Christmas in Texas

I was surprised by how smoothly everything went over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I think it must have been having three other adult helpers in the house who could entertain the boys and help make food and hang out with us. Since this was our first official Christmas in our own home, we had to decide what traditions we wanted to actually put forth the effort to maintain. It all was really nice though.

One thing Tommy really wanted to do was to make his mom's sugar cookie frosting and to decorate our remaining sugar cookies. So check that off!

Graham didn't actually decorate any, but he did eat about six while we were trying to keep him happy while the rest of us decorated.

We had a huge smorgasbord of cookies and desserts for our post-Nativity Christmas Eve treat. Most of these cookies were from a cookie swap I went to a few weeks ago and just kept in the freezer so we could enjoy them later. Excellent planning by ME.

We had a big Christmas Eve ham and funeral potatoes for dinner... which is pretty much what we usually make for Easter, but it sounded good for Christmas too. Thanks to the three older kids helping, it came together really fast.

We then started our Christmas program--complete with a very shoddily-costumed Nativity and a Christmas musical talent show. Dane wanted to be the angel. The best we could do for a costume was to have him wear a white shirt of mine, haha. (Maybe next year we will actually figure out some more permanent costumes.

Graham was a sheep who wandered in and out of the scene as he wanted.

We had Dane write a letter to Santa and leave it on the fireplace with some cookies and milk. He also fingerpainted this picture that he wanted to leave for Santa. I thought it was so funny how Dane's interest and knowledge of Santa increased exponentially this year compared to last year. He was asking me what Santa was going to bring him for two months, and he's been talking a lot about the North Pole and asking where the reindeer live, etc. It is really cute.

After we put the boys to bed, we spent the rest of the evening playing games. It seemed appropriate to play Monopoly Deal and eat our Costco box of Jelly Bellies (which we seem to do every time we have gone to Irvine in the last few years).

But the next morning! So much fun! Graham was up for a while in the night (of course) and so he was still asleep for a while in the morning. Dane came in to our room at 7 and was so excited. We waited for a little while and then just decided to get Graham up.

Someone was very excited for his stocking.

The $1 flashlights were a big hit. They probably both would have been satisfied if they'd just gotten their stockings, haha. But of course there was more...

This awesome bean bag chair from Grandma and Grandpa Leininger (for them to read on in the toy room).

A Hot Wheels race track!!

Dane LOVES Tommy's robe that he has and when I found these at Costco I couldn't resist. They also got some monkey slippers like mine, which they also both adore.

Graham's big present were this digger and front loader. He was excited but it all got eclipsed by the awesome air patroller that made noise that Dane got. I should have gotten Graham a digger that made sounds. But oh well.

Tommy was thrilled about his present of It's a Wonderful Life! Haha. It's a running family joke that we Murphys used to watch this movie every Christmas but Tommy and Brandon both don't like it. They think it's too sad. I bought it this year but just as a joke wrapped it up for Tommy. Don't worry, I also got him a Muppet Christmas Carol, which is actually one of his favorite Christmas movies, so he wasn't too disappointed.

After we opened all the presents, both boys were REALLY excited to play with the race track. This has been a hit--they've both been playing with it nonstop ever since. 

Dane was completely satisfied and happy with his race track and air patroller, and for the first time I didn't feel like he got too many presents that overwhelmed him. (The last few years there have been so many extra presents from family members that Dane got so overwhelmed after just a few presents.) Each boy got a book, a robe/slippers, a toy (the digger and air patroller), and then they shared the bean bag chair and race track. Plus various other presents from grandparents and great-grandparents, and Dane picked out some Hot Wheels cars for Graham. (Seriously, the Hot Wheels cars have probably been the most played with toys that we got.) But I tried really hard to not over-buy this year--and I probably could have gotten them NOTHING and they still would have had plenty of presents. It all worked out great.

Troy sent an awesome scavenger hunt for the boys as his present to them. Inside the treasure chest we found at the end, there were some awesome moustaches for Dane (plus some candy and toys, etc.). It was such a cute idea for a present!

Dane enjoying several of his Christmas presents at once--the bean bag chair, his Ecuador soccer jersey from Grandma, and his Paw Patrol book from Bethany. 

We all got dressed and went to church--these two looked so cute in their Christmas sweaters!

We had Christmas dinner at the Myres' house with all the cousins, and spent a long afternoon playing games outside and relaxing. It was really nice. Thank you to Kristin for feeding us on Christmas day!

I had been a little bit stressed/worried about making sure everything went smoothly for Christmas (as 100% of moms do, I bet), especially because we also had Austin, Bethany, and Cole here and I didn't want any of them to be disappointed or to feel like this wasn't Christmas-y enough. But I was so pleased that everything went well and everyone was happy with their presents, and I had gotten so much done beforehand (like all the wrapping and planning) and we had so much help from Austin, Bethany, and Cole that I didn't feel stressed at all on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. It was just relaxing and happy. It was definitely a merry Christmas!