Christmas Wrap-up 2011

Well, turns out, I wasn't very good at bringing my camera to our Christmas gatherings this year! I think it must be the third child that did me in....we bring her now, and we forget the camera, I guess!

Anyway, here's our Christmas in a nutshell:
* Joey had a Christmas program at Sacred Heart.
* Maddox had a Christmas program at Shepherd of the Valley
* We had Christmas at Bobbi and Joe's house over Thanksgiving.
* We had Christmas with Grandma Phyllis on the night of December 23rd at my house
* Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve morning - this was the first time that we woke up in our house and Santa had been here! Because of this, we missed my Grandma and Grandpa Bruggeman's Christmas that day.  I hated to miss it, but I did love spending some time with my own family over Christmas!
* We had Christmas with my mom and dad on Christmas Eve in Lake City
* We had Christmas with Joe's Grandma Coppola at Aunt Bobbye's on Christmas day
* We had our traditional Jesus Birthday Cake at our house on Christmas night
* We are having Christmas with Joe's Grandma Taylor today in Mount Ayr.

I think that about covers it! It was very busy again, but because we had Christmas eve morning at our house, it wasn't as crazy as it usually was.  It was nice to slow down a little bit at least!

Here's a list of the boys' favorite gifts of the season:
* iPod Shuffles loaded with Kids Bopz
* Madden Football for Wii
* Zoobs (little building things- we all love them!)
* Magna Tiles (magnetic building blocks- we all love these, too!)
* Don't Break the Ice and Operation games
* Michigan Football Jerseys signed by Dowling football player and future Michigan football player, Amara Darboh
* Legos
* Mini-Michigan Football Helmets
* Alligator Costume for Maddox

It really was a great Christmas! We did our usual traditions of Elf on the Shelf, Jesus Birthday Cake, reading Christmas books every night after Thanksgiving leading up to Christmas, church on Christmas eve and more! Mom and Dad put a new addition on their house which includes a big dining room and a bunk room for the kids - so that was fun to enjoy all the new space!

Our best gift of all this year, of course, was Saylor! She was a great baby through all the Christmas celebrations- she was so easy to take to everything! And, the boys are at a great age to run and play with all of their cousins.  We are so blessed.

Here are a few photos from the season!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!