This Minivan Life

We warned Michael and Zach that no presents would be opened until 7am. They were awesome and mostly stuck to that.  This was the year of Legos, ninja outfits and weapons, sweatshirts, a third and final plasma car, and the year we brought nerf guns into our house.  Michael was thrilled with his sweatshirts.  Zach picked out ninja weapons and outfits for himself and Michael way back at halloween. He'd asked daily for the outfits until Christmas day.   Grace finally joined the plasma car club.  As soon as she started unwrapping the giant box the boys knew what was inside- a plasma car!  The boys in their super cool outfits.  We ended up with a trampoline upstairs. The boys and Grace love it! They can jump when it's cold and sleep on the tramp on the weekends.  the boys got started with Legos early in the day. Zach was determined to build all his sets in one day.  Grace loved everything about her plasma car.  Grace

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year, we started off the day with church. I love when Christmas Eve falls on a sunday, it's such a great reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. I wish there was church every Christmas Eve.  Not everyone (really anyone) shared my enthusiasm for church on Christmas Eve. We stopped by the see Emmy and Colin and their two cats on the way home from church. Grace was so confused by Lemon, because she looks so much like our cat, CJ, except friendly.  The boys thought about destroying everything at Emmy's but managed to come out without ruining too much. And they got to see the red bear that topped all the Christmas trees we had when I was growing up, and now tops Emmy's tree.  We came home and were angry... noticed how one family member wouldn't look at the camera. We had lunch and "naps" and then started our festivities.  On Christmas Eve we always open one present that contains new pjs and a family movi

Christmas Adam is a great holiday. Since it's not really a holiday, we've made up some fun traditions to keep the day exciting.  We like to get chinese food on Christmas Adam. The kids all liked the food, though some of them (Grace) liked dipping their hands and fried wontons into the sweet and sour sauce even more.   We tried making homemade macarons. For a first attempt they turned out well!  And...we got slurpees.  The boys ended the excitement with a sleepover in Michael's room. Such a fun way to get ready for Christmas!

Zach loves to tell people that his party was the day before  his "actual" birthday. He woke up to a GIANT poorly wrapped present. Since he and Michael had peeked, he knew EXACTLY what it was- a NINJA TURTLE BIKE! He'd been eyeing this bike for months. The handle bars are nunchucks... so it's the coolest.   We celebrated with our traditional trip to the movies. As soon as we arrived at the theatre Zach announced he needed "a kid bucket with a drink, popcorn, and fruit snacks". We'd gone to the movie with Michael's friends back in the July for his birthday, so Zach knew exactly what he wanted to get. They lounged during the previews. Zach hates previews. Overall, I think he liked the movie (Coco), but he thought it was a bit too long. Honestly, he'd be thrilled if the movie was 23 minutes long like a show and then we went home.   That night we had a family movie pizza party upstairs and cheesecake with an oreo crust and s