Christmas in California

Ok, for real like Christmases.  Every year we have Brinks Christmas, this time of year gets a little more hectic, as we are trying to plan for a trip and accommodate my rather large family in at least 2 different get togethers.  Not an altogether bad thing, but it is more hectic.  In fact, this year I feel like we totally failed at Christmas here because with me getting back to work and all the events going on, I just ran out of time and energy.  Start with the first weekend in December - I was supposed to host a baby shower for my friend Alexis.  But then I get a call the Monday before from her sister and she had the baby 2 months early because of complications (both mom and baby are fine by the way) so then that meant sending out notices to everyone to make sure no one showed up.  Then the following weekend, we were in Colorado for Taylor's farewell.  We managed to squeeze in putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it and the whole house.  And by whole house, I mean my half hearted attempt when I could muster a minute.  It kind of came in waves.  We took video and pictures of decorating the tree.  I wasn't sure I wanted to video it but Matt said "oh, remember your family's videos - decorating the trees are some of the best ones!" to which I replied "ya but we don't have Jeff so we're not going to have any of the funny stuff yet until the kids are bigger."  I was wrong.  We separate our ornaments into bowls so we know who puts which ones on the tree and we try to keep it equal.  At one point, Daniel said "Hey daddy, make sure you don't sneak any of mine."  We also had some free Christmas station on Matt's phone and Frank Sinatra was singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."  Randomly, Daniel busts out in a booming singing voice "SHINING STAR!!!" after Frank sings 'hang a shining star upon the highest bough."  It was pretty hilarious.  

Daniel would not move from his one spot to decorate so all of his ornaments ended up in one spot - hanging off the bottom in front.  The only exceptions were his 2 snowflake ornaments that he had to put right next to each other.  Obviously.

The weekend after the farewell, my dad came into town to celebrate Christmas with us.  Nothing says Christmas like December 15, am I right?  It was the last chance since the next weekend we would be in Utah.  So all my siblings and family came over to our house to have our traditional "Christmas Eve" dinner of chicken enchiladas.  We had an early dinner, followed by opening presents and having pie.  Matt and I got a beautiful picture of Christ holding the hand of a little boy from Dad and Jenn; now we just have to figure out where to hang it.  For Dad and Jenn, all of us kids decided to get 2 presents - a date night in (DVD, popcorn, snacks, etc.) and a date night out (movie tickets, concessions gift card, and dinner).  Becca made the basket for the "in" one and I made a book out of construction paper (getting back to my elementary roots here) that told the story of a date night out with the gift cards inside.  It was pretty hilarious if you ask me.  During some down time, this is what all the boys were doing - sitting at the same table playing words with friends on their phones against each other!  Oy Vey.

Daniel opening his legos from Grandpa and Jenn

Charlie - the gift to the ladies!

Daniel also got the Angry Birds game - thanks Jeff and Shannon!  Seriously, he wants to play with it all the time.

Shannon had Matt in the sibling draw, so in addition to Itunes, he got a Tim Tebow action figure for his classroom.

The boys got some books for Christmas and at one point for like 10 minutes, this was what they looked like.  Quiet, looking at the pictures.  Very uncharacteristic of these two when they are together, hence the picture.  But hey I'll take it!

Then the Tuesday after that, we had Christmas with the peoples at my mom's house.  We had dinner, opened presents, and had dessert.  Daniel took it upon himself to play Santa.  He was so excited to open presents, I'm pretty sure he opened every single one there, "helping" everyone else out.

Daniel got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates game from FAB and he's a big fan.  Into games right now so that makes me happy.

Logan, on the other hand, is into eating bows. And monkey puppets...

Trouble!!!!  He also got Candy Land too.  I'm telling you, he's like his mom in that respect.

Matt got all gift cards cuz, well, that's what he asked for.  Itunes, Staples, and Chipotle. 

Oh, and the ever popular Bucky ship he got from my mom and Rick.  He wanted to play with this all night long!  It helps that it had a WORKING CANNON!  I mean, how could someone resist?

All in all, even though it was hectic we had a great Christmas time in California.