Tis' the Season: the last month of Christmas festivities in one post

Decorating the tree, Max style. Because it's not really Christmas until someone loses their pants. 

Our tree has so many random ornaments on it and I love it. I am very impressed with the people who have the fancy, themed trees with certain colors/shapes/ribbon things. I feel like those same people probably enjoy cooking and maybe know what do with a whisk. I just cannot be those people. To me ornaments are supposed to be: sentimental, homemade, include pictures, possibly so ugly they are cute or all of the above. 

I love these handprints. Also, the Grinch & Max bags. I find it slightly fitting that Anderson has become the Grinch by default.

Brandon & Noni took the boys to see Santa. It went well.

Actually, Max basically hates everyone expect us so this did not surprise anyone. It is sort of funny to ask him if he wants to go see Santa because he will freak out and scream, No! Noni took him to the mall one day and basically gave him PTSD when she walked past the Santa there. So funny/pitiful.

In true GG form, Toni has entire collections of holiday shirts for the boys. All of them are SO cute!! I am so appreciative of her thoughtfulness with stuff like this.

We made Gingerbread Houses with the family of someone I work with and all of the supplies landed on the floor, which meant that Max had a pretty amazing evening. 

It was hilarious. He was shoveling in handfuls of sprinkles as quickly as he could gather them. 

The end result. Anderson's favorite? The 3rd one that was hit by a tornado. 

Yet again, this is why God gave me boys. Nobody has time for anything like normal looking ginger bread houses. 

They also decorated cookies and Anderson ate huge blobs of green icing for dinner. 

Christmas craft at school. 

Max in a snow globe. 

This is literally the only picture I got at Brandon's work Christmas party. Per usual, constantly trying to keep up/entertain this little cutie/terrorist. 

Brandon did an awesome job on our lights, but I am now realizing this is a terrible pic because you can't actually see them. Hottie in the driveway, though!

There are a lot of trees right next to our house and one of them is MUCH smaller than the rest of them. Last year we started decorating it and it might be my favorite new tradition. Max was very dedicated to the project, as you can tell. 

I tried so hard to get pics of them in their matching shirts, but most of them ended up like this, or...

this. 

Love these guys. 

Making Christmas ornaments with my mom. (This is where Nicole gets the crafting/doing things like this gene)

Lily's ornament was so sweet. "I love my mommy." 

Please, please let it always be warm enough for us to go outside. 

Noni & Bop took the older 2 to visit Santa/see Christmas light at the Cove! 

So, I was talking to Clare (of course I was) & she was stuck in traffic. Coincidentally, I was headed to the same area, so I appreciated the heads up. She was literally stuck there for at least 30 minutes while we were talking. I parked (far away from the mess), sat in her car so she could run across the parking lot & buy a gift card and then she ran back and we had moved about 4 feet. It was crazy, but also random and hilarious. I, of course, documented it. 

Speaking of Clare, we had an AWESOME time at our annual Brunch Christmas Celebration. 

I include this pic of Anderson to make up for the fact he is a total grumpy elf later in the post. 

Clare makes delicious things like this! She is the person who uses real recipes and ingredients and utensils and is basically the total opposite of me, which is why I love when she volunteers to cook. 

We have been besties for a really long time (11 years? I can't remember, but I feel like this is accurate) and I am so grateful for her friendship. 

We traded a Max for a Lily because Max had some kind of crud and Lily loves a party. 

Jack always has the greatest expressions. The boy will not let you down with his enthusiasm. Clare had a genius idea that we should get them both Kinetic Sand and they loved it! 

Clare also gave a special gift to Lily & Reese to prepare them for being big sisters. It was super sweet.

We also decorated cookies and I somehow managed to miss snapping a pic of Lucy hard at work on hers/covered in icing. There was a definite difference between the girl/boy cookie decorating focus. Anderson's is in the lower corner and there is a cookie under that pile of citing. 

I took them on a few last minute shopping errands and it was not terrible. Lily was very concerned when Anderson occasionally got out of the cart or wandered away a few inches or so. It was fun to spend time with just the 2 of them. 

Elephant Turds are one of our family's most dominant traditions and I love that my mom ensures that my boys get to participate, too. 

I feel that the month has flown by and we have been very busy with work/life/etc, so it is nice to look back on these pics and realize that we did celebrate it up a bit.