Happiest season of all!

Well, the lights have been unstrung, the ornaments tucked away, the stocking and all the Christmas decorations have been boxed up until next year and we've bid our perfect tree farewell. And though a part of me is sad to let go of the holiday season, a bigger part of me is excited about the new year to come. We made so many new Christmas memories. This holiday season has definitely been one of the best yet. Here are some of our holiday memories this year...

Christmas songs

Growing up in my family, we always put on the Christmas songs after Thanksgiving. Dan however could listen to Christmas music year round (in fact he sneaks Christmas music in year round), so we have compromised at turning on the Christmas tunes after Halloween. The boys really enjoyed the Christmas music this year. Daniel and even Sammy could sing parts of many of the songs. I don't think there is anything better than the sweet voices of your children singing 'Jingle Bells' or 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.

Daniel and his classmates making music
and singing Christmas songs in preschool.

Wrapping presents

This year I decided to get some wrapping done with the boys. I still haven't decided if that was a big mistake or not. While Daniel was my elf helper placing wrapped presents on a cutting board and carrying them to the Christmas tree, Sammy threw ribbon around and walked all over the wrapping paper. Besides the crumpled paper and fuzzy, wrinkled tape the presents didn't turn out too bad, and my elves definitely had a blast.

Gingerbread houses

This year I knew I wanted to do gingerbread houses with the boys, it was just a matter of making it easy enough for them to participate. Last year I ended up buying a kit and I had to do it by myself because it was too hard for Daniel or Sammy to help. This year we made gingerbread houses out of graham cracker and it worked great. The boys loved decorating and eating their little houses.

Daniel working meticulously on his house.

Mostly Sammy just licked

the frosting and ate the candy.

Cookie decorating

My Dad passed down the tradition of making Christmas cutout cookies. It is a time involved process of making the dough, letting it chill, rolling and cutting it out, baking and finally decorating the cookies with a special frosting. I don't think we got around to making our Christmas cookies last year, so this year I was determined to do it. The boys and I pulled out the mixer and made the dough. This wasn't as much as a disaster as I thought it might be, although I only put in 4 cups of flour instead of 6 and I had to keep yelling at the boys to keep their paws out of the batter. Daniel helped me roll and cut out the cookies and on Christmas Eve we decorated. This was the first year Daniel got to decorate cookies and he did so well. He was able to do it all by himself and didn't even make a huge mess. He made a plateful of cookies for Santa which tasted as good as they looked.

Cookies for Santa made by Daniel.

Here comes Santa

And to top it off I got to watch my boys experience the wonder and magic of waking up to presents brought by Santa himself. I will cherish the moment Daniel came out of his room Christmas morning and ran to the top of the stairs to see if Santa really came. And the excitement and wonder in his voice as he told me, 'Santa came!'

So we say goodbye to Christmas, but hello to the new year. I wonder what it holds in store for me and my family.