Christmas Day snapshots

More traditions,  more celebrations, and more family time continued on Christmas day.

Christmas morning.

Waiting for the boys to wake up.

Finally the boys are up!! Christmas stocking time.

Presents for Bella.

and for everyone else.

Then it was time for our Christmas breakfast of Eggs Benedict, monkey bread, sparkling cider, mimosas...and cocoa pebbles for Tyler. :)

Then it was time for a little family ping pong time.

The ornament that the boys received this year: Tyler got the pencil ornament, Jake got the drivers license, and Drew received the fishing boat. {Memories from this past year.}

In the afternoon we went over to my parents house to continue the Christmas festivities.

Me and my Dad.

Santa even made a visit.

The littles were in awe!

And the biggest were too! :)

All the cousin's with Santa!

And the group.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve snapshots

Christmas is always such a special time of year as we visit with family and friends, eat way too much food and most importantly...celebrate our Lord's birth!

Christmas Eve we went to celebrate with Pete's dad and uncle. We met at a cute little Italian restaurant for lunch.

And then headed over to Pete's dad's house to open gifts and do some more visiting.

Jake got a special gift from Grandpa--a puck from the 1980 Olympics.

All the Anderson boys.

Back home that evening I made a bunch of appetizers for us to much on.

Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to open one gift--new pajamas. We have done this since the boys were itty bitty and it is something we look forward to each year.

The tradition continues with me reading the boys 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'. I love that the boys still let me do this!! :)

The best Christmas present ever-- a big hug from all my boys!

Christmas lights

One of my favorite things to do every winter is to drive around and look at all the Christmas lights displayed throughout the neighborhoods. There is something so peaceful about it and definitely brings out the Christmas spirit.

This year none of the boys wanted to join us, but Pete and I headed out last evening and even grabbed a little plate of Christmas cookies to nourish us along the way. :)

I went online to see if I could find some great light displays in our area, and we headed out to several of those. None of these pictures really do it justice, but most of the houses put on quite a 'show' with music and all.

I love this Charlie Brown play house that is down the block from us.

But the highlight of the evening was the tree in Bloomington that can be seen from Cedar Avenue. Truly amazing and spectacular to see up close in person!!

After our light viewing we stopped to get an appetizer and drink at one of our favorite spots, Chianti Grill.
And then came home to start our Christmas present wrapping.
It was a perfect evening.

an early Christmas Present

Unlike previous years; this year Drew's Christmas list was very short.

In years past, Drew's Christmas wish lists were very long and usually consisted of at least a few new pets for our house, like another dog and a hamster. :) So needless to say, after seeing this years list and seeing that really all he wanted was a ping pong table, we decided that we would finally give in.

The boys have been wanting a ping pong table for years, but we really weren't sure we wanted to add another big thing in the basement and take up valuable floor space--because we already have: Foosball, air hockey and a pinball machine. But since this is really the kids basement and where they spend a majority of their time and hang out with friends, we went our a few weeks before Christmas and bought the table.

We wanted to wait until Christmas morning to surprise Drew, but really there is no way to hide a big table for very long. :) Since Tyler was still at college, we hid the box in his bedroom for a couple of weeks, but he is coming home today.

So this morning, Pete had the big job of putting the table together.

I hung a sign on the basement door.

Drew got his big present a few days early, but he was sooo happy and immediately called a friend to come over!

Merry Christmas, Drew!