Christmas Cheer & "That's what brothers do."

We had a fabulous Christmas! Family time, good food, and blue skies. Can't ask for much more. Well, I suppose we could have asked for Justin to sleep through the night on Christmas Eve. He decided to wake up 3 times. Not sure if he heard Santa or if it was his body reacting to a sugar overdose from Christmas Eve cookies. Either way, we made the most of it and had a fabulous weekend.

First, Christmas Eve dinner at Jack's mom's house. Here are the cousins (plus Ana who is taking a nap upstairs).

The kids all sang Christmas songs...


Then some of them started dancing...

C & J finished their cookies on the steps, and joined in at the tail end of dancing. With Jack & my genes, they are not destined to be dancers anyway.

I think I'm slouching. I swear Tami isn't that much taller than me!

 We're not completely sure how much sugar Justin had...we found him by the chocolate bowl a couple of times, and I caught him climbing over the table for Grandma's cookie platter. I can't blame the kid though...I ate a whole lotta Christmas sugar myself. =)

 Then Christmas morning... Colin wasn't sure if Santa was coming because he had been "bad and nice." So he was a bit surprised to see that Santa did show up. Justin wasn't sure what was happening, but quickly got the hang of it once he found the Pocky and candy canes!

 After presents, we spent Christmas afternoon with Nick, Tami, Reagan & Brooke. We love our time together and Colin would live at their house if we let him. The girls take such good care of both boys - and when the boys are bigger and older, I hope they take as good care of the girls.

 

 Colin had so much fun that he slept over their house on Christmas night. Justin came home with us because we didn't trust that he'd sleep through the night. Thank you for hosting, Tami &Nick - Colin loves his Brooke/Reagan sleepovers!

As for family updates: I started Bikram Yoga 2 weeks ago and I love it. I also signed up for the Cleveland half marathon as motivation to make use of our treadmill. Jack is busy working on a huge todo list for the rentals and declared it a "rest period" from running until he can get through his list. Colin is 4 years old - he's full of great thoughts, questions and ideas, and he wants to try them all out. Justin is almost 2 and loving life - talking, repeating, demanding, laughing, helping and playing. We are truly enjoying life.

And to finish, one of my favorite "brother moments" of the weekend...
Colin: (grabs a candy cane from our tree.) Justin, come here. (and runs around the corner from where I am sitting.)
Justin: (goes to Colin)
Colin: I am going to give you some. C'mon.
Justin: (thrilled and so excited.) Mommy!!!!
Colin: No Justin. Come back here. Don't tell Mommy. That's what brothers do.
Justin: (goes back to Colin and doesn't say anything else to me.)
C & J: (Sit quietly and eat the candy cane in the corner. Giggling and laughing.)

I just started to think of all of the things I'll never know about because "that's what brothers do."

Merry Christmas everyone!