More Christmas pictures

Merry Christmas!

Sean and I have agreed that this has been the best Christmas ever! I can't exactly pinpoint why, but we had a wonderful day yesterday. Josh woke us up bright and early (actually it was even close to light yet) at 4:54am. "Santa's been here, Santa's been here!"

He came running into our room and scared us half to death, but we didn't mind, because we were as excited as he was. He woke up Nathan and tried to wake up Isaac, but even after turning on the light and yelling, "Santa's been here," he wasn't budging. I've never seen a kid sleep deeper than he does. He joined us a couple hours later.

And so the festivities began. The boys were so excited to see their gifts from Santa and to look through their stockings. Josh and Nathan got a toy ride-on 4-wheeler, and Isaac got a slide. Sean and I got each other a weight set and running shoes, so that we can continue to exercise together in the mornings and add weight-lifting to our routine. ( I currently lift about a quarter of the amount he lifts, but it would be good for me to actually tone my almost non-existent arm muscles. No body-building here, ha, ha!)

My parents got the boys an arcade style basketball hoop with two rims, which the boys ( and Sean) love! After we opened presents we set to work assembling it and the weight set. Soon we were in business, with a casual tournament going.

We enjoyed breakfast and had fun playing together. It was a great relaxing day. In the evening we had a ham dinner, with pie for dessert.

We hope all our family and friends had a great Christmas!

Enjoying the Snow

We've had snow pretty much every day for the last few days, but just the light dusting variety, and nothing to cause problems with the roads, so we've been loving it! This morning after we got home from shopping, (my friend and I traded watching each others' kids so we could get last minute things) the boys went out to play in it. At first it was trying to catch a snowflake on their tongues and it quickly turned into a snowball fight and evolved into building a tiny snowman. So far we're enjoying the Ohio weather, although that might change in a few months.

North Pole Express

On Saturday we went on the "North Pole Express" up in Lebanon. Sean works with the guy who owns it, and he got us tickets and gave us the VIP treatment. Wow, did we have fun! After boarding the train, we heard Sean's name annouced on the loud speaker that someone was trying to find him. A few minutes later a guy came around and foudn us, and it ended up being the owner's son. When we got to the "North Pole", he took us up to the engine, and we got to climb up, go inside and get a tour. Afterwards we got our picture taken with Santa, got back on the train, and enjoyed some hot cocoa and and cookies, and entertainment from some elves on the way back home. Thank you to the Hamm family! It was a memory we won't soon forget!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Don't you love that you can celebrate Christmas all month long! It finally snowed here and since it's been so cold the last several days I've been trying to find some inside activities for the boys to do so they don't go stir-crazy. Yesterday we made Christmas cookies! It's a great memory that I have, making cookies with my mom every year growing up, and I've done it with the boys almost every year. It always takes the entire afternoon and makes a huge mess, but now that we have a big island in our kitchen, why not? It's great to watch as the boys 'help' roll out the dough, cut out the shapes with cookie cutters, lines and fingerprints and all and to have a yummy treat afterwards. I love how my boys like to dive right in and help. I hope they always stay that way. :)

Hope that everyone's having a great Christmas season and staying warm. It's sounds like our 22 degrees is warm compared to a lot of places where our family and friends are right now. (Except my brothers in Ecuador and Arizona.) Merry Christmas!