Christmas Day 2013

Christmas day was nice and relaxing.

We woke up with the boys and enjoyed watching them find their gifts from Santa.

For lunch we headed out to my great aunt's house.

OMG the food was amazing.

The boys had fun and we all did too!

Once home we had a lazy afternoon.

We eventually opened family gifts.

When we asked Griffin which gift was his favorite.

His answer was "all of them."

It is so fun to give to a child who really loves everything that he receives.

I pray that this quality stays with him in life.

I didn't take many photos, but the ones that I have I really love...

Santa left a letter for the boys.

slurp...

Cuddling with my boy that first called me momma...

Doesn't this look like a fun bunch?!?

Roman and Satch.
Gah....

Satch and Cohen

Thinking back on Christmas 2013 I have such sweet, sweet memories...

Christmas Eve 2013

This year was my favorite Christmas ever. 

We had a great time with Live.Give.Love. leading into the main event.

The birth of Jesus Christ.

We had some of our extended family over on Christmas Eve.

What started out as an ordinary night turned into so much more.

We were paid a very special visit by Santa Clause.

The kids had so much fun!  

It is so fun to experience Christmas through the eyes of the child!

After Santa left Griffin took over the evening.

He had a song list written for all to sing.

He led Christmas carols and we all joined in.

How can you not smile and have a good time right?

We rounded out the night with our Christmas Eve tradition.

The Cajun Night before Christmas read by MiMi.

(and a little help from Griffin too)

Here is a few highlights of our evening:

What a special guest at the front door.
Santa!!!

Look at their smiles.
Such JOY!

So one person wasn't thrilled to see the guy in the red suit.
Cohen...

Our family with Santa.

Santa had to run.
He had a night full of stops and we are thankful we were one of them!

Such a magical moment...

The Cajun Night before Christmas read by MiMi.

After our guests left the boys slipped into their Christmas jammies.
They set out cookies and milk for Santa.
They also said their final good byes to Lefty as he was catching
a ride back to the North Pole with Santa.

This Christmas eve will be very hard to top.

Merry Christmas to all...

and to all a good night!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning is so much fun with kids!

They woke up and were so excited about the gifts that were

left behind from Santa.

Santa left the boys a fire station filled with furniture and emergency vehicles.

He also left a fire engine that makes A LOT of noise.

The boys played all morning with their new toys.

I am so happy that they both found something that they really liked.

Griff loved playing with the fire station

and Baby Bear loved the noisy fire truck.

We got dressed and headed down the bayou for lunch.

Thanks again to Aunt Bev for opening up her house to us.

After lunch we returned home played with our new toys and enjoyed the day together.  

MiMi and Pop headed home in the afternoon.

Once Roman woke up from is nap

we opened a few more family gifts

and visited a bit with Nona Courtney.

The boys with their gifts from Santa.

Beautiful baby bear.

Handsome Griff.

Griff and his new Wiggles DVD.
He still loves these guys...

The boys found the note from Santa.

Griff and Satch playing with the fire station.

Our growing family.
Can't believe next Christmas we will be plus one more!

The boys with MiMi and Poppa.

MiMi and the boys.

Family portrait of all the boys.

Baby Bear opening up his final gift from Momma and Daddy.

Griff opening his gift from Nona Courtney.

Christmas Eve

Ever year on Christmas Eve we start the evening off with going to church.  After church we headed down the bayou to enjoy the evening with Big Pop's family.  In typical fashion food was plenty and presents were overflowing.

Everyone is so generous and giving.

We started the celebration with singing happy birthday to Jesus.

Griff opening gifts with Big Pop.

Yeah! A new DVD.

Griff and his Daddy.

Baby Bear got his fair share too.

After Griff opened EVERY ONES presents.
Yes... he helped everyone open their gifts.
He passed around the garbage to clean up.

Once we got home MiMi read Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys.
She used to read this book every year to Tio and I.
She also used to read it to our classes at school.

So sweet...

We said our prayers before heading to bed.

One last chance.  Naughty or nice?!?

Our beautiful tree waiting on Santa Clause.  

Yeah!  Santa stopped at our house!

Santa even took a minute to write a note to the boys after a quick bite to eat and drink.

'Tis the season

Here is a glimpse of all of the fun things that we did over Christmas break.

We continued several fun family traditions 

and even created a few new ones.

We took the boys out for donuts.  

They could not get enough sugar.

 Sitting at the counter 

eating their weight in sugar.

 Hanging with Daddy at the donut shop.

One of Satch's favorite childhood memories is

putting up the train at Christmas time with his Dad and brother.

He now does the same with his boys.

We had so much fun looking at Christmas lights.  

The boys are very quick at finding the lights

and the excitement never got old.

Satch and I spent the weekend downtown

to celebrate his birthday and his break from school.

We enjoyed a great meal at Maximo's,

strolled through the French Quarter,

and enjoyed one on one time together.

Thanks to MiMi and Pop for keeping the boys for the weekend.

We decorated our very own ornaments for the tree.

We wrote letters to Santa and put them in the mailbox.

We read Elf on the shelf.

It was so much fun looking for Lefty every morning.

Enjoying Griff's gingerbread house that he made at school.

Gingerbread house minus the candy.  :)

Baby Bear is my official cake tester.

We decorated our own gingerbread house.

We are so proud of our work.

Baby Bear and I had lots of fun at a kids Christmas party with friends.

Griff getting tight hugs from a class mate.

I enjoyed catching up with my high school girlfriends

 at our annual Christmas get together.

Tio headed south for Christmas so we celebrated

with our family a few days early.