Christmas at Mom and Dad's

After celebrating at home we headed over to my parents house to celebrate there. Mom made her famous homemade spaghetti and meatball dinner. They always order salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden, too. Yummy! We had a wonderful dinner and then got to open presents. Thomas was thrilled with everything he got. Nathan got so excited about a pair of Cars pajamas that he had to take off all his clothes and try them on. It was a fun day for sure. We are thankful that we got to spend it with both of our families.

hand"cups" from Uncle Mike

Super Mario bed sheets

Cars jammies from Uncle Mike

Light Saber!

Nathan got a mini-light saber

"Nathan, I AM your father."

Merry Christmas!

Thomas was up at 6:30am looking through all the things Santa brought. We made him wait until 7am to officially go out and look under the tree. The boys loved all the things they got. Nathan was more interested in Thomas' pile of toys. Ken's mom and sister came over around 8am for breakfast and to watch the kids open their gifts. It was a lazy morning enjoying each others company. The boys were VERY good this year by the looks of it.

"fire flower" pillow

a new Super Mario wii game

Mickey Mouse!

Stocking Fun

Hot Wheels track

Boys got new radios for their rooms

Putting on Daddy's new jammies

Thomas got Ken Super Mario jammies.Nathan thought they looked better on him.

Chrsitmas Eve

We were very excited that Elizabeth and Brian were home from Illinois for Christmas. They met up with all of us at our church for Christmas Eve service. It was super crowded so we were lucky that we got a seat inside. Lots of people had to sit outside and listen by speaker. After Mass, we went home and let the boys open up one present from us (new pajamas) and Nana had them open up a musical Charlie Brown Christmas book. The boys set out reindeer food in the yard and set out milk and hot chocolate for Santa and went to bed! This was the last night for our Elf on the Shelf and how sweet that the last place he chose to be in the house was next to the nativity scene. We have been waiting a whole year for Christmas to arrive again and the boys were so excited for morning to come.

opening nana and papa's present

matching jammies

Putting reindeer magic food outside.

Christmas with the Coffaro's

We met up with Emily and her family at Mellow Mushroom for lunch. They love going there and we have yet to go, so it was perfect. It was yummy. I'm lucky that the boys both like pizza so it works out for us. I wish all restaurants were that way. After lunch we went back to their house to exchange gifts. McKinley seemed to know exactly what to do with the wrapping paper but Nathan enjoyed helping her...and kissing her!

Tinkerbell

Ken was outside on Saturday and I remembered that I needed to tell him the remaining gifts I needed to purchase. I went outside to tell him and all of a sudden a little kitten appeared. We took shifts going outside checking on her. We gave her food and water since she was so skinny. Later in the afternoon we showed Thomas just to see how she would act near him. She was purrr-fect. :)  Then we showed her to Nathan. It was like the cat was deaf or something. She wasn't startled by their quick moves or loud voices. We knew she was a keeper. I made an appointment at the vet just to check her out. She has an upper respiratory infection,but other than that she is in great health. The vet thinks she's about 8 weeks old and she only weighed 2.1 pounds! We named her Tinkerbell. The kids have fallen in love and we are so glad to have a furry friend in the house again.

Visiting Santa

We took the kids to see Santa on a school night thinking that the line wouldn't be too bad. Thankfully, we only had to wait about 10 minutes. Thomas came prepared with his list. I was surprised that Nathan showed no fear and had no problems climbing up on his lap. Poor Santa had a cold, too. I think with a cute picture like this, they are bound to get a few presents from Santa!  

Family Picture Time

After celebrating at The Cheesecake Factory we went to Lake Lilly to take some pictures of the kids for our Christmas card. It seems like time has gone by so fast so I had my fingers crossed that I would get a few cute shots for our card that still needed to be designed, ordered, and mailed out! Luckily, we got a few good ones.

Thank goodness for the timer setting on my camera!

Surprise!

My Dad celebrated a milestone birthday this year! What better way to celebrate than a surprise party.  We all met up at The Cheesecake Factory while my mom lured him there thinking she needed to pick up some gift certificates. He was so surprised! We had a wonderful lunch celebrating him. The boys were excited to give him an Alabama pillowpet.

Roller Skating Fun!

We were invited to a dear friend's birthday party for her little girl. This was the first time that the boys had ever roller skated. The party was at Semoran Skateway. I used to go there for MY friend's birthday parties and it felt very strange taking MY kids there! I have to say that the place hasn't changed since my middle school years. The boys LOVED it! The wheels were a little tight so that they didn't roll so freely. Nathan caught on faster than Thomas. They both laughed so hard when they fell down. It was hard to juggle both boys on wheels by myself but I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. We'll certainly go there again!