Christmas Cookies and Christmas Program

Continuing on with all things Christmas, we finished out the first weekend in December with our annual cooking baking.  Thank goodness someone had their camera ready because these "helpers" only stuck around for about 4 minutes.  Of course they made their way back into the kitchen about 4 hours later when everything was ready to eat!

The second weekend in December was dedicated solely to the Christmas program.  This year Mason was in it too!  

Saturday morning Erik and I volunteered our time helping out with the practice.  Erik was in Kade's room and I was in Mason's.  Saturday night, for the first performance, we were also helpers in the classroom and the boys were excited to perform!  

Thank goodness all of the grandparents were able to make it to that show because Sunday morning brought a whole new attitude towards performing, as shown below.

One of us was happy to go back for more...

...one of us was not.

There were 2 shows on Sunday morning and we convinced Mason to do the first one so we could see him on stage, since we were busy helping on Saturday we didn't get to see it.  If he did the first one then he could join us in the audience for the second Sunday show so he could watch it too.  Thank goodness that bribe worked!

Kade is the tallest kid, directly underneath the microphone.

Little bit closer view.

Mason's group lining up onstage to do their number.  

He's the cheeks right in between the 2 adults.

He even looked over and gave us a little smile!

Top row, 3rd from right

And he even sang a little bit!!

After the program was over, the boys got back to doing what boys do best.

Jumping off things and playing outside!

Please note the difference in the boy's jumping style.

Of course Mason would jump head first into the pile of snow...I've lost count of the gray hairs that kid has given me.

At the beginning of December we had a pretty big snow storm.

Too much snow fell for the 4 wheeler to pull the boys on the sled, so it was time to bust out the big guns!

Christmas #1 is in the books!  

Lady A and her family came bearing loads of goodies.

The boys were spoiled as usual!!

Here they are wrapping A and S's presents.

And now it's their turn to open gifts!

Lots of Christmas activities coming up!!

My little tree decorators!  They did a wonderful job this year!  Very evenly spaced and utilized the whole tree--2 boys after my OCD-ish heart.

My grandma had a Christmas village that she put out every year.  I loved seeing it set up at her house in front of her big window.  I was the lucky recipient of her village when she passed but I haven't been able to put it out because little boys and porcelain don't mix.  This year I decided the boys are old enough to keep their hands to themselves.  To my surprise Kade was SUPER excited about it and loved setting it up.  Mason didn't really care, except to add his own touch when all was said and done, which was a Lego helicopter.  

The boys built Louie, our elf, his own house--out of an amazon box and a carrot bag.

Complete with his own tree.

And our little wrestler--it sure was cute while it lasted!

He went to exactly 2 practices.

Apparently an older kid choked him and it was enough to scare him away.  We tried to get him to go back but he wasn't having it.  If you've met Mason you know he's stubborn and at 4 years old we decided it wasn't worth the battle to make him go back.  He did say he'll got back when he gets older...

...or he won't and he'll be a basketball player!

Since he's no longer wrestling him and Kade have been playing basketball in the basement quite a bit.  And, let's be honest, he's just as cute in his basketball gear as he is in his wrestling gear!

What do you do when it's the first snowfall and there's no hills around your house? 

You improvise!!

What do you do when it's freezing could outside but you want to play football with friends, except you live in the country where no friends are around?

You make your dad go outside with you!

Meanwhile, Mason and I stayed warm and cozy in the garage where we worked on "projects" together.

I'm not exactly sure what Mason was whipping up here, but he was using Erik's newly built table as his workbench.

These boys were heading out to do some varmint hunting.

We had an opossum somewhere in our woods and they were going to find it!

They didn't

What do you do when you're at a restaurant with your kids and your kids are done eating and getting out of control?

Make them participate in a wall sit competition.

Thanksgiving and the cousins are making everyone some sort of soup.

Thank goodness they didn't make us taste test it.

And finally...our annual tree picture.

This year we gave up and bought an artificial!  

I'm not going to lie, the fake one has been nice but I did kind of miss coming home to see which tree Erik surprised me with.