CRAZY FUN CHRISTMAS

He likes to build houses, so he arranged the presents to suit his needs, then he is firing his super blaster from his new bunker.

Our Costumes, Mary, a Wise Man, and our Star-baby Jesus

Super-shepard-man

Lucas's first Letter to santa. He has been on a kick where he thinks it is hilarious to close his eyes when I try to take a picture of him.

I transcribed his wishes as follows: Can you give me presents for toys? I could like a Reindeer in the snow. I could likes some diggers in the snow Thank you for your help. I'll leave you something to eat.

Santa brounght me Diggers!

Lucas was gracious enough to tear open James's presents for him.

The destruction

Christmas was so much fun at our home. We enjoyed blending traditions from all our family. Christmas Eve we had shrimp and munchies. I made my first cheese ball, and it was pretty good. We re-enacted the nativity, and then watched the Nativity movie made by our church. Lucas had fun doing both. By the end of the evening he turned his Shepard and wise man costumes into Supershepardman. Lucas picked to open up a Nerf gun, and played with that all evening until we made him go to bed. Adam and I watched Annie in our attempt to stay up for Santa. Then we had a snack and went to bed. In Adam's family the kids had to stay in their room to wait for Mom and Dad to get to where they could watch the kid's reactions. We decided to follow that tradition. I set myself up on the couch and was feeding Lucas and Adam helped Lucas come out of his room. Our regular video camera footage of the event is longer, but the digital camera was cut short because James started to choke on his breakfast. Lucas was really happy when he discovered that Santa ate his cookies, drank his milk, and took the carrot for his reindeer. It was so much fun to spoil the boys. It is really fun to have Little kids around who get so excited about the event. We played with toys all day then had a ham dinner, which was also very tasty. Ahhh, I love the holidays, I wish we could set up the tree and stuff earlier, the anticipation is a lot of the fun. Anticipation of anticipating the holiday is fun too, so I'll start that for next year now.

Here is the video

We have had a really fun winter so far. It had been unseasonably warm until just recently and then it got really cold. (Is this familiar to you?) When I was little we lived near the mountains and forests. At Christmas time we would go out in the woods and pick out a tree on snowmobiles, or just on foot. I miss that tradition. In Kansas there are no mountains, and no forests, so we went to a Christmas tree farm to get as close to the experience as possible. Lucas got to pick between two trees that Mom and Dad liked.

Then Dad chopped it down.

Then we carried it home and put it up.
It snowed the other day and after it had a chance to thaw a little it was sticky enough to make a snowman, so Lucas and I headed out and made a little snowman with what snow was left. He really relished the experience, and hunted for more snow so we could make anther. At that point it we were cold enough we went inside to warm up, but Lucas cried because he wanted to find more snow and make yet another. Cute Kid.


Grandma Brailsford and Aunt Lizzie came for a visit, and Lucas was almost stimulated out of his socks. He had a hard time holding still, and we all loved having them for a visit. Lucas got pretty spoiled, but that is o.k. because Grandmas don't have to raise grandchildren, just enjoy them. Moms and Dads are the ones who have to make sure behavior is good. It was really fun to have them here, and we were all sad when they left.

Making a Gingerbread house

Eating gingerbread house, I can't figure out which one he enjoyed more.

We spent our Thanksgiving with just each other, the fab four. It was really fun to make all the food with Adam. We made a thanks wreath out of paper leaves to help Lucas understand what the holiday was about. We listed things we were thankful for and glued them together, and left it on the table. We played soccer in the back yard and then chowed down on our day's labors. Adam was so excited about carving the turkey, he decided he needed a new knife. He went to the store and picked one out, came home and sharpened it. It was really cute how excited he was about the process.

Dad took a picture of Lucas and me.

James had a good day, this is how he spent Thanksgiving dinner.

Using the cool new knife

Playin' with Dad. Mom and james went out too, but we are behind the camera.

Grandma Lyman- Lucas loves the shin guards, thank you very much.

More pictures for the curious.

My Guys



I always get chocolate on my face when I eat it. The problem runs in the family.

Almost asleep


LUcas dressing himself, and being funny too.

Finding things to play with, the boots are on the wrong feet.

Things he is proud of

Little noggin, big noggin

Things have been fun and crazy at out house. Adam got a whole week off for Thanksgiving. With the new baby we did hardly anything--and it was fabulous. Here are some photos of the boys being boys. Lucas is really enjoys finding random things around the house and playing with them.