Lots of Christmas Pictures!

We had a good, but uneventful Christmas this year. It was the first year that we were completely alone, and it felt a little weird. I tried to make it feel as Christmas-y as possible, but it just wasn't quite the same. We still had a good time, and Jax was excited about everything... which makes it that much more fun for us!

We went to our church's Christmas Eve program on Saturday night. They did a huge production at an arena-like thing... it seated about 4500 people, and was almost completely full at both 5pm and 7pm. It was a great way to focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas, and the fact that Jesus was born so that he could, in turn, die for our sins. We set up a tripod and took a family picture before we headed out the door.

Jax fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we didn't end up putting out any cookies for Santa, and we also didn't get to remind him that he got to open presents when he woke up. My early-riser came into our room at 550 the next morning, and didn't even mention Christmas. We laid in bed for a little while and then reminded him that it was Christmas day! He immediately jumped out of bed and headed to the living room. We opened stockings first.

(His Kisses candy blends in with his jammies!)

I got breakfast started after we finished opening our stockings. Monkey Bread!

After I got breakfast in the oven, we distributed presents and got to work! Jax was so excited to open all of his presents this year. It was the first year that he really understood what was going on, and he understood that he could ask for what he wanted. He has been asking for a race car (remote control car) for a while, and Santa totally delivered! We made him open that last, so he had to open his other 471821938893819021 presents first. Next year there will be a limit (for us and for family members) of how many presents can be given to our kids.

Clothes 

A new watch (because we lost his old one) 

A shaving kit! He pretend shaves with Daddy every morning, but now he can "really" shave! 

His race car!

After opening presents, we ate our breakfast and spent the day playing with our new toys, reading books, and watching Christmas movies.

I made Chinese food for dinner, and chocolate roll for dessert. A tried a few new recipes for dinner, and they turned out okay. We had broccoli beef, cashew chicken, egg rolls and fried rice.  I'm glad it was just the 3 of us eating the food! Ha!

Broccoli beef 

Our little buffet for three

But the chocolate roll was delicious (it's a tried and true recipe) and I inhaled a huge piece after Jax went to bed.

YUM! 

Extra YUM!!

Overall it was a nice day, and now we get to look forward to getting back to California and having a huge family Christmas next year!