Santa Came to Our House!

The boys were SO excited to see overflowing stockings by the hearth.  We asked them to hug each other, but it was just not happening. This is as close as we could get to a good picture of them in their matching bed heads and jammers.

Santa brought Josh some spy glasses -- they have mirrors in them so you can see behind you. Which, evidentally, takes quite a bit of concentration.

The Wrights got Luke a bunch of camping stuff, including a coonskin hat.  He looks fantastic in it, as you can imagine.

The stockings were a huge hit.  This is Luke looking into his for goodies.

This ain't Josh's first rodeo -- he chose the Big Chair and sat on down to get through this business of the stocking.  And it was quite business like. One thing at a time, announce it, set it on the arm of the chair and move on.

Luke got a cars racing track -- it was the biggest (sized) present of the day.

And it was a huge hit -- he loved it all day!

Christmas Eve

For breakfast, Jr was in charge of biscuits and gravy. Bonnie helped out and spun this right into Martha Stewart-ness with tree shaped bisuits. My mind has been blown.

Quite a mother and son team, don't you think?

Before our 3:00 church service, we spread the Reindeer Food out on the front lawn.  It was oats and glitter so the reindeer could see and smell the way to our house. Josh was, as ususal, all business, trying to get proper coverage and the most attractive display for the reindeeer.

Luke didn't give two craps about this whole rigamaroll, he threw his out onto the snow and looked back like, now what?  (as an aside, Josh is rearranging his reindeer food in this picture, apparently his first application wasn't quite right.)

The Tradition Continues



Gramma Harley has made a gingerbread house with Josh every year since he was able to stand up at the counter.  She's got patience of a saint.



Something about his face just cracks me up -- it's almost as if he's bored with this whole task.  Also, please note that he's in his "sunday best" clothes on December 23.  That's because we went to Gabe's house to deliver some hand made Bobcats and Grizzly flags.  Gotta dress up for a special day like that.

And the anti-serious child, Luke.  He liked eating his candies more than placing them on the house. He kind of did a "one for hte house, three for me kind" of delivery method.

But there's nothing wrong with that.

Who is Joe Michaels?

Keep this on the DL -- We have a spy in our house. His name is Joe Michaels, and he was born on July 21, 2006.  He's pretty high tech with 4 different ID cards at his disposal.  Check him out.

Joe Michaels was completely Josh's idea. I asked him if he wanted to use his real name or a fake one for his cards, and he busted with Joe Michaels, complete with a fake birthday. He even did a signature on the Elevator Repair card.  This kid gets it.

Winter Wishes

Josh was walking to the car from his Winter Wishes school program.  I think he looks so proud of the job he just did.  The Kindergarten classes sang 4 songs, plus two "entire student body" numbers. 

This is half of the right half of the stage -- there are about 100 Kinders in our school. It's no small feat just getting them all on stage at once!

They got on stage to the music called "Skating" from Charlie Brown's Christmas, and they were all swaying back and forth.  So stinkin cute!

This one's my favorite -- it's when the lyrics say "special night" from the song "Must Be Santa"

This is from the "Happy Hanukkah" song.

Another one from "Must Be Santa" -- this is one is "cap that's red". I'm such a sucker for this stuff.  (the other songs they sang were Jingle Bells with just the K's and We Wish You A Merry Christmas with the whole school. 

Boys on Parade

Out of the blue, Luke came out of the play room wearing this costume from Halloween 2009.  And that sparked an all out dress up parade. Check these silly boys out! 

The Barnard Santa was a big event for our kids.  He gives one present for each child, and it seems like all of our friends are there.  In this picture tehre are two kids we don't really know well, but other than that, this is our social circle.  Left to Right:  stranger girl, Gabe, Luke, Ashtyn, stranger girl, Ty, Kyler, Josh and Ady. 

Luke was beside himself with excitement. He clapped and hopped when he saw santa coming and even yelled "Thereth going to be prethenth!"

When santa called his name, he popped up and accepted it so quickly. He had been waiting for this moment all morning.

Josh waited anxiously too. His was the last wrapped present. His sweet friends Kyler and Gabe waited to open their present with Josh. How about that for friendship?

Examining the present.

And evaluating the present. He got some kind of Transformer Battle Station type thing, he loves it.

The Presents!

Luke was so excited to open gifts.  Look at the tenacity he's showing here!

Oh, and the conentration. What is this exactly?  It's a remote control Finn McMissile.  Woah.

I love love love this picture. The arching of his back alone makes me happy! 

His sweet eyes just slay me. This awesome logging set up is from Uncle John - now we can send our logs to the mill just like a real Timber Industry Worker. :)

He got a tower crane that is taller than he is. It's what he'd been asking for, but he kept saying a Real Crane, so I was worried he wouldn't like this three-foot tall remote control, working crane.  Oh was I wrong!  He loved it!  He shouted "This is what I wanted!  A REAL crane!" 

His loving brother gave him a camelback of his own.  Now they can hike and be hydrated simultaneously.

The Cake

Luke wanted a cake shaped like a dog bone, so the bakers at Safeway came through for him with a cupcake cake.

He loved the cake, and loved the attention!

The darn "3" candle blew over just as he was about to blow it out.  Oh well, still have to love this picture and the cheeks!

I love this progression. Luke trying his cupcake.  Daintily swiping his finger through the frosting.

And then diving into licking the plate -- with the full, in tact cupcake still on it!

I swear he put over 1/2 of the cupcake in his mouth all at once.  And then leaned back to start working on it.

Seriously -- that's a mouth full!

Everyone else enjoyed their cupcakes, but the frosting was quite messy. Gabe even got it on his perfect little nose.  He was a sport and kept it there for pictures.