A very Merry Christmas

This Christmas is one I want to remember always.

Christmas time is one of the hardest times for me to be away from my family,

but being able to share the day with our boys and make it special for them makes me happy.

We started the morning out with singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

The boys thought it quite silly at first but by the end of the song (which is much longer in Portuguese) they were shouting it!

Then they got to open their stockings, and the gifts we had for them. They were truly the sweetest. Hugged me after each opened gift and said thank you a million times.

After the boys opened their gifts, Isanon and I snuck away to open ours!

This was the first year that Isanon completely surprised me with all my gifts, and I truly loved every single one of them.

Isanon is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I can't help it...his little kid happiness is the best! Oh, and mom, here is proof that he loved the games you sent for him! :)

After opening presents, we had breakfast and decorated our sugar cookies.

And then....Santa came with more gifts... 

Look at those happy faces! 

A very Merry (late) Christmas, from our little family to yours!



Oh, and I caught Santa playing Xbox! :P

Sugar Cookies and a Special Christmas Eve dinner..

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to be going as planned? 

Christmas Eve was one of those days. Nothing went as we had "planned" it, but if you look at the smiles on our boys' faces, you would never know. So, instead of telling you all the things that went wrong, I'll let these pictures show you all the things that turned out perfectly. 

We made Sugar Cookies. Well...we made the dough. The boys made the cookies. 

...and we had a very special Christmas Eve dinner. We decided to have it in the boys' TV room this year instead of just in the cafeteria. Having it in their room made it so much more sentimental and family-like. We had Christmas music playing in the background and we even had punch to drink. It was pretty great. 

Christmas Eve may not have turned out how I planned, but it was pretty great anyways.