Early Christmas at Home

We had our own little family Christmas at home last week before we headed to Wichita.

We started things out with shrimp linguine, garlic bread and cob salad.

And popcorn shrimp for the littler people.

Miles would have eaten all of it by himself I think!

Then Derek read the Christmas story from the Bible - via iPhone.

And the boys acted out the story with the nativity as he read.

Then it was time for gifts. To learn giving, the boys get to pick out gifts for each other. (and Mommy & Daddy) They're mostly from Dollar Tree but Cooper had so much fun. He kept asking when we could open presents and I was starting to get annoyed with him... then I realized from what he was saying that he was excited for everyone to open what he got for THEM... so sweet.

Miles had fun with the bow while Cooper helped open the gift.

This is the only shot I got of Miles with his gift from Cooper.  A machine gun.  Yep.

Cooper had one from Miles too.

He was quite thrilled with Miles' Dollar Tree find.

An FBI kit:

Watch out or this guy will blow the whistle on you!

Or maybe his little side kick.

There was a lot of effort involved in opening gifts this year.  I was so happy about getting nice paper on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year after Christmas... but I guess it was too nice.  The boys couldn't even rip it!  Cheap paper next year?

For all the work it took, Cooper was disappointed when he got this far into this gift.

Not what he was hoping for.

We convinced him to go ahead and look in the box and he was glad to find a pillow pet.

He's been asking for one for a long time.

And this one was to Cooper & Miles from G'ma Jan & G'pa Gordie.

Cars 2!  Thank you!

Cooper's gift to Daddy.

Slippers  ...and a hug.

Speaking of slippers... Cooper had a gift for me too.

I pointed these out to Cooper when we bought Derek's.

And Cooper DOES NOT forget.

I had a gift for Derek too.

Looks like a camera lens... but it's a mug!

And the classic "gifts that match".

A new version of Super Cooper!

And his "not so willing side kick" this time.

Cooper helped open my gift from Derek.

He thought is was boring... I love it!

The boys are much more into four wheelers and hunting bucks.

And Miles had one more surprise.

It didn't take him long to get around the house on this.

All the while Cooper was busy arresting people.

Then we spent some time setting up playing games.

And we ended our evening going to church and then watching Cars 2 afterwards.

It was a fun day of celebration.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!