Christmas with the Beetles

This Christmas season was full of joy for our family. There is something magical about seeing the holidays through the eyes of a child, and Ben's eyes didn't miss anything. He was so very excited about everything the holiday season brings. Our Christmas tree and decorations were up the day after Thanksgiving thanks to the Bennie boy. If he would have had it his way they would have been up well before. Chris brought up the tree and our almost five year old quickly went to work. He found room for nearly all of our ornaments, oohing and ahhing over each and every one. He took note of the ones that had mom and dad's names and year on them and wondered why he didn't have many ornaments with his name and year on them. We explained that over the years Chris and I were gifted with ornaments each Christmas and that over time he would also have many ornaments of his own.

Ben took full advantage of every holiday activity offered to him. One of the highlights was cookie baking with his Grammie K, Auntie Jessie and Auntie Amy. He was quite focused during this afternoon long project and everyone was sure to know which cookies Ben decorated because his cookies might have had an entire bottle of sprinkles poured over them!

We also built a gingerbread house and of course being the up and coming builder man that he is, he was the one that noticed I used the roof pieces for the side walls and that is why the house wasn't fitting together like it should (thank goodness I wasn't involved in the framing portion of our attic remodel)!

We hit up the holidazzle parade which was met with more oohing and ahhing over all the floats. His favorites were the pirate float and twinkle bus (a city bus decked out with tons of lights).

The big event of course was Christmas Eve. He tracked Santa's travels on the iPad with Uncy J and Auntie Kathryn. Santa was somewhere in South America when the little guy finally collapsed after begging to sleep with the device so he "could check in on where Santa was during the night." He woke us with squeals of delight on Christmas morning, exclaiming "it's true, it's true Santa came and he ate the cookies and drank the milk!"

We spent Christmas Eve with the Bradley family, who graciously brought dinner to our home so the twinnies could sleep peacefully in their bassinets while we relaxed with family and enjoyed delicious food and drink. Christmas Day we headed to the Schultz side where Ben played with his cousins. We introduced the babes to their Great Uncle Bill, Great Aunt Mona, cousin Lizzie and family friend Pat. Every time we introduce the twins to family for the first time, my heart swells with joy as I'm reminded of the love that surrounds these babies.

 Our holiday season was filled with love and joy. I can only imagine the excitement that next year's will bring as the babies grow into little toddlers on the move! Wishing you and your family the joy of the season today and every day.