Merry Christmas!

So this Christmas was a first for us. It was the first time ever that we have spent Christmas just as our little family. No parents, grandparents, or siblings. Just our little family of five. While we missed our families, we also really enjoyed the (not-so)quiet time. It felt very cozy... although, Christmas Eve dinner just wasn't the same...

I tried to make as many of the family favorites as I could handle with a two week old! The boys helped me make Grandma rolls, there was oyster stew, faux potato bologna, Maurine's jello salad, Savage corn, and dairy free Christmas cookies for little e. Good enough!

After the family service in the Ely Cathedral (complete with a donkey in church, and lots of snow outside church) we got ready for bed. First we had to lay out cookies and milk for Santa. Hope he likes dairy-free cookies!

Then E read the Night Before Christmas to the boys.

(Notice the new Christmas pjs thanks to Grandma L!) In the morning the boys couldn't wait to run down stairs and check out their stockings... to see if Santa really did arrive! Since we didn't have a fireplace in England, we left the stockings hanging on the hall tree right inside the front door. Santa figured it out! (The boys were a little worried about this...)

N's big present from Santa was this HUGE lego set. He couldn't wait to put it together!

e's present was this really cool bike / scooter thing. You sit on it like a bike, but it has no pedals like a scooter, so it forces you to balance. Mom and Dad thought it was really cool and that e would love it... not so much. Well, even Santa strikes out on gifts some times!

After breakfast it was lego building time. All the boys at the table... building legos! Just check out that concentration!

This was our first (probably of many) really lego Christmas. N got his big truck / trailer set, and we each got a little car... and N got another car and an airplane. Lots of legos!

e's favorite gift of the day was "Hullabaloo," a super fun follow the leader type game. He played it all day long... often just by himself! Crazy kid!

And finally, the lego truck / trailer set. It took him all day long, but N did it almost entirely by himself. Yup, he's our kid! Merry Christmas!