CHRISTMAS

Christmas came extremely fast this year and we did things very differently! Christmas morning began around 10:30am. We opened gifts from Santa right away and around 11:00, Nanny and Aunt Kristy arrived with more presents for the boys. We got to spend some time with them and around 2:00 we headed to Rick's house to spend time with the Remaley side. This was a very special year for that side of the family. This is the first time that we had all 5 boys (Mike's boys & our boys) together at one time. It was great and the boys had a good time with their cousins. They also got lots more presents! It was late when we got home so we went to bed to start another busy day.

Sunday, Kelly and the boys went to her dad's house. Ben had to go early to go out to work that night. Pappy Sam and Angie gave the boys their gifts. Lukas got two new wii games, a nerf gun and a puzzle and Landon got his "Woody", a puzzle, and a toy story memory game. Landon was in heaven. He took his Buzz out with us and was playing with them together. He looked like he was the boy in the movie playing with his two toys. It was so cute! Pappy Sam bought a wii a few weeks before Christmas and Lukas was able to play his new games there. They couldn't believe how good Lukas was at playing the wii.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas. Thanks EVERYONE for all the great gifts for the boys!

Santa stopped at the Remaley's!

LOOK, Santa arrived at the Remaley's...

...he left ONE cookie :D ...

...and it looks like Lukas and Landon were good this year!

Christmas Eve

It's a family tradition to go to Christmas Eve church service and afterwards celebrate at Kelly's grandparents house. Both boys made it through the hour and a half service with no fighting. It may have been because Landon fell asleep through most of it and woke up right before we did the candlelight. Lukas was extremely well behaved and couldn't wait to take communion and light the candles! It's amazing that Lukas understands traditions and gets all excited about them. This makes the holidays really special and we are so blessed to be part of a wonderful family!

At Nanny and Pappap's the kids couldn't wait to open presents. Lukas really tore in to the gifts this year. He was the first of the three kids to finish first. Landon opened all by himself and of course wanted to play with everything he opened. We would hand him another gift and he drop whatever he had and open the next gift. He got his favorite gift (BUZZ LIGHTYEAR) and played with that toy the rest of the night.

We finally got home at 2am. The boys put out cookies and milk for santa and went to bed with no problems. They were exhausted...and so were we!

Here are just a few highlights of our Christmas Eve!

Hartwood

Tonight we took the boys out to dinner and then to Celebration of Lights at Hartwood. This was the first time for both boys. We let them ride up front with us and they really enjoyed it. It's a lengthy drive and Landon did WONDERFUL. He enjoyed every bit until the very end. Our favorite part was the forest of green and blue lighted trees and the green, white and red lighted tree. They were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Lukas' favorite part was all the lighted tunnels and Landon's favorite was the train. He said "I want to ride it, I want to ride it!" We made many great memories that we'll cherish always and forever!

Christmas Wish Lists

I forgot to attach their letters in the previous post! As you'll notice, Kelly wrote Landon's list, but he told her exactly what he wanted! We hope Santa brings them everything they want for Christmas. We'll have to wait and see!

Santa Mail

The boys wrote their Christmas lists and we promised they could mail them today. Lukas HAS TO put his mail in the red Macy's mailbox. It's one of our newer traditions. They have two mail slots on the box so Landon got to do it all by himself. He loved it. After we mailed their letters, we took them to ride the train. Landon ended up "flipping out" and Ben had to get him off the train. It wasn't a good ending and we left the mall immediately. We can't wait till he gets out of this funky tantrum stage!

Breakfast with Santa

This morning we got up and headed to AVH to have Breakfast with Santa. Lukas was all prepared to sit on his lap and chickened out as soon as it was his turn. He said he wanted to do a craft and eat before we went to see Santa. Landon is still terrified of Santa. He wants absolutely nothing to do with him, but that's exactly what we expected. He didn't even want to make a craft. He was a big ball of fun:-) Lukas made a craft and had a good time this year. He even went and visited with Santa before we left.

Trimming our Tree!

We got up Sunday morning and started decorating our tree and house. It took pretty much all day. Landon and Lukas just love going through the ornaments and now Landon is at the age were he thinks that he can play with them. Lukas was a big help taking the ornaments out of the boxes and getting them ready to hang on the tree. We think Landon is really going to enjoy Christmas this year. He gets so excited to see Christmas lights and the big blown up yard decorations, and of course wants everything he sees on TV. We are all decorated and excited for Christmas!

Landon's 3rd Christmas

Wow... we can hardly believe that it's Landon's 3rd Christmas already! We got his new ornament for his collection a couple weeks ago. We are in love with his collection too:-) We also got this new Toy Story ornament to add to our collection. Landon just loves it to pieces and thinks he can play with it. Needless to say, we had a very hard time decorating the tree this year.

Lukas' hallmark set

We finished Lukas' childhood hallmark ornament collection (1 – 5 Christmas) last year after Christmas. We were missing two and found them online. We love his cute puppy collection!