The Cox Family

   Early morning Christmas Eve, David planned to go dove hunting with his buddy, Aaron; but because of lack of doves...they ended up going duck hunting. As a gift to one of our neighbors (who's a chef) David prepared 2 ducks (defeathered them) for him. Now I would be pretty upset if I got ducks for a gift...but Ken was ecstatic. :) David did keep one duck for us and cooked it for everyone to try on Christmas day. It was actually really good! David is so glad he finally got to go hunting. They've been talking about it forever and already have plans to go deer hunting next week. He hasn't gone since he was a kid...so he's very excited!

   Christmas was so. much. fun. this year. :) I really enjoyed picking out things for the boys all year just for today. Our celebration started out last night on Christmas Eve. We started a pajama tradition and everybody opened their present with a new pair of pajamas and we wore them all evening and night. :) We started out by decorating our gingerbread house. Then David and I took turns talking to the boys about the meaning of Christmas and telling about the birth of Jesus and the meaning of His life. Not sure how much was understood, but there was definitely a spirit of peace and love that we felt. :) Later we talked to the boys about Santa and they got really excited about reindeer flying and Rudolph leading the sleigh. As we told them the story of Santa Claus they both started running around, looking out the front window in hopes to get a glimpse. :) We reminded them that Santa could only come when they were asleep. It was so dang cute to see them running around looking to see Santa. :) We prepared a plate of cookies and milk and we even left a carrot for the reindeer. Preston kept asking if he could see Rudolph (esp since he's been watching the movie for the past couple of weeks :)). I had to tell him that they were all very busy that night in order to deliver presents to all the children of the world and that they couldn't come to our house unless the boys went to sleep. So finally we got the boys to bed and then we had fun setting up toys and preparing for the morning.
   Christmas morning came and one of the first things Preston said was, "Mommy where's Rudolph?". :) The boys loved their gifts from Santa and they both had a blast opening presents. Aedan even let Preston open a lot of his presents for him. He would hold his wrapped present up to Preston and say "here!" (pronounced like hee-ya) and let Preston unwrap it for him. After all the present excitement we all got ready to go over to David's Grandma's house. Once there we enjoyed spending time with family and eating yummy food. Everybody got gifts for the boys (they are the only little kids so far on his side of the family) and enjoyed watching them play. David and I put together a memory book of pictures of his mom and made books for everyone off of Shutterfly. It came out really well! It was a very enjoyable day! Here are some of the tons of pictures we took from last night and today...

   Today I got together with a couple of good friends and we made Christmas treats all day! It was soo fun! Especially since I've been in the mood to make things. :) The recipes were mostly special family recipes from Jennifer's mother-in-law, who passed away from cancer. We also tried a couple of random ones that looked fun. We have already decided to make this a yearly tradition. :)

   This past week we have had so much fun enjoying Christmas festivities together as a family. This year, in particular, has been so much fun to see the joy in Preston as he is learning about Christmas and understanding more. Aedan is also excited, but there's just something special to see the sparkle and excitement in Preston's eyes. :) I put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and the boys even helped with the ornaments. When I had the tree together and turned on the lights the boys totally "oohed and ahhed". So cute!