Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas was fun this year. Brecken is at the absolute best age where everything is just so magical and exciting! It never got old and just made it great for all of us. We were so excited to get the tree up, the decorations all up and the lights on the house. It was great.

It was interesting to watch everyone post their Christmas pictures on social media. I was blown away with the amount of "stuff" many people had. It was crazy and just confirmed to me that stuff does not make you happy no matter the quantity one gets or appears to have. Plus, where are you going to store and pile all of that stuff?! So many people also do not purge afterwards. I've gotten to the point where stuff drives me nuts! Unorganized stuff really drives me nuts especially when it comes to kids toys.

So last year I instituted a new thing for Santa. Santa would give one thing they need, one thing they want, one thing to wear and one thing to read. They get Christmas Eve jammies from mom and dad and then usually a couple of family gifts (movies and/or games) and maybe something else from us. And then of course a couple of random things in their stockings. With these categories it still looks like they came out with more than enough. Also coming up with categories and a game plan allowed us to shop for what we were wanting to give the entire year and find things at the best deals and the best quality we could afford. Thankfully this year Jeff was on a kick and wrapped everything the night before Christmas Eve so it was done!

Gunnar lost both of his upper front teeth. So all he wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth. I sang that to him when he lost the second tooth and he looked at me like I was crazy!

These were from mom and dad. He got the bug sucker upper from this series for his birthday from a family member and loves it! So throughout the year, more of the set would pop up on clearance. I would slowly collect them and as you can see Jeff does not know how to remove price stickers apparently.

Brecken wants to be like us in every way and we all have Camelbaks. Naturally he would not because he was not that big until recently. Jeff was determined to make his "need" his very own Camelbak. I was so excited when I found this one, hardly used, on craigslist for $25! It had been on there for about a month and had not sold so I asked them if they would take $20 and they did. This was a total score for a Mini Mule and I was shocked that it had not been sold prior. It was meant to be in our house. He was SOOOO excited about it. The orange version of Gunnar's blue. Just like Gunnar...

Gunnar received the construction version of this for his birthday years ago and loves it. Recently he has really gotten into following instructions to create these. He loves this and claims it was the best Christmas ever because he got this. This was his want.

What do you get a kid that is the second boy and really does not need anything. I found this truck on Amazon and thought he would love it. He does and it is pretty fun. It comes with a little drill that unscrews about 7 large screws that take the truck apart so he can put it back together. In time, I think he will really get into it. This was his want.

After Gunnar saw that everyone else had slippers, including Brecken, he wanted a pair. He was thrilled that Santa brought some. This was his one thing to wear.

Gunnar desperately needed a new alarm clock. He got our old one and it was doing some really dumb things. He slept with the radio on every night but if you reduced the sound, the station would be fuzzy so it was always pretty loud. Thankfully it was all Christmas music for the month of December. Plus when school gets out, the two boys will be sharing a room and Brecken sleeps to the ocean sound. So I wanted an alarm clock that could also be on the sleep mode and play nature sounds. I was so excited when I found one and Gunnar loves it! It was for sure a need!

This was probably the stupidest thing I have ever bought and totally not typical of me to buy. Brecken and I were at the store sometime in December and he spotted out Caillou from about a mile away on an end cap. We went over after I figured out what he was talking about and he latched on to this guy. He talked to him and studied everything about him. I let him put Caillou in the cart all around the store next to him. He loved him! When it was time to checkout, I snuck him on the belt and told him that Caillou had to stay at the store. Brecken was completely fine with that. Now, both of my boys at 2 years old, would not get into TV at all except for Caillou. I have no idea why. The kid is like 4 years old, talks like a baby and like Heidi points out, the story on the tv screen never goes to the edge. I can tolerate the show and my boys are mesmerized by it but Heidi just doesn't get it. It makes me laugh. I knew Brecken would be so happy and he is. Reminds me of Brent's My Buddy doll when he was a kid. Remember those? Brent LOVED his buddy! Brecken sleeps with this every night and hauls him around often. This was from mom and dad.

Diesel even got stuff in his stocking. One was a much needed bone that he happily chewed while we carried on Christmas morning.

Jeff and I never buy anything for ourselves. We buy things throughout the year and don't need a holiday to give us permission to go crazy on buying things that we can smartly shop for and buy when we actually need them.

We had a great Christmas morning. We don't encourage or push our kids to wake up early. We just let it happen and it did around 8:30am when Gunnar woke up. It was pretty funny. He obviously scoped everything out and then woke us up. Then went and got Brecken who was so disoriented. He went onto the family room couch and turned on the tv to watch a cartoon. He had no idea what awaited him in the front room. When he did, he was excited!

Later that afternoon we headed to my Great Aunt Nancy's for the annual Christmas Day party. It is always fun spending time with my dad's side of the family and we love seeing everyone. Christmas this year was exciting and great and I felt totally relaxed and on top of it which was kind of crazy.

I am so blessed with what I have and surrounded by my fantastic husband and boys. Blessed to be able to have a third little guy in March. Have fantastic siblings and parents and great friends to spend time with. We are greatly provided for and very blessed overall.