Let's start with Thanksgiving...Jonathan and the guys in the family went to Kansas to pheasant hunt together. This way they didn't have to take off extra time from work. They left Wednesday morning (so they only had to take off Wednesday). Jonathan's birthday was Wednesday so I was bummed that I didn't get to celebrate his birthday with him, but Kansas was exactly what he wanted for his birthday!
I usually wait until Friday or Saturday after thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas (Per Jonathan's request), but since he wasn't here, we started decorating Wednesday morning. It took me and Tucker a bit of time to get this bad boy down and put together, but we did it! He was so proud to be my big helper that day...the man of the house! :)
We also decorated a tree for his room. He was THRILLED to say the least!
I always pull the nativity out when we start decorating, so the boys loved getting to play with it this year. I am so glad they enjoy getting to play with it. It also keeps their hands off my nice nativity that I don't want broken...win win!
We went to Bellevue's Bethlehem walk through and the boys really enjoyed it. I didn't take many pictures because it was a quick moving and I was trying to keep up with these two!
First Baptist Somerville also had "A Night at Bethlehem" so we also decided to check it out. It was a neat little night, and they also had tours of beautiful homes in Somerville. It was a really fun night. It was A LOT later than we thought it would be because we did't realize that there were home tours, but it was really cool to see all the beautiful homes in Somerville.
Christmas Eve Eve, we did our family night. It was the only time we could fit it in, and I didn't want us to miss out on our time because we were too busy. We read the Christmas Story, talked about it, at dinner, opened presents, and watched a Christmas movie. It was such a fun night. We did this two years ago and it's actually want started our family nights on Sundays. Love making precious memories with these boys.
Christmas Eve we had lunch at Nana and Pop's (the Walkers), and we had planned to go to church, but since the boys missed naps because of lunch, we drove around until they woke up, so we missed church that night. It was also the only night that we could all get together as the Golding family, so we had dinner after church and our share time, then gifts. It was really fun. Love having the share time with everyone each year.
These are the only pictures I have from that night. I had taken over 150 pictures, but Jonathan purchased me a new phone at lunch, so when I got home, he decided to help me get it all changed over, and by doing that, it erased all our pictures from that night. I was SO sad, but what are you going to do? It's ok, life happens, I just don't have many pictures from Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning, we got up and enjoyed gifts, had a big breakfast, and then got ready for the day.
Very little sleep here...We went to bed around midnight or a little after and Tucker was up around 4am. We put him in our bed and I went ahead and got a shower so we would be faster getting ready after breakfast.
Sweet boys on the stairs before walking into the den for presents...
We made the boys workshops for their big Christmas gift from us. We thought they would enjoy it. We actually gave real tools for Tucker, and a few play ones for Jace. They enjoyed playing with it a lot. Jonathan did an awesome job putting them together.
Tucker also got a BB gun, and yes, I know he is not even 4 here, but he has been shooting guns since he could walk. We aren't idiots, we just have a lot of hunting and shooting going on around here, and we want him to know gun safety, so his daddy has taken this as a way to allow him to shoot while he does, but also learn about them. He LOVES spending his time outside with daddy, and I know they will put this to good use. He won't be using it without Jonathan being in complete supervision.
We had brunch at the Gilland's at 11. The boys were so tired they actually fell asleep on the way!
After brunch we went home to nap, and then back to the Clarks (Austin and Ashley's new house), and enjoyed Christmas festivities with the Whitesides side of the family.
Here are a few other Pre-Christmas Festivities we did as well....We spent one of our family nights watching the Singing Christmas Tree Life with Bellevue. The boys really loved it. Think they would have loved going in person, but we didn't get tickets and we weren't sure about if they would sit still or not for 2-3 hours!
We took a photo with Santa at Bass Pro. The boys love any opportunity to get in the door there - they are a bit like their daddy... :)
I think we started a new tradition this year. We drove to Mumford and looked at Christmas Lights at a place called Christmas City at the Rose of Sharon Camp.
We attempted to make hand print ornaments, but they wouldn't dry. They sat out for over a week, and were still wet, so I gave it up and threw them out...maybe next year!
We had dinner with all the Gilland's on the Friday after Christmas. Lots of Great-Grands there.
