Three More Manns: Christmas 2016

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! The boys loved everything about Christmas. The lights, the Christmas trees, the Elf on the Shelf (we have 4. See below if you don't believe me), the cookies (because of course), Santa! And presents of course.

This year's Christmas card turned out amazing! Thanks to Miranda for capturing the most amazing pictures of my family! (More of those coming soon!)

And I just LOVE all the cards we received this year too! (For the record, I keep all of them. Forever.)

Our tree actually survived the entire year. I can't say the same for our ornaments (RIP Otis and Elf on the Shelf ornaments, and others without names). I had to remind myself they are 2 and they are sooooo curious and the tree is soooo pretty! Logan asked to turn it on every day. And he may have learned how to do that on his own too. Oops! I can't even count the number of times I said "don't touch the tree!" The boys started saying it too. But they still did it. Shocking I know.

Mason even put himself in time out for touching the tree. Ha!

Then I put presents under the tree and they just couldn't control themselves. I had to rewrap a few of them more than once.

We upped our Elf on the Shelf game this year and got 3 new elves. They don't have names. They're assigned by color though. Every morning they asked to go find their elves! Mason especially wanted to find his "elp on shelp" every day. Cutest. Thing. Ever. Makes it all worth it.

Oh and we went to see Santa. And no tears!! I thought we weren't going to make it for a minute though. We got to the front of the line and Lolo announced "I don't like Santa." Mason ran to him. And James was excited but a little timid. So they were all their normal selves.

I think it helped that Santa came to school the day before we went to see him at the mall. So bonus - a second Santa picture!

And what did they ask for? Cake pops of course. Hopefully they'll always ask low. Makes it way easier for Santa to come through on the big day!

After Santa we walked through the mall because we had a little shopping to do there. And we made the big mistake of going in a toy store. Won't happen again. Mason and Logan refused to leave. They wanted to take these cars home with them. Nope.

We loved looking at Christmas lights this year. We went the long way home from school most days. Of course they loved the blow up ones the most. James would identify all of them. Santa, snowmans (I couldn't correct him because it was just too cute), Mary, Baby Jesus, and Joseph. And the Humpty Dumpty Snowman. Yep, there was a humpty dumpty snowman and my kids made special requests to go see him. Ha!

We went to Garvan Gardens with Nina and our cousins and they boys had a great time! I didn't get many pictures because we were too busy looking at lights! But here's a few!

Addison made Christmas cookies and they were amazing. I kinda wanted to make more. But guess who ate most of the first batch? Me. And I also ate most of the other cookies and candy. Candy cane Hershey kisses are my new addiction. Luckily they are only for Christmas time.

Brian and I also got into the Christmas spirit. With our neighbors. At an ugly sweater party. Brian and I took the dressing up to the next level. Ha! So fun!

We weren't the only ones who dressed up! We have the best neighbors. New and old and honorary.

We tried to use a selfie stick but apparently we are special and we couldn't figure it out. We called Addison to come over and take the group picture. Ha!

Oh and the boys had the 12 days of Christmas dress up so they dressed up several times over the last few weeks. Pj day, candy cane (red and white) day, Christmas socks day, and my favorite one - Christmas hair day. Red and green hairspray for the win. James of course didn't like it so he didn't participate.