Christmas 2012 - Sweet Memories, Part 1

There are so many things I want to remember about this Christmas..... Way too many to include in one blog post, but I'll start with a few of the special and fun moments leading up to Christmas.

 

I want to remember how excited Tucker was about Christmas.  He actually remembered last Christmas (which seriously impresses the heck out of me, especially considering I barely remember lol!).  He remembered, without any prompting, what he got from Santa (even a puzzle that I had completely forgotten he had gotten last Christmas).  He remembered his favorite ornaments for the tree.  From the time we put up our smaller tree upstairs, he asked when we were going to put up the big tree downstairs because he knew his favorite ornaments were in the boxes of ornaments for the big tree.  (Seriously, are kids this young supposed to remember stuff like that?!) 

 

This is his favorite ornament.  This one and an angel ornament.  He slept with both for about a week.

Anyway, he was SO excited about Christmas!  I loved his excitement!  All the questions he would ask about Baby Jesus, including some that I had a difficult time answering.  I LOVE his inquisitive heart, especially his yearning to understand more about our Savior!

 

I want to remember how excited Tucker was while we were decorating the real tree we always get for the basement.

He was very serious about his ornament placement.  Daddy reminded him that he could put the ornaments all over the ENTIRE tree, but he tended to focus on two or three branches.  Each time he placed one, he would say, "There!  That's so perfect!"  And he was absolutely right.  Each ornament was absolutely perfect and I didn't move a single one.

 I want to remember how good he was with Gracie, helping her to put her ornaments on the tree and making sure she only got the ones that didn't have any hooks on them.  He would tell Wes and I, "Make sure you put them high so Gracie can't reach them!"

 I want to remember how excited Gracie was too!  She was all smiles (as usual!).  And absolutely loved decorating the tree.

I want to remember how Gracie kept saying, "HO HO HO!" when she had on the Santa hat.

She thought it was hilarious!

 I want to remember how Tucker put on the Santa hat and pretended to be Santa, bringing Wes and I toys :).

 Oh, and the 'real' Santa.  Tucker LOVED seeing Santa!  He made sure to tell him exactly what he wanted for Christmas, a "blue pulling truck."

Gracie was not a Santa fan this year.

 I want to remember the day that I took Tucker and Gracie to see Santa because it was so.much.fun!
 

 

I want to remember Gracie's love for ribbons and all things wrapping paper.

 

As crazy as it is, I want to remember the moment the Baby Jesus from our Little People Nativity Set ended up in the potty.  (Hey, it's the fun times too!)  It reminds me how much Gracie carried the Baby Jesus around.  She would say, "Bay-bay!" and "Shhhh," while rocking him in her arms.

 I want to remember how much fun we had with our Elf on a Shelf, Ducky (how we arrived to that name is for another post!). 

Each morning, both Tucker and Gracie were excited to look for her.  When Tucker would wake up and come get Wes and I up, the very first thing he would say is, "Mommy, did you find Ducky yet?!"  Which Wes and I got a kick out of considering we had literally just opened our eyes lol!

Even Gracie would wake up, walk into the kitchen and say, "At?"  As soon as she found Ducky, she would blow her a kiss.  So sweet :)!

 I want to remember how Tucker wore Christmas jammies every.single.day.  And anytime he had to change, it was a fight.  Every.Day.

 I want to remember how excited Tucker was to play in the snow the first time (and only time thus far) that it snowed!

 I want to remember how Tucker loved Starbucks as much as his Mama did ;).

 And the fun we had with our count down to Christmas calendar. 
(Yeah, I was on the fence about this since it's more of a count down to Santa than Jesus's birthday, but we do not yet have an Advent Calendar and this helped Tucker understand when Christmas would come.)  Gracie enjoyed this too, she put the cotton balls on the hat ;).

 The fun Wes and I had dressing up for the Tacky Christmas Party we went to, and doing an old-school-prom pose lol!

 Oh my goodness do I want to remember the beautiful song the children sang at church, and how perfectly Tucker sang the words and did all the motions.  (Look for the video soon!)

I also want to remember how Tucker practiced this song so much that Gracie knows the motions as well!  I hope to catch this on video and post it.  She asks for this song to be sang all.the.time!

 

Making Christmas cookies with Tucker Bug!

 How excited the kids were that Ducky had left them new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.

 How excited they were to go to bed on Christmas Eve.  That was a first!

 Oh and how I want to remember how intently Tucker listened to Daddy read about the birth of Jesus from the bible before bed on Christmas Eve.  My favorite part was when Wes was reading about the angel telling the Shepherds that Jesus had been born.  When Wes read that they were afraid when the angel appeared, Tucker interrupted, "The angel said, 'Do not be afraid! I have great news!' and the Shepherds were not afraid anymore!"

 

Such sweet, sweet memories of my sweet, sweet family. :))