White Christmas

This year Christmas was just beautiful. It was on a Sunday, so I was a little worried about the boys being patient and waiting until after church to open most of their presents but they did amazingly well. In the morning, they all got up early and came down to see what Santa brought. Then we had breakfast, got ready for church and enjoyed a sacrament meeting full of beautiful music about the Savior. One of my friends had a brother in town for Christmas whose name happens to be Tobias and he played the most beautiful viola piece. My Tobias was so tickled to meet a grownup with his same name. After church, we came home and opened the gifts from each other and grandparents. As usual, the boys made out like bandits. And, as usual, I vowed that next year there would be far less. Maybe I need to make a mantra so I can remember that for next  year. Oh well. May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.

This is the winter wonderland we woke up to on Christmas morning.

Gifted

As you might remember from last year, our boys LOVE to give each other gifts at Christmas time which results in a number of special looking packages being placed under our tree. This year, the twins spent their hard-earned money and went shopping for gifts for their brothers which I thought was really sweet and very generous. Benjamin made a family gift with random items from around the house which we thought were lost. The writing on the box was especially cute.

"too evrebude in th Rikcs famle frum Binjmin Riks"
Apparently, when he was sounding out all the other words he went ahead and spelled his name phonetically also. I love it when they first are learning to write and spell. So cute.

Wishful Thinking

Each  year, we have the boys write a wishlist for Christmas. David John is usually most enthusiastic and serious about these lists. In fact, he makes lists all year long- for birthdays, Easter, even Halloween. He also loves to look through catalogs which our boys call "blogs". Earlier this year, David John went to the dentist and came home with a new toothbrush and a sample of little flossing picks. The picks came with an advertisement. David John read it thoroughly and then made a list of the dental supplies that he really really wanted. He gave me the following list and asked me to buy them ASAP.

-micromint flossers
-twin-line flossers
-right angle flossers
-grind-no-more night protector
-dental brush
-interdental angle brush