Christmas 2013

This year we continued our tradition of having the boys draw each others' names for Christmas.  We decided to let them open their gifts from each other a little early because we went up to Edmonton for Christmas.  It was absolutely wonderful to watch them get so excited to give each other their gifts.  Ryrie chose George's name and made him a puzzle of our family and gave him a stuffed Angry Bird with some candy.  George chose Will's name and gave him a hockey poster and some suckers (it was hard for him to give those away--and to keep it a secret!)  William chose Ryrie's name and gave him a hockey poster and some gum.  Owen chose Tommy's name and gave him a handmade penguin, some trash packs, gum, and an elastic bracelet, as well as a wonderful handmade card.  Tommy gave Owen a Harry Potter movie and jelly beans.  James and I decided that this exchange was the best part of Christmas.

Another thing I would like to start doing for the boys is making a gift for them by hand.  This year I made them these scripture boards.  James and I decided to choose short scripture masteries that we thought kind of matched up with each boy.  I had a friend make the vinyl lettering and cut me the boards (okay, so I didn't totally make this gift from scratch!) and I painted them and put the letters on.  I think they turned out really neat and I think the boys appreciate them, or they will come to.  James also made the boys their own set of uplifting cds from the Youth section of lds.org.  We gave these gifts a little early as well--the Sunday before Christmas.

We didn't notice until a couple of weeks later that something was wrong with Georgie's board.  Can you spot it?  Guess I have some more work to do!

The first thing we did when we got to Edmonton was take the three oldest boys and Grandma to an Oilers game.  It was a very exciting game and the Oilers won 6-2.  There were also some "good" fights, according to the boys.  We were very glad that our team won.

Reconnecting with the cousins and enjoying Grandma's Christmassy front room

On Christmas Eve day we took everyone sledding.  This is one of our favorite activities to do with the cousins in the winter in Edmonton.

George was my buddy--lucky me, eh?

Christmas Eve the kids acted out the Nativity.  George was supposed to be a shepherd (the only one actually) but he really wanted to ride a camel.  Finally the obliging camel moved over to be by the sheep.  

The boys actually fell asleep pretty quickly Christmas Eve--probably because they had already had a lot of late nights leading up to it. 

Classic Christmas Morning Lineup--sporting their new Christmas pjs.

One tough dude!

Another tough dude

James and I felt good about our gifts this year--we felt we didn't go too overboard and we got things the boys can enjoy doing together.  That's the way we like it.  :-)

The boys had so much fun with their cousins.  We also took the three oldest to the Hobbit, which we all enjoyed.  We went swimming at a fun pool one day, and to do baptisms at the temple another day.  There was lots of playing in Grandma's, at Uncle Lloyd's, and across the street at the playground.
When we came home, there was a package from Grandpa and Nana waiting for us, so Christmas kept on going, even though we took the decorations down before the New Year.  It was certainly a memorable and wonderful Christmas!