When we got home from Disneyland the first week of December, we came home to Buddy our Elf had come and set up our Christmas tree and train for us. It was such a nice surprise for the kids especially after being at Disneyland when it's all decorated for Christmas. Graham LOVED the train! The boys were pretty excited about the elf coming back and Paxton remembered his name, Buddy.
Graham is at such a fun age for holidays. At Halloween time is when all the excitement started. Every time he saw decorations he would say "Halloween". Well all the Halloween and fall stuff came down and Christmas came out and he still called it "Halloween" every time he saw Christmas decorations. It was so cute! It took him a couple weeks before he started calling it Christmas.
The mantel is going up!
And it's up! I was so excited to hang my stockings and put up my Christmas decorations.
Our ward Christmas party was a yummy breakfast on a Saturday morning. They did a short program and Santa Clause came to visit. As soon as Graham saw Santa, he started running towards him.
On our first big snow day the boys all went out and built a snowman and snowdog. I stayed inside, but it sure was fun watching them run and play in the snow, even Lilo was having fun!
Paxon teaches Graham all of his ninja moves. It's so fun when they get along and play together. Graham wants to be just like his older brother.
Hot chocolate and Christmas shows are one of their favorite things to do when it's cold.
Service Project
We feel so blessed that my family is able to have the money to help others out. My parents gave us some money to carry out our own service project. We put together food backpacks to go to students at Roosevelt Elementary school. Some of their students are refugees and some come from very poor, rough situations. So there is a worry of what and if some of these kids will have any food to eat over longer breaks. They eat breakfast and lunch at school and for some that's probably all they eat for the day. We had a fun time shopping and putting these backpacks together. It was fun to teach the boys about giving to others. Paxton has such a tender heart and loved giving this to the school. He now will sometimes say in his prayers for us and other people that have food to help give food to others that don't have it.
Annual Gingerbread House Contest
This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions! It's always fun to have some new comers to the party. They did a really good job! All of my siblings came, Rem's brother and his wife, and our friends from our new neighborhood.
Rem and I technically won first place. We had a bunch of neighbors come over and vote for their top two. I said lets give 2 points if it's a first place vote and 1 point for a second place vote. Rem said let's just tally up the votes, we'll do that if we need a tie breaker. Well Erika and Ben had 8 votes while we only had 7, but all 7 of ours were first place votes. So it's hard to say who won.
Our friends, Bobby and Jill got third place!
Jamie wasn't feeling well so Dan was on his own and he just wasn't feeling it. They usually have really great ones.
Everyone had a great time!
Next day Gingerbread Houses with the boys
The next day we decided to make houses with the boys, we had lots of extra stuff. Plus I was starting to feel guilty that we made gingerbread house without our kids. They had so much fun doing this and kept asking day after day if they could make another one.
This one is Paxton's with some help from Dad.
This one is Grahams with some help from Mom.
Soderberg Family Party
This year my mom's side of the family Christmas party was at the Salt Lake Tennis Club. It was so great to have a play area for the kids and they even got to go play on the tennis courts! It's always fun to see my cousins. They kids had a great time running around like crazy.
Ping pong and Tennis
And even Santa Claus came to visit! My dad makes the best Santa ever! I'm so glad that Paxton still hasn't figured out that he is his grandpa. Graham loves Santa and I think the biggest reason is because he knows he will give him candy.
Sorenson Family Christmas Eve Party
This year we decided to celebrate Christmas a little Swedish style. The girls wore candles for St. Lucia's Day and we had Swedish meatballs for dinner (yes, some of our meal was from Ikea). It was kind of fun to mix things up this year. Although we did have some traditional foods and entertainment. We sang The Nativity Song and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit.
They kids got to make some crafts as well.
Moss Christmas Eve Party
Since the Sorenson Party started earlier, we finished probably around 7:00. So we were able to go to the end of my family party at my Grandma's house. We got there just in time for the entertainment portion. We always take turns telling about the service projects we did that year. Then my cousins husband played guitar and sang a beautiful song. Then it was time for presents!
Paxton was too thrilled about having to stop playing for a picture.
The family is growing, but we all still fit!
Trying to get a picture of the Moss cousins together at the end of the night is not an easy task. This is the best we got.
Now home to go to bed, to await for Santa...
We made a fort in the playroom out of boxes for the boys to sleep in that night so we could set up their bunk beds in their room. While I was reading the boys a book, Rem went and got up on the roof to make noises like it was Santa and the reindeer. Then we heard jingles bells. Graham immediately ran out to see if it was Santa. Paxton was hesitant, I think he was nervous that he wasn't sleeping and we caught Santa. But he came out and was excited to see Santa. Santa gave them each a little toy, talked to them for a bit and then sent them to bed and said he would be back later.
Christmas Morning
The boys woke us up at their usual wake up time, not too early thank goodness. Then we all went in at the same time. They boys were very excited about all the gifts. We got all the presents opened and then Rem and I realized that we left one down in the basement, the car table. This was a hand me down from cousins, but he boys loved it! Then we had one last gift for them. I had wrapped up a picture of Christ for them to put in their room and when they opened it I said, "let's go put this in your room". Pax didn't want to, he just wanted to play with his new toys. So we had to talk him into it and then we opened the door and they were so excited about their new BUNK BEDS!!!! Pax even said, "out of all my presents, this is my favorite". Staying up until 2 a.m. was worth it!
From Santa, Graham got a scooter and Paxton got a lightsabor.
It was a fun morning with these two. Then we head over to...
Grandpa and Grandma Moss Christmas Brunch
We started out with a yummy brunch that my parents made for us. Then we opened up a bunch of presents and made a huge mess! We ended up spending the rest of the day hanging out with my family playing with our new toys, watching a movie and later making linner. The kids pulled out their legos, some of them took naps. It was a very fun Christmas!
The day after Christmas
The day after is always fun to pull all your toys out and play with them. We stayed in our pajamas all day long! We picked up a little bit of the mess in the house, but we left all the toys out for a good week or so before I couldn't take it anymore and wanted it cleaned up. The kids had a blast with all their many new toys! Lego's were a big hit this year!
Excited to have cousin Jake over to play out in the snow. They didn't last very long ;)
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