” Santa at our house or not. And 3 years later I think we’ve come to a solution that will work for our family. It really couldn’t wait much longer since Will is old enough to understand most things!

The short answer is: We don’t do Santa. But, it’s really not as simple as that (nothing ever is)! I hope I am able to describe how we feel in a clear and meaningful way.

Advent: During the Christmas season we strive to put as much emphasis on Christ as possible. For that reason, we celebrate Advent in our home each year. We read Scripture each night of Advent that tells the entire story of Christ from the beginning of the world to His return as Savior & King. We hope that Advent will become a treasured tradition for our boys and not simply a countdown to Christmas.

Gifts: We want to teach our children that we give gifts (to our family, friends & others) at Christmastime to celebrate the gifts that God has given us. We want them to be generous towards others and not just in December but year round and Christmastime has lots of opportunities to pick presents for other children, donate food, or send gifts around the world through Compassion, World Vision, etc.

If we stop to think about all the gifts that God has given us, I think we would describe those as lavish. God’s love for us is lavish – he held nothing back not even the life of his only Son. In that way, the gifts that we give our children may be lavish. Or if you prefer, we are probably going to spoil our kids at Christmas! This does not mean that we are going to buy things that we cannot afford.

Santa: If we don’t “do” Santa what does that mean exactly? We’re not 100% sure but this is what we think it will look like.

The gifts our kids receive at Christmas will be from us.

We won’t use Santa as a discipline technique – “You better be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents.”  One, we don’t want to give our authority as parents away to anything. Our kids should (or suffer the consequences) obey us because we’re they’re parents. Two, if we give gifts as a representative of God’s gifts to us – God does not withhold the ultimate gift of salvation because we aren’t good. Thank goodness, salvation is by grace alone and not because of anything we do or don’t do!

As our kids get older, we will explain why people celebrate Christmas with Santa by telling them about the real St. Nicholas and how generous and giving he was.

We’ll still get our kids picture made with Santa because it’s fun!. We are definitely not “bah-humbug” about Santa but feel like this is best for our family. So, what do you do at your house?

On Friday night we ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Dixon Family.Pam & Thomas playing with the school bus.

Will & Daddy wrestling.

Daddy Bill tickling Will.

Karen brought her puppies – they were a big hit.

Thomas & Will petting the pups.

Aubrey & Greyson decided it was easier to just get in the box.

Will & Aubrey digging into the cake!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the first time in 7 years we didn’t have to travel for Thanksgiving and it was so nice {and relaxing}! We’re already looking forward to having Christmas at our house this year too

The first thing we did was make our casseroles & cakes for all our celebrations. Will couldn’t wait to lick the mixer

As usual, I couldn’t keep the boys out of the fridge.

I wanted to take some pictures of the boys in their turkey shirts but Will just wanted to get his picture made with his truck!

He’s such a little man!

Brother picture time!

These faces capture their personalities perfectly!

After rest it was time to eat some turkey!

Thomas was extra thankful that he got new teeth just in time to eat turkey & broccoli.

PawPaw & Thomas playing music.

Happy 1st Thanksgiving Thomas!

After dinner Thomas went through all the sale ads to see what he wanted for Christmas – he decided he would rather have the sale ads!

The week before Thanksgiving we had Thanksgiving lunch with Mrs. Regg’s class at Snow Hill. They boys thought her classroom was fun and Will was SO impressed that the kids knew their ABC’s!

Will liked the “free center” time and played with blocks & puzzles. Thomas was a bit hit with all the K girls

My little Indian Native American loved his feathers but wouldn’t put on his jacket because “it hurt.” (I think it was just too stiff for his liking!)

Will would not smile at the lunch table! I think he was overwhelmed at all the people that were in the cafeteria. But he thoroughly enjoyed his lunch especially the large cookie and biscuit.

Will made a great friend during the course of a couple of hours and when we went to the playground they were inseparable! We looked over to find Will and his friend on the seesaw.

November 2 was a very busy day with movers unloading at the new house, Bill went back to work and it was Will’s birthday!! While I was with the movers Will spent the day “working” with Papa. It was the perfect thing for him to do on his birthday since “working” is one of his favorite things to do. That night we celebrated his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese!

This truck was Will’s favorite thing to ride! He had Nonny guard it so nobody else would use it while he went to the bathroom

There was a simulation roller coaster – and we rode it with our hands up

Opening his presents. He wore his hat backwards all night because “sometimes boys wear it like this.”

He loves Chuck E. Cheese!

Blowing out the trick candles

Happy Birthday Will!!

*** Somehow my Mom and Bill’s Dad didn’t get in any pictures all night long! But, they were there to help us celebrate***

We ate, we shopped and now we’re going to eat again!