Christmas 2014

Soooo, I have A LOT of catching up to do on the blog since it's the tail end of January and I haven't posted since my birthday in mid November...  I'll just say Thanksgiving was really nice.  I always love when my family gets together.  We missed having my little brother there, but it was a good day.

Now, Christmas!  We had a lot of fun this Christmas!  I really wanted to fill Christmas to the rim with fun since last Christmas I was so sick and feeling terrible.  I'm so glad Harrison is on the outside this year because I really really loath being pregnant!  Like every year we followed comfessionsofaslackermom's 24 days of Christmas.  The boys are always sad when it's over, but this is the first year there were no tears when we told them Christmas is here, so we get to go back to reading our Book of Mormon stories.  Actually, I think it helped that their great grandma and grandpa Nuffer sent them a new book about Temples that we've been reading.
To add to all our fun and activities we also did some service and made treats for family and friends, Here is what else we did for Christmas this year-

The first activity that kicked off the season was Jackson's school Winter Fest.  It was fun!  More fun than I envisioned as I thought it was going to be overly crowded and our time would be spent in lines, but that wasn't how it was at all.  It wasn't too crowded!  The boys went from room to room playing games and winning prizes.

We did have to wait in line to get inside, but it wasn't long at all.

The boys showing off their wrist bands to get in.

Austin was so excited "to go to school"!

Austin held the door for people.

Jim has done an excellent job being a good example for how the boys should treat women and others.  Here's a little proof.

They even fight over who gets to hold the door open for strangers. ;)

He's so handsome!

The boys wanted to get their face painted first.  It took the poor lady 4 tries to get Jackson's right and I never got a picture.  Then he ended up having a skin reaction.  You'd think I'd/he'd learn, every time he gets his face painted he gets a rash.

Then it was time for games.  I won't fill this entry with tons of pictures of them playing games (though I could), here are just a couple-

Bingo!

And the puzzle room-

All in all Winter Fest was fun and we can't wait to go back next year!

We also did A LOT of crafts this year because I LOVE CRAFTS!  I didn't get too many pictures though, but here are a couple.

We want to start the tradition of going on the Polar Express every other year and going to Santa Land on the Nuffer Express during the in-between years.  We went on the real Polar Express last year, so this year was time for the Nuffer Family Polar Express!

I made them golden tickets.

And then we loaded everyone up in the Nuffer Express, better known as mommy's van (treat bags in tow- my boys don't like hot chocolate, so we didn't have any).
While daddy waited in line to see the Big Guy the boys and I checked out all the lights and displays.
...apparently I didn't clean up these photos first.

Harrison was so so good while we walked around, but he was especially good the entire time we waited in line to see Santa.  I was so impressed!
Doesn't he look like a Who from Whoville? So cute!

Waiting in line...

And finally it was time!
Santa!

We also attended a live Nativity.
We missed our own churches Nativity event because 2 of our 3 boys were sick, and can you believe the well one was Austin!?
This was the only picture I got of the live Nativity though.
And it's just of Harrison and me.
We were going so slow that he was screaming (Harrison doesn't like it when the car stops), so he got to be held by mommy.  Up front.
Talk about VIP.

We even ventured to the mall (dang you, Children's Place, for your enticing "monster sales"!  But thank you for the $5 slippers!).  Surprisingly it wasn't crowded and it was super close to Christmas.

I almost forgot St Nick day!  It was probably the first activity we did/celebrated since it's Dec 5th.
The boys made their lists for Santa.  I wish I had a picture of Jackson's list.  It was comical.  He wanted and I quote, "toys, candy, food, drinks, clothes, and more food".
Apparently, we don't feed him enough...?

Here they are with their letters in their stockings ready for Santa!

And one more because this one is just so sweet!
Austin's such a little love bug!

Just the big boys-
I love their faces in this picture- it's exactly their personalities!

And our tiny jolly Santa-

We did some other fun things, but I really need to move on, sooo
Christmas Eve!
They opened their Christmas Eve gift to find new Star Wars jammies and new slippers!
A Mo Willems (Pigeon) activity book and reindeer food.
They still haven't caught on that they get pajamas and books every year on Christmas Eve.
Austin got new outer space jammes (it's as close to Star Wars as I could get in his size), but they were still too big.  He's so much smaller than his brothers were, I'm still adjusting.
Then, it was time for bed!

And then it was time for Santa to show!

So believe it or not, we cut our Christmas budget by A LOT!  Santa was unaware how much smaller the new stockings are compared to their old stockings.  ...oops.
This year (and from now on) Jim and I have decided to do a big family gift (this year it was a PS4) and then each child gets 4 gifts (something to wear, something they need, something they want, and something to read).  It was really hard not to go crazy like I have every year until this one, but we want the boys to know the real reason for Christmas and cut back on the commercial end of it.
But they have quite a few grandparents and ALL of their grandparents and great grandparents go all out for Christmas, so they still had WAY TOO MUCH stuff!
And I should add, Jackson got the flu the week before Christmas and so the rest of us had the flu the week of Christmas.  Awesome.  BUT it wasn't nearly as bad as a couple years ago when we all got the flu together and for that I am grateful!

Here they are opening a few things-

Quickly, quickly- a few little things that explain life in this house (read Harrison's clothing):

He had a few variations of this shirt/bib.
Guess how bought them all?
And it's so true.  Grandma Marlow spoils these boys like crazy!  But they sure love their grandma!

And last Christmas picture that I think is kinda funny.
I woke up one morning and this is what I found-  it looks like Hermie is trying to save the ginormous penguin from falling over.
Maybe Toy Story is right... Maybe our toys do come alive when we're gone??
It made me giggle a little.

Merry (late) Christmas from the Nuffers!