Christmas in August

As in...I am just getting around to blogging about Christmas--in  August. :) It was so wonderful to celebrate Christmas in our new house!

Soon after we moved here I became a room mom for Caleb's new classroom. So fun. I was in charge of a craft for the winter party.  I decided to have them make these marshmallow snowmen. Thanks for the idea, Sue!

I probably looked like a fool because I was literally laughing out loud on my walk to his classroom. They have all the room parents meet in one area and at exactly 1:30pm they open the doors for only those that have the official room parent green badge. It seemed like Black Friday when they open the store doors with people running and grabbing their carts and wagons full of stuff and taking off for their child's classroom. Hard core stuff, I'm telling you!! :) It gave me a serious case of the giggles. I wish I would have pulled out my phone to take a video. But it felt like a rite of passage--I think I am now officially a real mom. :)

During the holiday season we also made a plethora of treats and goodies including sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies with some friends. Somehow...I have pictures of one cookie. None of the kids rolling them out, using the cookie cutters, decorating the cookies--just a picture of one cookie. I'm cool like that.

We also did a gingerbread house as a family--see a previous post.

We had several encounters with Santa this year. One at Chick-fil-a



One at our awesome new neighbor's wonderful party



And another encounter at our church Christmas party. Look closely. Does this Santa look familiar?

Somebody at our house was moonlighting as Santa again this year. I may or may not find it hilarious.

So fun decorating a new house for Christmas. I really really really wish I would have taken some video of our Dial Adventures in Christmas Decorating 2012. Chris especially had some crazy contortionist moves putting up different lights and trees and such. Hilarious. That's all I can say. But...you will have to settle for the one picture I took. Carson's turn to put the star on top this year.


Christmas Eve--we unwrapped Christmas pajamas, read the nativity and had a really good discussion, and the boys put out reindeer food from Caleb's awesome teacher at school



They also put out cookies for Santa


Just a little excited.

Once the boys were in bed, Chris and I embarked on yet another hilarious adventure. Growing up, we always had a blanket hanging in the doorway to our family room where all our presents from Santa were hiding. We would wake up and eat a big yummy breakfast and the anticipation would build and build as the blanket kept our presents hidden and we would wonder if Santa came. We have kept that tradition. However, we ran into a bit of a dilemma with our new house. It has a nice open floor plan--which we love. But how do we cover up that room with a blanket. I'll tell you how--with mad engineering and sewing skills! Chris and I just laughed and laughed and giggled as we were trying to rig this thing. But alas--we eventually conquered. And quite nicely I might add.

And oh the anticipation on Christmas morning--it is something I will always remember. It is just unbelievably fun for me to see my boys running in circles and squealing. I just love it. Here are a few pictures that I could find from Christmas morning:






And oh that Santa is so awesome! This year he again wrapped up a clue for one of Caleb's presents. But this year Caleb first had to decipher a code and figure out the clue. It was so fun watching Caleb be so giddy and Carson be giddy with him--even if he didn't know why he should be giddy with him. :)

And well, since it's almost Christmas again...we will call it good for now.