Christmas Day 2010

An early morning with little boys and their excitement for Christmas morning. First the stockings, Carter and Luke digging in to find all the fun goodies. Then, breakfast, made by Jeremy. While Carrie gets Brayden situated to come downstairs and join the festivities.

After breakfast, Carter and Luke sort out all of the presents, carefully reading the tags and trying to guess what their presents may contain. Before it is time to open the gifts, Jeremy reads from the Bible and prays. Carter and Luke were thrilled to give each other the gifts they had picked out. Brayden snuggled with daddy while enjoying some of his new Christmas items.

After a good Christmas mess was made, we shower up and head to Carrie's parent's home for the remainder of the day. Their house is a mountain of presents, a room filled with people and gifts. Papa starts off the day with a reading of the Christmas story.

Hours of unwrapping the gifts. Then Christmas dinner and dessert (singing Happy Birthday to Jesus).

Christmas Eve 2010

A time with Jeremy's side of the family. The boys love being with their cousins. And Grandpa Warren read the Bible, sang Christmas songs and the children shared Bible verses they have learned (Luke would not stop sharing, he kept raising his hand...good to know all those Awana lessons are sticking). Then we opened gifts.

Next, off to church for the Christmas Eve service where Carter and Luke sang in the Children's Choir (in front of 1000ish people).

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Later in the program children 4-6 years old were invited to come on stage to help answer questions about the Christmas story. Luke was up there, no problem and answering the questions. Carter thought it was cool to video his brother.

After we wrapped up things at church, we loaded in the car and drove around to view Christmas lights.

Grinch Ice

A big day...the boys did not know where we were going. They only knew that it was going to be a big adventure. That morning, I slid a clue under their door.
Carter had an idea about what we would be doing but I told them, that they would not know until we got into the car.
In the car, they found a bag filled with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas items and pictures for the ICE at the Gaylord in the National Harbor. It was going to be a bit of a drive, so they popped in the Grinch movie. It was Carter, Luke, Brayden, his nurse and me.

We met up with my parents, sister and her children, my Grandfather (my dad's father) and my Grammy (my mom's mother). First stop, pictures in around the facility and in front of the giant Christmas tree made only of peeps candy.



Then we headed to the line for the ICE. We each had to pick up a giant parka before entering, since the ICE is actually made entirely of ice and the rooms are a cool 9 degrees. Then stop for a photo op (just in case you ever wanted to know what you may look like 50 pounds heavier). We go through a series of doors, to protect the cold temperatures of the rooms containing the ice displays. We enter and it is definitely cold but you barely notice because of all the exciting things to look at...everything you see is made only of ice...everything.


After visiting several rooms, we came upon the room of ice slides. A walk up a flight of stairs and come down a slide of ice with lights making things glow. Carter and Luke definitely did this several times (my mom even did it).

After the slides a couple more rooms. A giant feast with Woo-ville and a separate room for a large nativity scene, talking about the REAL meaning of Christmas. It was beautiful. We spent about 50+ minutes going through it, in the 9 degrees temperature and we all came out having fun.

After all that fun, we walked a couple of blocks for lunch. Then headed over to the Gaylord and wandered around their indoor Christmas village. A train ride, fountain show, visit with Santa, who even read The Night Before Christmas with them, a ride on the elevator (3x and don't ask) and more. It was the best thing for getting that Christmas spirit!