We had such a great Christmas vacation this year. The boys have been counting down the days until Christmas since well before Thanksgiving and we were all excited to have Dash and Daddy stay home from school for a while.
 |
| The boys in the snow. It takes about 20 minutes of work to get them ready for less than 30 minutes of playing outside. |
 |
| Snow angels by three little devils! |
You can never have too many sweets in the house at Christmas time so the Sunday before Christmas the boys made a huge mess...I mean, the boys made treats.
 |
| Dipping marshmallows in chocolate and sprinkles. |
It started snowing on Christmas Eve which seemed to actually escalate the boys' level of excitement (I know, who knew that was possible?). That evening we went with the Booths and the missionaries to do some caroling and drop off treats at a few houses around town and then we came home to have our own little Christmas Eve dinner and track Santa through the Internet.
 |
| Our "candlelight" dinner. |
 |
| The boys helped make special Christmas pizzas |
After dinner, Dash and Colt prepared Santa's treats and they didn't forget the reindeer either. Dash felt sure that Santa was flying Rudolph that night since he saw a red-nosed reindeer on the Santa tracker screen. So he asked me to write the following note to put with Santa's cookies and the reindeers' carrots (written verbatim)-
Dear Santa, These carrots are for all your reindeer If you have extras, then give them to Rudolph. Love, The Madsens
Then Colt asked me to add the following-
P.S. Take a treat home to a very good elf.
The boys were so excited for Santa that they actually gave themselves anxiety. Colt worried that he would wake up in the night and then Santa wouldn't stop at our house and Dash worried that he would wake up in the night and hear/see Santa. I think the idea of running into a stranger in the house, even if it is Santa, kind of creeped him out. In the end, we got the boys into bed full of excited anticipation.
 |
| Christmas Eve after Santa's arrival. There are all sorts of extra presents under the tree because for the last few weeks leading up to Christmas the boys had been wrapping up different objects from around the house and placing them under the tree. |
The boys stayed up late waiting for Santa so they didn't wake up until a very reasonable 7 am. They loved everything they got, thanked us repeatedly, sang Santa's praises and immediately began playing with everything and eating their treats. Well, mostly. Sport got distracted through the present opening process and didn't actually get his final present opened until sometime in the afternoon after his nap.
 |
| Christmas morning. Santa actually left "snowy footprints" on the carpet that magically don't melt. The boys were impressed. |
 |
| All the boys playing with the new train set while Sissy rocked in her swing. |
All time favorite Christmas moments of 2012-
Going to visit the widows in the ward
Singing Christmas carols as a family
Dropping off neighborhood treats
Watching Dash wrap up some of his favorite old pjs to give to Colt
Seeing Colt give Sport his prized stuffed animal
Listening to the boys retell the Christmas story as found in the Book of Mormon
Realizing how lucky I am to have the Gospel and the hope the Savior's birth and life bring
No comments:
Post a Comment