Christmas Goodness

Cory surprised me with this heavy duty beauty!

 This may sound great to you, but hear this: Cory hadn't surprised me with a Christmas present since our first Christmas in 2002 when he bought me my channel-set wedding band.  No joke, this was awesome!  I am truly one lucky lady.  I used it to make bread sticks to go with the lasagna.  They turned out great!

We didn't end up waiting until after church to come downstairs Christmas morning.  I woke up at 5:00 and tried not to move, but then Cory started moving around.  I said, "I know you're awake" and he said "Shh."  I told him we should just get up and let the kids see what Santa brought before church.  We got showered and ready for church, then we woke up the kids at 6:30.  Brady pretty much hopped out of bed, but Brooke needed more convincing.  But once she heard the word "presents" she was bright-eyed and all smiles. 

Brooke was very happy with these two things Santa brought her.  She wouldn't put that vacuum down for anything.

Brady was excited about this angry bird, and all the other things Santa brought that he didn't even ask him for.  He was still holding out hope for a Nerf gun under the tree though.

I've never sat around for 20 minutes before 9:00 church before, and I couldn't believe how many people were already there by 10 minutes to the hour.  I guess we were all up early.  No excuses for the last Sunday of the year.

We had a beautiful Christmas program where there were two narrators reading scriptures intermixed with all the Christmas hymns and a few musical numbers.  I love singing, and our chorister and organist were awesome!  I really felt the spirit at the end of "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" when each time we sang "Oh come let us adore him" we got louder and louder.  It was such a spiritual meeting.

Cory's parents gave Brooke these Sesame Street friends and they are a hit!  In fact, when I put her in her crib Monday night she had them in her arms and handed me her dolly.  "No dolly," she said.  I was shocked, but then she quickly changed her mind.  I don't think anything will replace her dolls, but these guys are right up there now too. 

This shot just proves how happy our boy was to get these Toy Story characters from Cory's parents and his sister's family.  He hasn't left them out of his sight, and we had to forbid him taking Buzz to bed when it woke us up the other morning.

Brooke was really intrigued by this little doll house from Ashley's kids.  She's such a little girl!

This is my favorite picture from this Christmas. It captures the pure bliss he feels holding these babies.  Yes, he got two, one from his cousin Cole and one from us.  Cory wanted to play with him.  On our way home from church Brady was trying to be positive: "It's okay if I didn't get a Nerf gun.  I'm sure I'll like the presents I got, and if I don't I'll just give them to Brooke."

Cory got two nice suits for Christmas, but he said no pictures of him on the blog.  Sorry Cory fans, you'll just have to come visit.  I also got a Calvin Klein pea coat and some Levi's skinny jeans that look really sweet, I must say.  All in all, "we scored big time," as Cory said.