Snowman Song, Santa Claus Song, Jingle Bells, Reindeer Song

That was the order of Christmas music that we listened to every day on the way home from daycare form Thanksgiving until Christmas.  He knew which order they came on the Raffi cd and requested them in order.  I was never so excited to put Christmas music away as I was this year!

We actually learned the true magic of Christmas music when we were cleaning up breakfast one day and we pulled up Frosty the Snowman on youtube.  Then more kids Christmas music just kept playing and Augie watched, transfixed.  Then I plopped him on the bed with me while I folded three loads of laundry.  Then we had to cut the cord.

Christmas music excluded, Christmas was more fun than ever.  We were excited to see how Augie would handle gifts now that he's old enough to be excited about them and he most definitely did not disappoint.

Christmas started early for us; we went out the weekend before Christmas to Brett's grandma's house and then also had Christmas with his family.  We so enjoyed time with everyone, and Augie loved playing with his cousins who were so so good with him!

We call this the bucket of cousins.  It's amazing what they'll let Brett do.

Reading Augie's new Snowmen book

Brett braved a walk in the freezing cold temperatures and got some nice pictures of snow, but I just couldn't do it.

Part of what made Christmas special this year was that we had some big news to share!  Augie is going to be a big brother sometime this summer!  We are so excited for our family to grow and our family seemed pretty excited about it, too.  Augie performed admirably when asked where the baby was or what was in mama's tummy...but then he goes on to explain there's a baby in Augie's tummy and daddy's tummy, too.  A lot of conversations to be had between now and then!

After sharing the news and the presents and the Christmas cheer with everyone, we headed back home for a few more days of regular life before Christmasing once again.  

Regular life is not without its pleasures!

We got together with some of Brett's cousins and his parents for some more fun. We built the biggest snowman I've ever seen with the most amazing snowman snow.  It didn't last much longer than this picture, but it was fun while it lasted!

We then headed to Gram and Toddy's for Christmas with Kyle' family and Drew's family via FaceTime.  Matching Christmas pajamas are undoubtedly the cutest.

Augie dubbed the plasma car his "helicopter" even before Toddy showed him these moves.  I think I've managed to get him to forget about this move since then -- seems like a lot more fun for the rider and work for the pusher!

For naps on Christmas day (myself included), we headed back to our house for our family Christmas, then my dad and Deb came up to round out the Christmas experience with us and Kyle's family.  It was a lot of Christmas, but it was great to see everyone, to eat delicious food, and to have some time to spend with each other.  We are so thankful to be closer to everyone we love to make all of these Christmases possible, especially our family of three Christmas at our house!

Halftime on Christmas day

One of the boys' finer (and rare) sharing moments

Crazy warm post-Christmas weather led to a very needed and overdue trip to the park.

We hit up the Kohl Children's museum with Uly and Tilly and then a favorite haunt, D'Agostino's, for lunch, but my selfie skills were not good enough to capture Tilly in the picture.  All kids played until 2 with no major breakdowns and Augie even made it home without falling asleep.  A successful wrap to Christmas 2016!