Santa Came!

And Santa came! We all slept in until 7:30ish (Christmas miracle) and after making the boys wait a little bit, started opening presents. The boys loved all of them and I have to say, except for the very spring weather required items, have enjoyed playing with everything they got. Success!

Merry Christmas!

The 2016 Christmas Card. I think it was the first year that I used pictures I, myself, had not taken. 

Christmas Eve

It was a quiet Christmas Eve. After a lasagna dinner, we put on some decent clothes and headed for 7:30 mass. Nick did his thing and colored a few pictures during church. After the Our Father, I look over at Nick and he is talking to the woman next to us, of a grandmother age. He then gives her the picture he's been coloring that is originally intended for Santa. The woman starts sobbing! Which in turn makes me cry...I wasn't really sure why she was crying, but it was Christmas eve and I figured it was just a hard year or something. After church, the husband came over to me and said Nick was a little Christmas miracle. It was their first Christmas without kids and grandkids around and it was a little hard. Nick's picture gift made their Christmas Eve much more special. Which in turn made our Christmas Eve more special!

So Cozy

After an adventure refilling all the bean bags, they were promptly put to good use watching Lord of the Rings. 

Enjoying Winter Break

After a whole lot of arguing, I got both boys out of the house and headed to Imagination Station. It wasn't quite as empty as it had been in November, but it still wasn't really crowded. The boys love playing in the Tinker room. Ben was playing with circuts for a while and they both played with the pressurized bottle car race. I was lazy and didn't take many pictures, though. I read a book while they did their thing. 

Lights at the Zoo

Trying not to show how cold we really were...

My camera was even cold. I'm not sure what happened, but somehow it underexposed the right side of the picture, but it looks really cool. Poor camera couldn't handle the cold!

Lights at the Zoo - Bumper Cars

Tuesday afternoon we bundled up as much as possible and headed to the zoo. We got their before dark, and walked around to see some animals. We didn't wander far because it was so cold out. Because we were there before the crowds, we let the boys do the tubing hill and the bumper cars. Luckily, they were both tall enough to drive. The bumper cars were pretty fun! Nick spun out several times.

 

A 5 minute video of the entire experience

Winter Swimming

Nothing like burning off energy like swimming in the hotel pool. We had the pool all to ourselves, which was good since they are so loud. And it was warm in the pool area, another bonus. 

An Early Balyeat Christmas

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Sarah came to visit the weekend before Christmas. After a day of seeing all the family, we came home and had an early Christmas. The boys got lots of cool stuff, including monkey lights for the bikes and their own set of kitchen knives and cookbooks! They also got some good books, bathrobe, slippers and a sleeping pillow.

And then Nick decided to become a videographer and video everyone else opening their presents.