The "Finnster, et al."

On December 26th we went over to Gran and Pa's house for the Begley Christmas.  This was our last Christmas of the 2014 holiday season. Finn helped to hand out all of the presents.  After all the presents were handed out, Finn sat with me and opened his presents.  Sam sat with Michael and opened.  The big Buzz Light Year was the gift of the day for Sam.  The adults all draw names - this year David drew my name.  Inspired by my Christmas Tree post, David got me the prettiest Christmas ornaments you have ever seen.  I am really excited about putting the tree up next year! Finn's favorite present of the day was his Bat Mobile and his Bat Boat.  After we opened the presents, we all ate breakfast together.  Finn and Sam were especially found of the ham.  Every few minutes one of the two was begging for more ham.  At one point Finn said, "Gran, can we please have ham every Christmas."  I was so ...

Christmas morning was awesome! The boys woke up around 7:00 and played in the playroom until around  8:00 when it was time to open presents.  Since Finn doesn't believe in Santa we wrapped everything.  Gran and Pa arrived at the house at 8:00 to watch the boys open their gifts. We let them open one at a time so that they could see all the presents.  Many of the gifts were for the boys to share. Their favorite present was the Bat Cave and the Gotham City Jail. Michael and I exchanged gifts too.  Michael got me a gift card to Ann Taylor, but forgot to actually wrap it.  Instead, he wrapped a $10.00 off coupon.  It wasn't until after I opened the coupon that he realized that the gift card had fallen out of the envelope.  Luckily it was still in his car.  It was pretty funny though. Gran and Pa also gave me one of my presents - maid service for a year! After we opened presents, Gran and Pa went home and I cooked Christmas breakfast.  T...

The boys' favorite place to sit. Sam and Hank really hit it off.   Around 4:00 on December 23rd we arrived at Nana and Papa's house for Christmas.  We were greeted with soup, cookies, caramel popcorn, rice crispy treats, and white chocolate covered pretzels - to name a few.  That evening Zac and Emily left to go to Erlanger in Chattanooga to visit Zac's grandmother.  So Nana, Papa, Michael and I wrangled the five (5) boys.  Everything went pretty smoothly except for poor Cooper who had the flu.  Mom and I waited too long to give him Tylenol so he was as miserable as I have ever seen anyone in my life.  He was so sweet though. The next morning, Christmas Eve, we woke up and had Christmas breakfast.  Then it was time for the boys to open their presents.  This year we decided to try letting the boys go one at a time.  It actually worked out really well.  They were all interested in what the other was opening. Finn's prese...

On Monday afternoon the Finn, Sam and I drove to Tullahoma to spend the night with Grandad and Gigi.  We arrived around 2:30 to find Aunt Lauren working away on her laptop in the living room floor.  Grandad and Gigi arrived a little while later and we all had pizza, chicken pot pies and soup for dinner.  After supper, Gigi dressed the boys in their matching jammies and took pictures.  Finn and Sam have arrived at the age where it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of them at the same time.  Next Mr. Gene and Minnie came to give Finn and Sam their Christmas presents.  Finn received a Batman and Penguin Lego set and the Lego Movie. Sam received a Super hero shirt, walkie talkies and a Superman movie. Finn and Michael put the lego set together.  MJ and her crew arrived around 7:30 which meant it was time for all of the boys to take pictures in their matching jammies. It was NOT easy. The next morni...