Christmas Morning

The boys must have been extra good this year, because when we woke up on Christmas morning GG and Grandpa's living room was filled with toys, games and books!

The big present Santa brought was a Nintendo Wii. He even left a note taped nearby that specified it was for "both of them" and that they were "expected to share nicely." Santa said he likes it when brothers get along! We saved the note for when (not if) we need to pull it out as a reminder...

"Oh yeah! We got a Wii!!!"

A little Mario Kart Racing

And a little Trophy Deer Hunting!

Christmas Eve Part Two

After church and family pictures, it was time to get into Christmas jammies and get on with the good part--presents!

But first...pizza!

Cousins!

L-R: McKenzie, 6; Gray, 1; Morgan, 4; Travis, 7; Cole, 3

Travis and McKenzie


Cole and Morgan



Many hours of opening presents later...it was time to set out some milk and cookies for Santa and hop in bed and cover up your head!

Christmas Eve

It's tradition Christmas Eve to attend the early evening Mass, then return home for pizza and presents. Here's some pictures of everyone all dressed up...

A rare shot of Mommy and her boys!

Our family and the "Year of the Cream Sweaters"

With GG, Grandpa and cousins, McKenzie, Morgan and Gray.

Tracking Santa's flight path on Grandpa's computer.

A loooooong roadtrip!

We drove 14+ hours from East Texas to Georgia. We got off to a bit of a rocky start, stopping 3 times before getting out of Texas, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. The boys had the DVD to keep them occupied, but by the time these pictures were taken (around Atlanta) they'd had about enough of being cooped up in the car!

Christmas at Gran & Pop's

We did Christmas early with my family this year. We drove to Gran and Pop's as soon as the boys got out of school for Christmas break. Then we woke up the next morning and launched into the huge piles of presents under Gran's tree...

Travis enjoying a new DS game!

Velcro Nerf Darts from Matt and Emily!

Don't know which set of kids liked them more...

The pony Cole saw on tv and desperately wanted. He named him Ranger and fed him an apple. Thanks Granny and Pappy!

Just my size :)

Cole proud to present Pop with a gift from us...new camo clothes!

Gran opening her present from us...

With Granny and Pappy


Lightning McQueen slippers and pjs! Thanks Uncle Matt and Emily!

Merry Christmas to All!

"May your days be merry and bright!"

Love,

The Myhand family

2008

Grinch Plate

One gift I gave myself this year was to have the boys' footprints turned into art at a Pickle Pants Pottery party. The artist took Travis' footprint (in green) and Cole's footprint (in brown) and turned them into The Grinch and his dog, Max. I LOVE this new Christmas decoration and will treasure it for years to come! We love The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and hopefully this will help remind us that "...Christmas doesn't come from a store. Perhaps Christmas means a little bit more."

A little warmup...

Since we're never at home for Christmas, we've adopted the tradition of letting the kids open a few presents from "us" the week before we travel. That way we don't have to pack anymore presents than necessary and they get a little taste of what's to come!

Travis delighted over a new DS game to take on the trip!

Cole delighted over a black felt cowboy hat!

Walk through Bethlehem

Our church recreated the little town of Bethlehem complete with a marketplace and live nativity. Both boys loved it! Some of the highlights are pictured in the slideshow above. Note how Cole is darting away from the camel in one photo...his least favorite part were the live animals. Travis really thought it was cool that the three Wise Men came up to him and asked if he knew where the baby called "Jesus" was. They posed for a picture and afterwards Travis whispered to me, "They're from the East, you know." The carpenter was really in character, too. He told the boys about a manger he'd recently made for an innkeeper's stable. And he'd heard that a baby was using it for a bed. Cole's eyes got wide and said, "That might be Jesus' sweet head." (His class sang Away in a Manger for their Christmas program on Friday.)

Christmas Programs

Both the boys had their school's Christmas program on the same day this year. Cole's was in the morning and as always, being a preschool, was well organized chaos.

Cole--center in the red and green untucked shirt. It was a rookie mistake sending a 3 year old boy in a shirt that needed to remain tucked in. He looked a bit dishevled. Shayne whispered, "Who is that kid's mother?" Funny thing though, if this had happened with my first child, it would've been a disaster to me. With the second child, it was merely unfortunate. I'm mellowing.

Our little singer.

The 3 year olds performed Away in a Manger, Oh Christmas Tree and Up on the Housetop

Travis' program was that evening and held in a church sanctuary. It was A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a very reverent service first held at King's College in 1918. It was a lengthy worship service requiring audience participation and a good bit of it was in Latin. We arrived early to get a good (front row) seat for videoing and soon realized that the balcony might have been a better choice to wrestle a bored 3 year old. But, when Travis' class made their appearance, we were glad to have such a great vantage point for photos.

The first grade performed Away in a Manger and Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

Our little caroler back home in front of the tree.

Cole's preschool ornament

A new ornament handmade by Cole in preschool. He told me he glued every puzzle piece all by himselft. And he thinks it was so lucky he was wearing his favorite train shirt on the day the photo was taken!

Happy Shopper!

Whoever decided to put Starbucks inside of Target was a genius! Even Cole is a fan...although I gotta tell you we got some crazy looks yesterday when he said, "Mommy, before we do our shopping, I gotta have a little bit of coffee!" It's actually hot chocolate, but it does make shopping more fun...especially with this crazy winter weather we've had.

Santa Photo

Elf on the Shelf

Our litte elf, Red, is back this year! Last year, Gran gave the boys the "Elf on the Shelf" at Thanksgiving and he's now a part of our annual Christmas traditions.

Each day during the Christmas season, Red sits somewhere in our house and observes the boys' behavior. Each night, he uses his elf magic to fly to the North Pole and report to Santa. The boys can whisper to him, but they must never touch him--that would diminish some of his elf magic. Every morning Red is in a new place in the house. And that's the best part...discovering where he's decided to perch for the day!

Our elf, "RED"

You might be a redneck if...

...your holiday decor simultaneously beckons Santa and sends a warning to the reindeer!

Letters to Santa

Travis has it in his head that Santa doesn't accept any letters before December 1st. Which seems reasonable, so we go with it. Since today is the 1st, as soon as we got home from school, he busted out the paper and pencil to begin the letter to the big guy. Cole got paper and crayon and I helped him with his. Here are the highlights:

Travis: "...a wii game sistum...pokemon action figers...and more advanced age 7 stuff."

Cole: "...a Speed Racer jumping track, a white motorcycle, and reindeer games."

You might guess that the trickiest part of these requests is trying to determine what "advanced stuff" is appropriate for a 7 year old and what exactly he means by "reindeer games" which no doubt was triggered by the Rudolph movie. Hmmmmm...Santa's got his work cut out for him!