We had an absolutely terrific Christmas and it was so much fun watching the boys laugh, smile and take in all the events of the Season. I think Nathan's favorite phrase in December was "Look, Mommy, Baby Jesus"! It was so cute...This year the boys helped bake cookies, make Christmas crafts, were in our church's Christmas play as Brady Shepherd and Nathan Sheep, got to daily put up the next nativity scene magnets, and really illuminated the Holiday Spirit with their joy. We also made rice krispy treats and fudge, got all bundled up and delivered the treats to lots of our neighbors. It was a sweet tradition for our family and Brady and Nathan loved ringing the door bells, saying Merry Christmas and giving lots of hugs. This year Brady also understood more the meaning of "giving" and helped actually choose and pick some of the Christmas presents for others. Of course, he really did believe with all his little heart though that "Grammy, Granddaddy, Grandma, Grandpa, etc...etc...", needed certain Thomas the Train cars. He had one picked out for each of them - so very thoughtful!
Our family has a little tradition each year of exchanging one gift with each other before anyone else arrives - a moment just for us! We all had a Christmas cookie, went back through our nativity magnet calendar and retold the Christmas story and then we were each given one gift by someone else. I had this fabulous idea this year for a Christmas present from the boys to each other - BOXING GLOVES!! They LOVE to wrestle and tackle each other so I figured hmm, we might as well let boys be boys! As you can see, they were a HUGE hit!! (literally!)
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Granddaddy, Grammy (Christi's parents) and Uncle Mike came down Christmas Eve day and stayed through the day after Christmas. It's such a blessing having them stay with us and be here Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve, we attended the annual Brockman Family Christmas Eve bash at Brandon's uncles where all the cousin's, aunt's, uncles, etc... get together to celebrate. We had a great time and really enjoyed catching up with everyone. Then on Christmas morning, we woke the boys up (I hear this will ch
ange!!), brought 
them downstairs and what did their wandering eyes did appear??? but many train cars and a train set with a deer! (ooops, no deer...but there was a rooster and cow!) They were so excited!! I hand-made them their train table last Christmas but we just didn't feel they were quite ready for a train set, so this year was a BIG year, especially for Brady who has been waiting patiently since August! Their faces just lit up! The boys got so many wonderful presents that morning, but among the most entertaining was Nathan's piano and Brady's drum set! They had SOOO much fun jamming out all day! Thanks Grammy & Granddaddy - our house hasn't been the same since!! :) 
Christmas Day "Evening" we went over to Grandma & Granpa's house to have our traditional yummy Sunshine Pudding (egg casserole) and celebrate with Brandon's parents, brother & sister-in-law. Grandma outdid herself as always and breakfast (for dinner) was scrumptious! After dinner, we opened gifts and once again - the boys were (as were we!) over flowing with lots of fun toys and cool clothes. Brady got more awesome train cars and even a fishing dock for his train set and Nathan loved playing with all his new Bob the Builder character trucks. It was another wonderful family celebration.
The day after Christmas we drove to see Brandon's grandmother and celebrate with the extended Tyler clan. We had a great time visiting and catching up on life with all the cousins.
This Christmas was such a sweet joy for our family. Having the opportunity to teach our children about the birth of Christ and all He is personally to us and watching them as they embraced each event and memory with childhood giddiness was so beautiful for Brandon and I to experience as parents. We really do LOVE this time of year - especially because we get to just enjoy one of the most precious things about the holidays - FAMILY!!
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