A Very Cahill Christmas

It's been a nice first week of vacation! On Tuesday I redeemed a couple of the gift cards from the fabulous gift basket Josh got me for my birthday. I got a free haircut and a free 1-hour private yoga session. Aaahhhh....The boys' school was open through Wednesday, so we took them in for a little bit each day (Josh was working & I just wanted to be able to get some stuff done). School is now closed until January 4, so we will have a nice vacation with them.

On Christmas Eve we made some more cookies and then headed to the family service at church in the afternoon. Here's us in front of the big tree at church.


Our church took a neat approach to the candlelight concept - they handed out glowsticks! It was cool, and of course Liam was enamored (he loves anything that lights up!). Earlier in the week I had found some "magical reindeer food" that you are supposed to sprinkle on your yard before going to bed. The reindeer can smell it from 100 miles away and will immediately come to your house. So Josh took the boys out in the rain to sprinkle the reindeer food in the yard. It was cute. We also said our last goodbyes to our elf, Elfie. He provided some daily entertainment for the last few weeks, as the boys got excited every morning to see if they could find where he would be.

Of course Santa came, and brought WAY too many toys. Both boys are at very fun ages for Christmas right now (although Liam would have been perfectly happy with just the trinkets from his stocking - but eventually he got into the presents). Here are our little candy canes, very excited about their gifts.


Zachary with his "big" gift from Santa - a real Braves jersey & a catcher's helmet (random, I know - but he's been wanting a catcher's helmet for MONTHS now for some reason, so Santa brought him one).


Here's Liam with his "big" Santa gift - a keyboard! They have one at school and he loves it! His teacher even says that all the other kids just bang on the keys with their whole hands, but Liam actually plays it with his fingers. He has already figured out how to make it play a tune or a beat, and he loves dancing to it when he's not playing on it.


And I just had to share this one because it's one of the funnier presents Zachary got. My mom got him this 6 foot tall inflatable goal post! So now he & Josh can kick field goals in the back yard.

We had a very nice Christmas, other than the giant Optimus Prime Transformer that Santa brought for Zachary, that has 27 steps to transform it - and even Josh cannot figure it out (I think he made it to step 6 before he threw in the towel). I tell ya - boy toys sure are complicated! Now comes the process of going through their old toys, & packing up the stuff they don't play with anymore so we can make room for the new stuff. We are just going to enjoy this next week. Josh & I are both off work all week. The boys will be home too since their school is closed. And Josh's parents arrive tomorrow for a post-Christmas visit. Got a couple of things planned - tomorrow my mom & I are having tea at the Ritz (our annual tradition). On Tuesday we're having the DVD player installed in our car. And Zachary will go take a couple of karate classes as well. Hopefully we will not go stir crazy!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!