Merry Christmas to all! And to all a Good Night!

I'm so sad to see this magical day ending.

It was by far the best Christmas we've had together (i'm sure i'll say that every year!),

and the biggest reason was Bronx.

We weren't able to fly home because Kevin works later in the week,

so both of us were kind of feeling down thinking about our families that were gathering on Monday/Tuesday.

It was hard seeing pictures of everyone,

when we wanted to be there playing games and hanging out too.

The holidays are hard when you don't get to go "home" to your roots,

and I can't imagine celebrating the holidays without a loved one close.

We also really wanted snow.

(am i whining now? maybe...)

Luckily we have each other,

and we did this last year,

so it was nothing new.

Sorry for that "downer" moment,

but I really needed to say it...write it...whatever.

Moving on.

We got over being sad for ourselves.

One of the greatest things I believe that being away from family has taught me,

is to cook.

Wow.

Who thought I'd ever say those words?

I honestly have loved cooking these big holiday meals for my little family.

Kevin loves it too :)

So Christmas Eve we had homemade rolls (grandma's style!) coming out our ears,

watched Frosty the Snowman (Bronx's choice),

read from Luke,

sang a Christmas song and said prayer by candle light.

Bronx got tucked snug in his bed without a clue as to what was really going on.

Christmas Eve is probably our favorite part about the holiday (yea, even more than opening the presents Christmas day) because this is when the excitement and anticipation really builds.
Kevin and I hung out,

sipped some cocoa,

and then Santa decided to bust out the goodies :)

We were so stinkin' excited for Bronx to come downstairs and see everything!

(please notice that the majority of the ornaments are on the top half of the tree...oh the joys of having a toddler!)

Seeing that we finally decided to go to bed around 4am,

Bronx gave us a surprise Christmas gift by sleeping in until 9!

(he's usually up at 7:30 or 8 on the dot)

It was the greatest.

I went to go grab him while Kevin filmed a short clip of us coming down together,

and his reaction:

(please feel free to laugh at my ginormous hair here because i did! i know i like me some good volume, but man that is out of control...i blame bed head??)

Some of the goodies:

This is the present I was most excited for him to see,

and he loved it.

Bronx played at his little tool bench all day!

Santa did good.

It was SO fun having Bronx open presents with us this year.

He may only be 17.5 months,

but he knew what was up!

It's hard to image that he wasn't even crawling really at this time last year!

^He found a few new ways to open presents^

Besides playing with all the new toys,

when it got dark we walked around our neighborhood and looked at all of the Christmas lights.

Then Kevin shot around (maybe he loves Bronx's new basketball hoop the most?) while we watched the Sword in the Stone.

(Disney movies in the stockings = tradition)

We also managed to watch Frosty the Snowman (for the zillionth time in two days) right before bed again.

So now Kevin is playing a new Xbox game online,
and I just finished painting my nails.
I figured I better bust out a post before I forget everything.
I'm so thankful for my boys,
for this baby girl on the way,
and for a savior who loves me through and through.
We definitely can't forget Him this Christmas.

Happy Holidays!
Love,
Kevin, Audrey, Bronx, and baby girl (okay, and Tank too)