Merry Christmas! 2009

Christmas Eve we spent with my cousin and her family in Sultan-which is only 30 minutes away. She is my 2nd cousin, but she is close to our age. It's so nice to live close to family! Her parents live near Las Vegas, NV and her siblings are scattered. She is the only one who lives in Washington and I am the closest family she has. We spent Christmas Eve with her and had a really yummy dinner there. Lobster Spagetti-YUMMMMM!! The little cousins (my kids and her kids) exhanged gifts and opened them. We read the Christmas Story out of the Bible (in Luke) and then we went home to settle OUR boys into bed. Mason went willingly, Mac...not so much-because he's a teenager you know (14 going on 21 or something like that).


CHRISTMAS EVE: Mason putting out Milk and Cookies in Santa Cup and plate we have for Santa. He also wrote a letter to Santa (that he wrote himself with some help from me). He set out the letter and Santa wrote him back! Mason went to bed oh so willingly....because you know, Santa won't come until all the children are asleep-and that includes teenagers. Mason was freaking out and was affraid that MAC wasn't going to go to sleep.

We have a glass ornament that looks like a pickle. It's a German tradition that the first person who finds the pickle ornament that is hidden in the tree gets a special gift. "Our" tradition....the first person to find the pickle hidden in the tree gets to open the first present. Last year, I hid it high in the tree, not thinking Mason couldn't find it (stupid me). This year, I hid it low so Mason had a fair chance. The pickle ornament is the EXACT same color as our lovely fake tree. So it's a little hard to find. Mason started looking high like last year, hence the reason why he climbed the window to find it.

Then I told them it was "low", then I was saying "hot and cold". After about 5 minutes of searching, Lee lost his patience and told the boys to move out of the way and he would find it. He found it after 1-2 minutes. So The Dad got to open the first present and Mason got to help hand out presents (because he got really mad when Dad found the pickle).

The boys smiling nice for me....I told them if they didn't smile nice for me that we would finish opening the presents after lunch. So they smiled nice.

All of Mason's "hopes and dreams" were inside of this box.

The toy train that he asked Santa for in his letter.....and it helped that he carried the Bed, Bath and Beyond catalog since the day after Thanksgiving telling everyone that he wanted THIS train.

Hmmmm....I wonder what's in this box?

Yep, his first rifle. He was totally shocked and suprised. He didn't ask for it, but Lee felt he was ready for his own. Mac was over the moon, and he still is.

And this last pic, just because I thought he looked cute. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!