Reid is going so well at sitting for long periods of time. His core is really strong! Our Christmas prep continued this week including shopping, lots of wrapping, and packing! But before we got to any of that Griffin decorated a super cute (and sweet) Gingerbread house. He and Sam decorated both houses and then drew a number to see which house they each got to keep. He had tons of fun and was so proud to show me when I got home from work. On Wednesday we attended Griffin’s last Christmas program at NPCA! It was really cute and there are so many kids! Griffin sang all of the songs and did the hand motions, though you can definitely tell he is shy in front of a crowd. After the performance we had a quick bit of cake and then headed to First Watch for a tasty lunch with Amy, Graham, Rowan, Greta, Debbie, Sam, and Grandma Beilstein. Thanks, Grandma, for the treat!

Griffin and Sam (and Reid) exchanged gifts before the weekend. They were so excited it was literally 7:35 in the morning and Sam and Debbie were barely in the door. Griffin loved his Christmas lego set and Reid’s workbench and tools have been a big hit.

This guy here wanted to be a part of everything that had to do with wrapping. We put together a good system where I wrapped and Griffin picked out the name tag. He wrote most tags out as well. I barely had one piece of tape on a package before he was ready to put the sticker on! So much excitement and joy over the little things. Oh how I wish from time to time that I could be a kid again! It took us a LONG time to wrap and organize this year! In the end we had our piles separated and Kevin loaded up the van to head to Enon for the Armstrong Christmas gathering and a couple of nights at his parents. It took much skill to get all of our belongings into the van. You would have thought that we were going somewhere for two months! But with a baby, a preschooler, two dogs, all the baby gear, suitcases, gifts and such we were loaded to the max. We got a later start than we anticipated but we were off and officially on Christmas break! Each morning Griffin was so excited to read the scripture verse and put the next piece on our advent calendar. We didn’t want to miss the last two days by being away from home – so we took it with us! First thing in the morning when he woke up at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs was to do the calendar.
Saturday morning we woke up and after lounging around a bit we got to work prepping for the Armstrong family Christmas gathering, which this year was hosted by Jim and Pat. Griffin helped me make some brownies and a few other things too.  After we filled our bellies with all kinds of foods and hung out with the family we sat down and opened Christmas presents. Griffin was super excited to hand them out :).  Baby Jesus! We had planned to get the dogs a new bed to replace the one off to the side in our kitchen. While Kevin was at Aldi (to get diapers, of course!) he found a great one there that just so happened to be grey and go great in our space. Amazingly the dogs shared the bed in the car from Enon to Mansfield We drove from Enon to our house for a quick 37 minute pit stop to drop off presents, swap out clothes, and pick up presents to take to Mansfield. After I fed Reid we continued on our way to Mansfield where I metup with Dad and Amy for our traditional Christmas Eve shopping adventure. We were quite successful! And as always it was much fun. We headed home and had to quickly wrap gifts, eat a quick dinner, and get ready to head to the Christmas Eve Service at Mom and Dad’s church. It was a long and tiring day for all of us, but, especially for Griffin! Part way in to the service he fell asleep while sitting on Kevin’s lap. He was totally out. I think he fell asleep last year too – but this year he was literally snoring for a minute or two. We woke him up in time for the candle lit portion at the end of the service. Needless to say he had a hard time going to bed – partly from excitement for the morning and partly from his mini-cat nap!
One of my favorite parts of Christmas eve is our tradition of taking a picture after church. I love looking back at these and seeing the change from year to year. I think back to Christmas of 2010, the year Graham was born, and how in such a short time our family has changed and grown so much – adding four more kiddos. Such a blessing. And I love the kids being goofy with Grandma and Grandpa each year for their photo. Also, this year Grandpa had a special request for them to create the O-H-I-O and snap a pic. It’s a cute one. Somehow I don’t have the pic of the Bethune family!?
Graham is always really interested in what Reid is doing or what he may be thinking. He loves to come up and talk to him and hold him too. Here they are having some snugs.  Grandma and Grandpa recently added bunk beds to the kids room so that all four big kids can stay together. On Christmas Eve Griffin was lucky enough to get the top bunk! After story time he tucked in tight. But it didn’t take too long before he came downstairs (while we were readying the room for Christmas morning!). He wasn’t able to sleep (thanks, nap!) and as excited as he was for the top bunk he just seems to have trouble sleeping in a room with his cousins! After a couple of times of putting him in our room with Reid, I finally left Brutus in there with him too to get him to stay! It worked, thankfully!  Finally, everyone was asleep and the adults enjoyed some conversation and eggnog (for some!) for a bit while we got the presents arranged for the morning.