Ode to the Holidays

Yes, I am very late. I REALLY did start this post on the 2nd of January... such is life!

It is tradition to set-up our Christmas decorations on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It is a mess. We just hangout all day in jammies, and reorganize, and rearrange, and play Christmas music as loud as possible while we set-up the stuff that makes our home feel "magical" durring the Christmas season.
It is also tradition to have Mav help Brian put the tree top on the tree. We now have 3 years of a picture just like this. Oh! How Maverick has grown!!! On December 1st we went to see the lights. I like it better when there is snow on the ground, but we wanted to go before it was too cold for our little buddies. Mav enjoyed all the "miss-mus" lights and Slater slept the whole time. We enjoyed FREE (yes, Free) hot chocolate after at Deseret Book. It was a great evening!

Maverick sat on the jolly old elf's lap quite reluctantly at our ward party. But he was happy after the ordeal because he was able to let Santa know that he wanted cars for Christmas. Oh yeah, and candy of course!

Once again, hiding under the Christmas tree was Mav's favorite spot. It will be sad when he gets too big to do that. I wasn't allowed to put any presents under there until Christmas Eve, so that he could keep using it as a tunnel. Silly Maverick! Maverick got to be Joseph in the Waite family nativity. And Slater got to be baby Jesus. As you can tell from the photo below they both Loved this experience....

My Family gets together Christmas eve for a delicious holiday feast and to reinact the nativity as well. Slater was once again baby Jesus, but Mav got to be a wiseman this time. He was so excited to give baby Jesus his "gift". It was really cute!

After the Nativity all the kids carried the presents from upstairs to downstairs, as is the tradition. Then we all opened one present. Surprise! It was pajammas. (okay, not really a surprise at all.) Maverick was so Happy about his CARS pajammas! it has been like pulling teeth to get them off of him to wash every so often since then. He LOVES them...

The picture below is of Mav wrapping the present he picked out all by himself for Slater. It was sweet to watch him wrap it, then he wanted to decorate it. So he spent quite a while coloring it with pens. Then he was so thrilled when Slater opened it the next day. It was fun to see him experience the joy of giving, and even still he loves seeing Slater playing with the little rattle he gave him.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

We spent Christmas morning at our own home for the 1st time in our marriage. we have stayed over at my parents in the past. It was so nice to just feel like our own little family. Mav slept until 10:00am wich was driving me crazy. I just wanted to get him down there and watch the excitement! But when he finally woke up it was well worth the wait. He didn't care about anything but the boxes of cereal Santa had left for us. After he got to eat said cereal he was thrilled about the garage Santa left for him.

Slater even seemed to enjoy the mornings festivities. He was wide awake, just hangin' out with us. It was a really fun morning!

The below picture is Maverick enjoying 2 bowls of cereal at once. Neither are the "healthy" non-sugary one Santa left for HIM. No, he wanted Mom and Dads... at the same time. Gotta love Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms!!!

After a big day of visiting both families and opening way too many presents (the parents were way too generous, but we are grateful.) And eating lots of food, and talking with Jake from the mission field we returned home safely in a very big snow storm. We got Mav in bed, and when I came back downstairs I captured this special moment... Brian is such a great Daddy! It was a wonderful Christmas!

On to the New Year....
Since we got home late on Christmas eve we didn't get to make any cookies, so on the 30th Maverick helped me make "New Year's sugar cookies". He went to bed before we did the decorating, but he loved helping cut them out. (i'm not sure why he had the hat on... but he looks cute)

The finished product. **Notice the little family of 4 at the top. Mav loved eating himself and Slater the next morning!

On New Years Eve we went up to Melanie and Tyler's new house to party with the Stratford clan. It was way fun to see the house all done and enjoy everyone's company. We had big plans to play games and watch movies, but it is way more fun to just sit and chat with each other. It was a great night. Thanks Ty and May! Below is a picture of Maverick sporting his new years bling. He cracks me up!!!

Brian and I headed home around 10:00PM, got Mav in bed, and watched the 1st season of "the office" until ringing in the new year just us at Midnight. Happy 2009!!! (ya gotta have the "bubbly" ;->) It was great!!!!

It was a wonderful holiday season! See ya next year Christmas! We will miss you.