'twas the night before christmas

we spent christmas eve driving around checking out houses and neighborhoods.  to make it more fun for the kids, we let them watch christmas movies in the van (normally this is only for trips that are more than two hours).  one thing i did notice while driving around several different neighborhoods is that 98% of the houses did not have christmas lights - instead they hang wreaths in the windows or something similar.  i am not sure if that is just the thing here or if it is because 99% of the homes are two-stories.  ranches are definitely only found in very new construction.

we got home from our house hunting tour around 2pm and baked sugar cookies before leaving for a 4:15pm church service.  we were about 10 minutes late to church and were only able to get two seats which meant that madelyn and mason sat on our laps.  the place was packed and they brought in a few chairs trying to keep it from being standing room only.  considering that both kids fell asleep the second they were in their car seats after the service, they were excellent.  mason was a little squirmy and madelyn had a million questions but other than that they were great.  i think it helped that i was able to bust out some crayons and paper during the message/sermon portion.

after church we had fun decorating (and eating) sugar cookies, opening presents, and getting ready for bed.  here are pictures with captions.  i can't wait for tomorrow!  i am usually more excited than the kids and will probably be the first one up - although i am sure maddux will make sure of that.  love.

the other picture showed his "first christmas" shirt best but i thought this one was cuter.  it's like he is trying to guess what is in the presents under the tree.



madelyn icing a "candy cane" shaped sugar cookie.  we used tube dough that i had nothing to use to roll out so we molded it like play-doh to make shapes.  the "candy cane" ones were the best; everything else just looked like a blob after baking.



mason mainly licked the icing and ate his sprinkles.

 

madelyn picked out these ball sprinkles at the store because they were "rainbow-colored".  i picked out peppermint sparkle/sugar sprinkles which are delicious on cookies!



this is mason's surprise/happy face when he learned that the present was for him - right before he started throwing it around like a football (see bottom video; i couldn't move it up for some reason).  i noticed this afternoon that he makes this face intentionally.  i think it is because i open my mouth wide when i am expressing exaggerated excitement to the kids about something.

this was the closest i got to a 'group' photo in our christmas jammies.  this year's theme is "snow".  it would have been "snowmen" but they didn't have a snowman print in women's tall sizes and i got snowflakes instead.

 

we also let the kids open their gifts to each other.  madelyn picked out this lightning mcqueen bucket for mason - which he loved - really.

 

and mason gave her an olivia figurine with costumes.

madelyn humoring me with a smile next to santa's cookies before going to bed.





the only picture of maddux in his christmas jammies because shortly after this picture he spit up all over them and his sleep sack.  there went my hopes for getting a picture of all three of them in their matching jammies.  maybe i will just have to do some laundry tomorrow...

and to all a good night. love.