Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

Christmas eve was a very busy day for us with NO NAPS - no time for that. Well, okay, so the whole no nap thing was really my plan to keep the boys in bed all night, but I had to do something. You see Jonathan still very frequently gets up at least once each night. Since I had not managed to get a single gift wrapped prior to this moment (yes, I know it was Christmas Eve - I was feeling quite stressed) I needed to be SURE the boys would not wake up before our santa-ing was done. But I digress.... the boys were bathed and dressed in their special Christmas pajamas. We picked out the pefect cookies for Santa from the homemade sugar cookies I made earlier that day and set them out on our special gingerbread man plate with matching cup of milk for for Santa. The boys were ready to snuggle in their beds and I decided to take pictures in front of the Christmas tree. I have a really great and handsome picture of Donovan, but I decided, instead, to post the one that really shows the "true" Donovan. It's so hard to get a good picture of this handsome kid. Not because he is not photogenic. No, it's because he is just so GOOFY! Just pick up a camera and this kiddos starts putting on a show. I end up with 20 silly face pictures and one really great picture. Since I usually post the nice photos, I thought you should see him in his "usual" form instead. He's showing me his "robot moves." Did you notice the very appropriate saying on his shirt? It says "Dear Santa I was framed." If you know Donovan, you know this is the PERFECT Christmas shirt for him.

And while it looks like Jonathan is either saluting the Christmas tree or perhaps offering a big finish to a great holiday song, he's actually saying "Ta da" and waiting for us to clap.

Christmas morning was full of fun and too many gifts. We all had a great time with gifts, food and best of all, time with family - my favorite part of Christmas. It just all ends too fast and everyone starts to head home. I think next year Iwould like to do Christmas a little differently. How do you do Christmas with your family to make it special? I would love to hear about it.

Christmas baking

I really wanted to make homemade sugar cookies for the boys this year. I guess I'm feeling confident because my recent baking endeavors have been surprisingly successful (see photo of the ice cream cone cupcakes from Donovan's birthday in the slideshow on my earlier post). So, I ambitiously decided to do just that. I made the cookies and frosting from scratch. It was lots of fun and I must say, once again a success. While my decorating technique needs some improvement, overall, I think they cookies were fairly attractive and pretty tasty, too.

I also made some fudge - sorry no photo of that because our biggest elf got into it as soon as it was finished and cooled. And, of course, I made our secret family recipe for rice pudding that has been handed down for generations. Kevin wanted me to make banana bread, but the boys ate all of the bananas before they were ripe. That's a good reason not to make it, not to mention that if I had, I would have eaten more than anybody else in the family.

Christmas Update

Yes, it happened again. I'm updating my blog before the boys are all grown and headed off to college. We've done several fun things this blessed season - again, it's amazing what some time off of work will do. Here are just some of the fun we've had...

A good friend who happens to be Donovan's former pre-K teacher, blessed the boys with a Gingerbread House. So, we assembled and decorated it. Turned out pretty cute. It was lots of fun and my first time to build one.

We also visited Santa's Wonderland to see some extreme Christmas lights. If you have not been there before, it is just outside of College Station and they have over 40,000 lights. You can drive through (on selected days), take a hayride or even a horse drawn carriage. They lights were fantastic. And, if I may make a recommendation, DO have the fresh made kettle corn. It's CRAZY deeeeeeelicious!

They had curtains of lights - see below. They had different "scenes" of lights, for example, in Texas you must have the obligatory longhorns, which I loved. But my favorite light display was actually about Easter, not Christmas. You see, the owners of Santa's Wonderland have created their version of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior with Christmas lights. It's the last display on the tour and it was magnificent. The TRUE reason for the season. It gave me chills. The photos cannot capture how powerful it was, but check them out below and maybe you'll want to go and see for yourself.

Christmas Photos

Here are a few Christmas pictures I took of the boys. Are they too cute, or what?! Have I mentioned that Jonathan has grown more than 1/2 an inch since school started and even more amazing... Donovan has grown a full inch since his first day of Kindergarten. No wonder he woke up one morning and his pants were all too short!!!! It goes so fast. :(

Christmas Miracles.....I actually updated my blog!

Yes, I finally did it!!!! I updated my blog. Maybe you received our family Christmas letter and you are checking to see if I really did add a post. If so, I'm sure you must be shocked and amazed that I actually did.....finally. It's amazing what a little time off will do. You see, my last post was just as school was starting. So, now you know that I am not the best at juggling being a wife, a mother, a school teacher and a blogger (not to mention a few other hats that I wear). I guess if I have to compromise one of those things, blogging has to be the ball that I drop. Sorry!

If thoughts count for anything, I do frequently think about how much I should post an update. And I regret how many great stories about the boys I would have loved to share and probably can't even remember now.

So, to try to make up for my long absence, I have make a photo slideshow to share what we have been doing since August. Some of those things include: Donovan's first day in Kindergarten (photo, not part of the slideshow), Jonathan's 4th birthday, dressing up for Halloween and attending Fall Fest at school, Donovan's karate lessons and his 6th birthday party and now preparations for Christmas. Oh, I almost forgot...the ice cream cone cupcakes in the photos I made myself for Donovan's birthday party. There is NO ice cream. Everything else is either cake or frosting (oh, except the candied cherries on top). I couldn't believe they actually turned out! And they tasted pretty good, too. Just lovin' this Mommy stuff!!!

Can you believe it is only 2 days away!?!?!?! We are ready and very excited to see how the boys react to Christmas this year. Last year was their first Christmas with us and perhaps their first "real" Christmas ever - at a minimum, it was the first they would remember. On Christmas morning we didn't know what to expect and both boys were so CALM! And that is definitely NOt like them. :) It's like they couldn't take it all in. Kevin and I were both surprised at their reaction.
This year we are expecting a bit of a different response. All indications are that they boys are VERY excited about Christmas and that they will go CRAZY when they see the gifts under the tree. Kevin and I are actually hoping for a little bit of uncontrollable mayhem. Thats the way it should be, right?!

Tomorrow Donovan, Jonathan and I are going to don our aprons and make cookies for Santa. We're going to do the whole sugar cookie thing - cookies cutters, frosting and all. They will be fresh and ready to set out for Santa tomorrow night. Nothing but the best for the jolly elf. ;) I don't know how they will taste or ultimately look, but I don't think Santa is too picky when it comes to cookies. I do know that we will have fun making them no matter how they look or taste. Maybe we'll have another success like the ice cream cone cupcakes.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. To anyone who may actually read this message, our family wishes yours a VERY BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Love,
The King family

DONOVAN'S FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN