Christmas this year was so much fun. It is the first year that Bo really got into the Christmas spirit. Almost every morning in December, he would wake up and say, "I want today to be Christmas!" He even decided we needed to rearrange the calendar. I highlighted Christmas Day on our big calendar in the kitchen and some times he would hop up there and point to the sequence of days as if the boxes were a game board and find the shortest distance to Christmas saying, "I want it to go boop, boop, boop, Opa's birthday, Christmas Day." And as the days went on, Opa's birthday even got the boot and it was, "boop, boop, boop, Christmas, and then Opa's birthday." Sorry Opa.
One morning he had again scooted the bar stool up to the calendar and was highlighting every other day in December thinking if it was yellow, then it was Christmas. Sure seems logical (if you're 3).
And always thinking like he does, Bo was very concerned with how Santa was going to get into our house. One night in bed he turned to me and asked, "Mom, Santa comes down the chimney, right?" I answered "yes" and that was that. Then the next night in bed he turned to me again and asked, "Mom, do we have a chimney?" Poor guy had been worrying with that all day. I went on to explain to him that we have a chimney stack on the boiler in the garage but if that didn't work, then he would just come in the doggy door.
But the hardest part for Bo this year was having all the presents under the tree and not being able to peek inside any of them. I finally told him that Santa would not bring him any gifts if he opened any and he had great restraint from then on.
Sam on the other hand was still quite clueless. I was really worried when we decorated the tree that he would want to pull every ornament off and possibly even try to climb the tree.
One of the first days the tree was up, he ran and lunged towards the tree. Right as I was yelling, "SAM, NO!" he reached for the stuffed paisley bear ornament and gave it a big kiss. And from that day on, he occasionally hugged and kissed that bear but never bothered anything else. What a sweetie!
Then there is Max. Already 3 months old and enjoying his first Christmas. Well, we enjoyed it for him, but it still counted. 
More pics from the day . . .
Then when she told him he could put it down, he proceeded to stand statuesque and merely opened his fingers just enough to let the sign fall down to his feet. It was hilarious (but you'd have to see it to understand and if I can ever figure out our new video camera well enough to download only small snippets of video, you could possibly see what I'm talking about.) 
Later at home when we were watching the video back on our camera, Bo said, "Everyone is singing but me" and when I asked him "why" he said, "because they were taking too long." ???
Max could have cared less that a 300 pound man in fur was holding him. He pretty much slept through the whole thing.
Then there was Sam. Little ole dancing Sam. He is so stinkin funny. He loved Santa and kept showing him his shoes. "Chuse. Chuse." At one point he and Santa even got into a shoe-off. I think if Sam had his way, he would have been in everyone else's pictures as well. He could not get enough of Santa.
Paper, what paper?
He flung that 6 lb ball like he'd been doing it for years. Check out that form . . . 
And the spare in frame 9!
Then there was a total warm and fuzzy moment for me - the passing on of my favorite Thanksgiving Day job from growing up . . . putting the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes.
Overall it was a great day that we were not only able to share with Grandma and Grandpa this year, but our friends Ty & Tru as well. We are thankful to have such great family and friends all around us. We can't ask for much more than that.