Christmas, Christmas and MORE Christmas!

Christmas and the days leading up to it were great.  We celebrated with some friends in early December and had a personal visit from Santa at their house.  The boys thought it was so cool and even Ella had her first meeting with Santa.

The boys tried extra hard to be good this year as we had a new addition to the family (and I am not talking about the baby!)  Yes, we finally got an Elf on the Shelf!  The boys decided to name him Comet and he was magical!  The whole "schtick" wore off after a few days with Jake who told Santa when asked that he is "only sometimes good" to which Santa replied: "well, at least you are honest!"  But with Trent, it was magical!  One evening I was praising Trent for having such great behavior since Ella was born (which has been such a blessing).  I told him that I knew he was being so great because of her, etc.  After I went on and on for a while, he finally spoke up and said: "yeah, and because we have an Elf living with us now and watching everything we do!"... ahhh the magic I tell you!

We went to Hudson Gardens to see all of the lights on the day before Christmas eve.  The weather has been very mild here so we really enjoyed walking around and it was not too cold for baby Ella.  The boys really enjoyed it.

At Hudson Gardens light display

On Christmas eve we decorated a gingerbread house (which the boys were SO excited about) and went to Christmas mass.  We prepared for the big guy by putting out some of the cookies the boys helped me make and some egg nog then it was off to bed!

Trent working hard

Despite how it looks, this picture was NOT easy to get
(but it's a Pham family tradition!)

We spent Christmas day at home just the 5 of us.  It was nice to be home and do the intimate family thing for a change, though we missed being with family.  It was strange to have no where to go, but the boys really enjoyed playing with all of their toys all day.  I made a ham and some of my Aunt Barbara's cheesy scalloped potatoes for dinner which actually turned out good!

The JOY of Christmas morning
(yes, I bribed them with thier new toys to get this picture!)

Ella Bella

Is Christmas over ALREADY!?

Finally we traveled back to Oklahoma City after the holiday and had more Christmas there :)  It was great to see everyone.  John's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and almost all of his family came in to celebrate with them.  It was a nice to see a lot of his family we haven't seen in a long time.  We got all of the cousins together also - as always all of the boys loved playing together!

The whole PHAM damly!