Thompson Family: ~Celebrating Christmas~

{Playing Catch-up...Again!}

The thing I love most about the Holidays is that there is so much all at once! We start with Halloween, move right into Thanksgiving, and before you know it, it's Christmas. Each year seems to be busier than the last, and this year was no exception! To keep things simple...lots of pictures with small explanations...

We started our celebrations by putting up the Christmas tree!

He was a great helper, it was hard to keep up with him!

At times, it was a challenge to keep little fingers off the tree! He loved helping decorate, and seeing the lights on the trees! We have a timer so the tree just turns on and off on its own, and Gracen would get so excited every night when the tree would light up!

Brynlee loved being able to put decorations on by herself! She ran straight for her own ornaments and it was hard to keep her out of them while we were getting everything ready.

She thought it was funny that she could see herself in the ornaments!

Our Family Tradition!

Every Christmas, we have made ornaments or some sort of decoration together. Brynlee was really excited about making her own. We headed to the store and everyone picked out what they wanted, then we got to work.

Gracen was more interested in painting the table cover!

2 Cute little snowflakes.

Nate's anchor. He wanted to make an anchor to represent our time spent in Sandusky. I had a hard time picturing an anchor as a Christmas tree ornament, but he made it look great!

I made a little snowman to sit on our shelf.

Gingerbread Houses!

We decorated houses with our friends Owen and Leanne. The kids just got their own plate of candy, frosting and a house and went to town. Gracen ate while he randomly stuck every piece of candy that didn't end up in his mouth on the roof of his house, and Brynlee actually tried to make it cute with little patterns! It was fun and all they wanted to do was eat more candy!

Gracen's house, Brynlee's house, and Owen's house.

Lights, and Santa!

We made a trip downtown to see Santa and the lights. Here the kids are waiting by the door to go in. While we were waiting, Nate thought it would be funny to tell Gracen that when Mrs. Claus opened the door for us, he was suppose to say "trick or treat." Well Gracen took that pretty seriously. He LOVED Halloween. I don't think Mrs. Claus heard him, but when she opened he was sure to say it. He wanted a treat!

He was the first to sit on Santa' lap. I had to pick him up and put him there, but he didn't really have a problem with it. When Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said, "A punkin!" Santa was quite surprised by that request. Right up until Christmas morning, if you were to ask Gracen what he wanted for Christmas he would say, "A punkin!"

Then it was Brynlee's turn, it usually takes a lot more work to get her on Santa's lap, but not this year. She asked him for a barbie salon. He asked what else she wanted and she told him that was all. He seemed a bit surprised by that too!

After seeing Santa we moved on to see the lights. Just outside of Santa's house sat this lovely little Christmas hippo, we couldn't help but stop for a picture!

Just a small sample of the lights! I don't know if we were just really spoiled by how awesome the lights were done other places or what, but we were pretty amused by the way the lights were set up. Our favorite was the bottom picture with the lights going up the trunk of the tree and out one branch!

Christmas Morning!

We stayed home for Christmas this year. As much as we miss spending the holiday's with our family back home, it was so nice to spend the day enjoying time together! Brynlee and Gracen didn't wake up until about 8 a.m. They were excited to see that Santa came to visit! We opened our Santa and family presents, got some breakfast and spent a lot of time talking with our families on the phone or on the webcam! I love technology! We seperated out the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Thompson and Grandma and Grandpa Woolsey and got on the webcam so they could see the kids open the gifts they got for them!

Brynlee grabbed the 2 things that Santa left unwrapped to show them off!

Gracen really got into opening his gifts! It was fun to watch them both get so excited about each thing they opened!

Brynlee got her barbie salon!

Gracen sporting his very cool bike helmet! He didn't even worry about taking the tags off! Santa didn't bring him a "punkin" but he was okay with that cause he left some candy!