A little Christmas recap.

We had a very blessed Christmas this year, making the trip to both Chicago and Peoria, as well as having a nice Christmas morning at home, too. I'll briefly recap each event below, but they are out of the order as Blogger is not allowing me to move my pictures around as usual.

Santa brought the kids some cool stuff this year!
Hunter's primary request from the Big Guy was this RC car from Toy Story. I didn't want to disappoint Hunter, or have him question Santa's existence, but when we learned the price of this car, we decided this year we needed to budget tightly. I was so relieved to see just 14 days after we bought this $90 car-it went on sale. I marched right in to Toys R Us and was handed $33 back in cash! Thank goodness. Still, a stiff price, but better.

Ben spent Thanksgiving browsing the Black Friday ads, discovering he would like to have the Imaginext T rex mountain. After searching far and wide, I had all but given up finding one in stick. Enter Grandma Anita to the rescue. She found one Walmart in southern California that had some, purchases, and mailed it to us. Ben was beyond excited, and like this present the best of all!

Two excited and tired boys.

Ben also got a Leapster, one of my Black Friday finds. This handheld computer game teaches just about everything. He loves this toy and has spent a lot of time (especially car rides) learning already.

Hunter's other big item was this Jessie doll from Toy Story 2. He was beside himself!!

Chocolate from Santa.

Our 5 cats all helped eat Santa's cookies and milk. Hilarious!

Another one of my Black Friday finds was a big hit on Christmas morning. This is the Buzz Lightyear "Falling with Style" hot wheels set. It comes with a mini-Buzz that snaps onto a hot wheel (just like in the movie), and goes down this slope into a loop-the-loop and launches into a faux "fly."

Schmoppy cat is going after the car... lol.

Before we go to bed on Christmas Eve we follow a Scandinavian tradition of sprinkling some reindeer food out the front and back doors. There is a little poem I read about staying in bed so Santa can come. The boys love it, and follow instructions really well. Not a peep from them!!

Here are a few pictures from the trip to the Chicago area. The boys got some awesome monster truck RC vehicles. They played with them Christmas morning outside before we headed home.

Me, in my self-made, flamboyant Christmas Cheer hat.

The boys got camo bath robes, just like daddy's, from their Auntie and Uncle. They love them!!

We had a nice ice storm for Christmas, too.

The boys helped me make a million cookies. To help with my intense back pain, Theo made all the dough, and many of the other desserts, and I limited myself to rolling, cutting, baking, and decorating the cookies.

We also took the time to make a Gingerbread house. The boys LOVEd this idea. Not the easiest thing to do, as the roof slid around and the candy fell off. They also fought over who got to do what, but in the end, they really enjoyed themselves and were proud of their house.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, too!