Christmas is absolutely one of our favorite times of the year!  Isaac especially has started to understand the excitement and joy that comes with Christmas, so it makes it even more fun.  We love Christmas and all that it stands for and means, and this year was no exception!

Christmas Eve morning started with cinnamon roll French toast, from some cinnamon rolls that were gifted to us. Turns out cinnamon rolls make delicious French toast!  After breakfast, we decided to take around our neighbor gifts.  We walked the neighborhood and it was actually quite warm, considering it was Christmas Eve!  The wind was blowing though and making it chilly — a storm definitely was rolling in but it was nice to enjoy the warmth while we could!

We went to Nonnie’s for Christmas Eve dinner.  It’s the last year she’s hosting a big dinner, so it was good to be there with family.  President Rex Pinegar and his wife Bonnie came over for dinner and after everyone had eaten, Grandpa Bill bore his testimony and that was really special, and then President Pinegar bore his.  It was a special night and nice to reflect on the beauty of our Savior’s birth and life.

After dinner, we drove up to Burley so we could be with Grandma Helen on Christmas morning.  The drive was actually quite nice and the babies slept for most of it! We arrived a little before 10:00 and of course the babies woke up when we stopped the car. Isaac was so excited to see grandma — it was adorable!  We came inside, played for just a minute, and then changed into our matching Christmas jammies!  It’s so fun!  We even got Tom’s mom some matching pants — she said she’s never had Christmas jammies as an adult, so that was fun and felt special!  We got lots of pictures, and even though the sweet babies wouldn’t look at the camera and smile, they still turned out cute!

We then gave the babies some food and put them to bed.  Thankfully they both went down without any problems.  We then wrapped gifts while watching “Christmas with the Kranks.”  It was a perfect ending to the night!

Christmas Day was wonderful as always!  We didn’t necessarily have a great night — it’s always tough to sleep somewhere new, and Zoey woke up in the night so Tom slept on the couch with her.  We woke up about 7:00am and then came upstairs about 7:30am for our Christmas celebrations!  Even though the kiddos don’t really know what’s going on, it’s still so much fun!  We opened presents and played and just had a nice relaxing and fun morning.  We got each of the kiddos some clothes, fun stocking stuff, and toys. Isaac also got some coloring stuff and Zoey got a cute new blanket.  We also got grandma some fun gifts — it was so fun to be able to celebrate with her!  We could tell she really appreciated it and it made everything that much more special.

After presents and playing, we had a “Burley breakfast” of waffles, bacon, and eggs.  We are so grateful for Grandma Helen and her kindness in taking care of us!  We then took some afternoon Christmas naps — we were exhausted from all the fun apparently! Later in the afternoon, we also did a lot of Christmas dancing!  Isaac loves to dance and will ask for “more music” to “dance.”  It’s adorable!  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon that turned out to be really fun.

In the evening, we gave the babies dinner and then tubbed them with Isaac’s new bubble bath!  They’re so cute in the tubby.  We then put them to bed and then Tom’s mom had to run to meet DeVon to give him gifts, so we had some quiet alone time together.  I played Christmas hymns on the piano while Tom read and scratched my back — it was so peaceful and honestly one of the highlights of the day.  We love when we have quite moments together.  To end the day, we finished watching “Christmas with the Kranks” and relaxing.  It was a wonderful day!

The day after Christmas was a nice relaxing day!  Thankfully so because Christmas night wasn’t great.  Zoey slept well, but Isaac struggled, which meant we didn’t get much sleep.  His tummy might have been upset, and we think that was bothering him.  Poor thing — finally about 2:30am we brought him into our bed, but it was barely big enough for us and so Tom ended up sleeping in the other room.  Isaac is not an easy kid to sleep next to, so it was a pretty restless night for both of us.  The rest of the day was great though and we were able to just take it easy and relax, which was nice!  Tom did go on a morning run, which was impressive because it had snowed!  He’s a champ.  Isaac wanted to go out with him, but it was too cold.  He wants to be just like his daddy, which is the best goal he can have!

In the afternoon, we started working on a puzzle.  (On a side note, Isaac perfectly folded up a piece of paper from the puzzle box — not too shabby for a toddler!)  Tom was able to speak with Matthew and Emily today, which was great!  He spent quite a while on the phone with them.  We then put the babies down for a nap and Grandma Helen and I worked on finishing the puzzle. Our goal was to finish it before Tom got off the phone, and sure enough, we were putting the last piece in when he said goodbye!  It only took us about an hour, so then we decided to do the other one (it’s a side-by-side puzzle). We finished both of them in less than three hours — not too shabby!

After dinner we packed up and got ready to go home.  Tom helped Vee with a computer problem while I gave Zoey a bottle, and then we left Burley about 7:00pm.  The kids slept so well in the car coming up that we figured we’d try a nighttime drive again.  It didn’t go quite as well unfortunately — Zoey took about a half hour to fall asleep and Isaac didn’t fall asleep for about an hour, but thankfully they both did!  We then watched The Office for the rest of the drive home, which made it go by fast.  When we got home, the babies woke up so we got them some food and then put them to bed. We loved our time in Burley and were so glad that we got to spend time with Grandma Helen!

In addition to our Christmas week celebrations, here are some of the other fun things we did to celebrate this special time of year.  It’s been such a wonderful holiday season for our little family!

Celebrating the fact that we will soon be a family of FIVE — and wearing my “Oh Deer – I’m pregnant!” shirt for the third Christmas in a row!

Visiting the Church’s “Giving Machines” at University Mall — what a neat experience and such a cool idea!

Decorating our home, which always helps us get into the Christmas spirit!

Driving around and looking at Christmas lights — some of the displays are over-the-top incredible!

Taking some fun candid shots with the babies in their Santa hat…

Going to our Turley family Christmas party…

And of course, taking our annual Santa pictures!  Zoey refused to smile, but the pictures still turned out so adorable!

We love Christmas so much and can’t wait until it comes around again next year!