Christmas fun

We had a very Merry Christmas this year.  Oma and Opa came in town on Wednesday afternoon and we celebrated and ate wonderful food all weekend.  The boys made out great with fun toys, clothes, ornaments, pajamas and more.  To make Christmas even more wonderful it snowed like crazy on Christmas Eve and we had a white and beautiful Christmas Day.

For me the holidays are just getting better and better because it is so much fun to see and enjoy it through the eyes of Samuel and Joseph.  Samuel was really excited about Christmas this year.  I wanted to bake cookies and leave them out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, but I think Samuel was so exhausted from all the activities that he said he didn't want to make cookies on Christmas Eve.  Oh well, maybe next year.  On Christmas Eve morning, Samuel woke up early and asked if he could open his gifts.  We knew it was a little early, but we ended up letting him open gifts so he could actually enjoy them during the day.  We tried to go see Santa Claus but the wait for pictures was about 2 and a half hours and there was no way we were going to stay in line that long.  We did end up getting a really good picture of the four of us with Santa in the background.  I thought that was good enough.

Samuel built his first snowman with Oma and Opa and he loved every minute of it.  It was so much fun to see how excited he was.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner, ate waaaay too much but had wonderful company.  On Christmas morning Samuel and Joseph got a few more gifts from Santa.

Dave and I kept up our tradition of going to the Casino on Christmas Day.  We think it has almost been 8 years that we have been going.  Originally we went because we were in town and there was no other place to eat, so we would go to the Casino and gamble and eat.  Luckily since Oma and Opa were in town for this Christmas we were able to go again.  It was so much fun.

Here are some great pictures from the weekend.

Samuel and Joseph opening their gifts.  Joseph's first Christmas!

More gifts!

Our attempt to see Santa.  Turned out to be a good picture.

Joseph and Opa

Oma, Opa and Joseph

Oma and Joseph

Samuel getting ready to play in the snow.

Building his first snowman.

He was pretty excited!

The finished product.

Christmas dinner

Samuel enjoying his delicious black olives.

Joseph's first Christmas dinner

Samuel playing with his finger puppets, one was obviously attacking me.

Joseph with his new name stool

Samuel loving his new kitchen.  He has been cooking up a storm.