christmas, but no santa

Christmas is always such a rushed, busy time for us...while this year was no different, we also celebrated for the first time as a family of four:)

It was such a special thing to watch my two boys interact, and really brought back memories of my sister and I. It made me both incredibly sad and hopeful for my children to experience life together.

Even though we didn't buy gifts for our children this year (we feel like they get enough from family and relatives and we feel so blessed in this way), we wanted Robert to experience giving and choosing a gift for his brother, so Daddy took Robert to the toy store and big brother picked out two thoughtful things for his little bro...then "helped" him open them:)
Joshua took to his new gifts right away!
(You can also just make out daddy's big gift, a pair of five finger running shoes...maybe now his knees won't hurt when he runs, we'll see!)

I tried to get a successful christmas morning matching pjs photo and this is what I came up with:
Substantially better than my christmas eve photo shoot attempt, where, although Joshua was completely cooperative, my older child was not:)
No santa photo again this year because well, Robert's still afraid of him...despite the fact that he's not afraid of the 20 foot tall santa that resides in our neighbors yard, and our attempts to convince him to take his brother and to be brave for Joshua...so alas, maybe next year on that one.