Christmas 2018

I'm not going to lie, most weekends when the boys nap, this mama naps too. Any chance I have to catch some zzz's these days are so worth it but today is not one of those days. My parents had the boys over for a sleepover last night so Dennis and I both got to sleep in, which means a whole nap time is available to dedicate to this space! So before I forget every little detail, let's recap Christmas 2018.

Every other year, we spend Christmas in Colorado and this year we were able to dedicate a full week, Sunday to Sunday, to visiting family and friends in one of our favorite places.  We loaded up the truck with clothes, gifts, and as many toys/books/and movies as we could to distract the boys on the 9+ hour drive and hit the road around 10 a.m. on Sunday.  Overall, the boys did really well on the drive. We had a very untimely need to stop for gas that cut both naps short but lesson learned! When we got to Dennis' mom's house, we let the boys run around, play with trains, and enjoy time with Nonni and Opa.

The first Christmas we celebrated was Christmas eve with Dennis' dad, step mom, siblings, aunt and uncle, cousins, etc. It was wonderful. We ate way too much and then let the kiddos dig into presents. There are three grandbabies now, all boys, and they were thoroughly spoiled with enough toys and clothes to last them through the year(s).

After the kids finished opening gifts and started playing with all their new toys, we had our adult gift exchange. This year we set a $50 limit and everyone stepped up with awesome gifts, many of which were stolen to the limit. Favorites included the Google home/chrome cast duo we snagged, all the ingredients needed for a margarita/taco night, a corn hole set, and tons of others. It's the first year we've done our adult gifts this way and it was so much fun, it has surely become a tradition! 

Christmas morning the boys woke up and we reminded them that Santa had come and we had to go downstairs and see what he brought!  Duke immediately said "He's here, he's here, Santa downstairs?!" and we quickly realized that he thought Santa would actually be hanging out in the living room when he woke up.  Oops! We quickly explained that Santa couldn't stay but he left him some fun surprises and it only took him a minute to move on from his disappointment. They came downstairs to stockings and unwrapped gifts from the man himself. Duke got dinosaurs he can take apart and put together with a screwdriver and Theo got an animal themed bowling set along with books and candy.

 

After Santa gifts, we had the boys dig into some of the gifts we had gotten them.  We tried to go easy on gifts because we knew they would be spoiled rotten by family in Denver, but we couldn't resist a new Paw Patrol fire truck! It's been a hit ever since.

After we thoroughly enjoyed all the new goodies, and Theo cleaned up all the wrapping paper (his favorite activity of the week) we got dressed up to head to Dennis' grandpa's for Christmas dinner with the family.  Italian family means the most delicious Italian dinner and we ate our weight in rigatoni, sausage, meatballs, salad, and every dessert under the sun. Dennis' grandpa turns 95 this year so every chance we get to see him is so awesome for us and the boys.  We love Papa Canino!

We had two very full days of endless Christmas celebrations and it was wonderful. The boys loved seeing all of their family and we loved getting to catch up with everybody, snuggle new babies, and visit some of our favorite Denver spots.  I'll recap the rest of our week in Colorado in another post...for now we can officially bid adieu to Christmas 2018!

-T-