The Holst Family: January 2009

We started out our family Christmas festivities with the Holst family. We all gathered the weekend before Christmas so the kids could open gifts. Then the adults did a white elephant exchange (with Mike taking the cake on that one) and games. We had a great time and it was really nice to get together with everyone there and no one rushing to get someone else. Of course, I rock and forgot my camera but here are a few pictures that Jenny was so nice to share!

Here is Jack opening his gift from Brayden.

And Trin with the sweater that we got here. Isn't it as beautiful and sparkly as her!

And Brayden with his builder outfit that he got from Grandpa and Grandma! He loves all of his tools and it still "fixing" everything there could possibly be to fix. Even though I don't have a picture of her, Tiyler was also there and had just as much fun as the other kids did with their gifts.

Since Christmas Eve brought on yet another day of crappy weather and Kyle and I were both not feeling well, we opted to sit home instead of going to church. I decided to let Kyle and Brayden open a joint gift that I had gotten for them - a large collection of Lincoln Logs!

Daddy had a lot of fun building houses, and condos and towers with the Lincoln Logs...

... and Brayden had a blast knocking them over - sometimes before Daddy was ready for them to be knocked down.

700 Lincoln Logs make for some very tall towers - some even taller than our big boy!

Christmas Eve brought Santa - of course. Brayden decided this year that he did not want Santa in our house while he was sleeping, so Mommy talked to Santa and asked him to leave Brayden's presents at Daddy's truck. Then Daddy went outside and brought them in to put under the tree...

It took Daddy quite a few trips to bring all of these presents inside to put under the tree ;) I am not sure that he was a good enough boy last year to deserve all of these presents, but Santa must have thought differently.

Christmas morning was very exciting at the Holst house. Two and a half is the perfect age to see how magical and joyous Christmas can be. Brayden was so very excited with every present that was opened. He was very methodical, which was very entertaining to us. With every present, he would take off the bow and start unwrapping. As soon as he could see something, he would look up and squeal with excitement "Look Mommy/Daddy - I got THIS!!!" And then he would continue unwrapping it until he found out what "this" was. He was just as excited about the clothes and sneakers he got as he was about the toys and videos.

And this is what one spoiled boy, plus uncountable hours of shopping and wrapping look like when all is said and done.

I first have to start out by saying that I am so sorry about the lack of updates. I have no idea where December went, but needless to say it is gone and the month obviously did not include any blog updates. I especially need to say to Heather that I am sorry for all the times that I made fun of you for not updating your blog, because I seem to suck just as much as you do with this kind of stuff! :)

Anyways, December was of course a very busy month for us, as it was for all I am sure. Here are some pictures to help sum up the month.

This is Brayden helping Daddy put the tree together.

And helping Mommy put ornaments on the tree. He was such a big help decorating the tree this year.

Here is Brayden trying to sit under the tree. If you look at the branches right around him, you will notice that they are the branches that he decorated. There are at least 3 ornaments on each branch - he really liked those branches.