Christmas Bonanza!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have had the chance to spend time with family and loved ones this year and if you haven't yet maybe you will have that chance soon! We are very fortunate and have been celebrating with family for weeks now! We made hard candy early in December with Nana Jean and Grandma Winell and Aunt Abby all the little kids mostly just played with toys this year….next year we will have 3 two year olds and a 1 year old in the house so candy making will be fun fun! ;)

Uncle Jared brought Fitz a doughnut to munch on but Anders thought it was his for the taking so he just starting stealing off of Fitz's tray!

We also had an all day cookie baking extravaganza with my mom and sister and our munchkins. Trevor and Jenna were able to decorate this year which was fun to watch! They both had about 6-8 cookies that were designated as 'theirs' by the end of it because they were so 'beautifully decorated with saliva' ;) haha!

We also did some breads and puppy chow on our cookie making day. We've been informed by the committee (AKA: The boys) that next year we also need to include no bake cookies. Well our deal was that if the boys come along and watch the kids then maybe we'll add no bakes. Sounds like a fair deal to me!

Since the twins were only 1 month old last Christmas we didn't have to really 'celebrate' as an immediate family so this year felt more like their 1st real Christmas. Jared and I don't like to go overboard with gifts because we feel that gifts shouldn't be the main focus of Chirstmas but rather the birth of Christ. So with that in mind we try to stick to this plan:

Something you WANT
Something you NEED
Something you can WEAR
Something you can READ

We feel this is a great guideline for our family. I know that not everyone likes this plan but it's what we want to stick to.
This year because they are still so young we choose their 'wants' for them and got a blow up ball pit and push popper since they are walkers now!

They could care less about the clothes but I think what we got them are super cute outfits! Anders got little yellow corduroy pants and a blue and grey striped shirt. Joline got a cute navy dress with colorful hearts all over it and pink skinny jeans. Their books were more practical because I knew they were getting some fun ones from Grandmas and Grandpas so they got Calm-Down Time and Sharing Time by Elizabeth Verdick. We are working on both of these qualities right now. :D Their need gift was new silver wear for the table and splat mats for the floor because they are working on learning how to feed themselves with forks and spoons! Yikes. Most days this is a train wreck but I hope that we will make progress quickly.

I got an exercise ball for me and for them…they loved playing with Aunt Abby's when we were there so I decided to get one for us and it's a good tool for me to use too!

AND JW got me tickets to George Strait's farewell tour concert with Little Big Town in Auburn Hills on Valentine's Day!!! We don't go out very often and we really don't do overnights almost ever so this is a huge hit with me because what girl doesn't love date night?!

Well, off to tackle dinner with the twiners! Pray for me!? ;)

Blessings to you all as you ring in the new year!
-CW