Christmas with Grandma and Grandad...

...or as the boys say, Christmas number one!

That's right, I did not get caught up before the first of the year. Andy was home from Christmas through Jan. 3 and we just relaxed and relaxed and relaxed. What a wonderful treat!!!

That said, we had such an amazingly great holiday season that I just can't skip over it and start with January. So, here is the first of several Christmas season posts.

The weekend of December 12, we celebrated the first of our two family Christmases. Grandma and Grandad came for the weekend. Jon, Mary Katherine, and Benjamin joined up for the day on Saturday. The only thing missing was Timmy and Rachel!

Here are the photos of the PA Marsh family Christmas.

Family portraits

My boys and Benjamin

Zack loves to hold his cousin!

Jacob holding Ben...for the first time I believe!

Grandma and her grandsons

I had definite present envy! I love Benjamin's orange sock monkey!

What a great picture! (Especially for the end of the day!)

Presents

A big hit! The boy loves his Legos!

The gift we hunted for all of last year and never found. Thankfully, he was just as into Galactic Heroes this year! Both boys love playing with this present.

Their new hats. Jacob wears his to to all of his Cub Scout meetings. Zack wears his everywhere!

Grandma opening the gift that Andy and Zack picked out...and watching the boys at the same time. I love the happy look on her face!

Ben (and MK) enjoying his new cat book.

Family dinner

Jon, Ben, and Zack

Surprisingly we all fit around the table! What a great meal!

Andy holding Ben toward the end of dinner.

The big gift...the Wii. I can't believe I don't have a picture of them opening it. These pictures of everyone playing will have to do.

Uncle Jon Jon was a fan of the golf game!

Jacob getting lining up his ball to bowl.

Zack checking which button to press. He's surprisingly good at the Wii Sports games...or unbelievably lucky!

We even got Grandma and Grandad in on the fun!

Backtracking to the start of the Christmas season!

It's always hard to keep up with things this time of year! In the interest of a more relaxed holiday season (and a more relaxed Mommy!), I've been doing as much as I can...but not so much that I get too stressed. That said, blogging has been one of the things I've had to take a little break from over the last few weeks. As the hubbub subsides some, I'm hoping to get all of this month done before the new year...in bite sized chunks!

So pardon me while I go back to the start of the Marsh holiday season...the cutting down and decorating of our tree! We did this on December 5 and it was an absolutely perfect day. Snow was just starting to fall when we headed out to cut down the tree that we had tagged the weekend after Thanksgiving. We got home to our warm house before it got too heavy and enjoyed having a whole day to get the tree done!

The boys trying to catch the snowflakes on their tongue at the Christmas tree farm.

Watching Daddy starting to cut the tree down.

Jacob is put to work...Zack is supervising the whole operation!

He really did have to help out! It was a little hard to watch my first born be such a big kid!

He wanted to pull the tree on the car by himself...and was actually able to do it. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for him to be this mature!

Action shot.

Somebody else had to get in on the action! He "helped" Jacob with the tree.

I had to include a picture of them working together!

Daddy did the lights and then it was time for
putting on the first ornament.

Somebody was nice enough to go second.

The little one was very helpful...sometimes too much so! ; ) Luckily, he didn't notice when most of the ones he hung were moved.

Helping Daddy get the ornaments from the box...whether he wanted it or not.

Patience is it's own reward. Jacob got to put the snowman on the top of the tree.

Not to be outdone...we let Zack pretend to put it up too!

The view from our front porch at the end of the day.

Turkey Day weekend...belatedly

Well, December is already here and I am just now getting a chance to write about Thanksgiving. It is amazing how fast time flies between Halloween and Christmas!

The pictures of our quiet Thanksgiving at home were just too cute not to share. The boys (all three of them) made the pumpkin pie and Andy was in charge of the turkey. With just the four of us at our house for the holiday, we skipped a few of the casseroles that the boys haven't developed a taste for yet. Along with the bird, we feasted on mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas and carrots, and rolls. The boys ate more this year than ever before which made for a wonderful bonus!

Working on the pumpkin pie. Zack started talking about baking it the minute he woke up. I guess he was afraid we might forget. It took a lot of work to convince him to wait until after breakfast!

Our very own Superman beating the eggs. It's amazing the tasks that Jacob is now able to do!

Using the whisk.

Little one's turn.

Smiling for Mommy and her ever present camera!

Filling the crust. (This task took quite a bit of talent on Andy's part!)

Supervising the preparation of the turkey.

Dinner time! We used our good china this year...what a treat! (And there were no accidents! We were very impressed!)

Don't freak out, anyone! It's ginger ale. However, plastic cups and fine china just seemed wrong so when he asked to use one of these, I said yes. (Zack still had his plastic...he just won't give it up!)

Yes, this picture is of our sliced turkey. If you look closely, you can see the letter "D" popping up. Jacob noticed this while we were eating and it was too neat not to share!

Enjoying the fruits of their labor...the pie! The "whoop" cream is Zack's favorite part!

We packed quite a few activities into the four days that everyone had off. (The boys and I enjoyed an extra day of leisure on Monday...in Lebanon we get the first day of Deer Hunting season off. Gotta love it!) On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to go to get our family portrait taken. They turned out great and after a yummy, filling breakfast at Cracker Barrel we headed home to change our clothes and then back out again to tag our Christmas tree. Every year we pick out our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Up until last year, Daddy would then pick it up a week later on his way home from work. However, that no longer flies with the boys so we all make the return trip as well!

The first shot...I guess all that nice smiling for the family photo left them prime for a silly face (at least on Jacob's part).

This praying mantis was hanging out on the tree that we picked. I felt like such a boy mom...I thought it was pretty cool!

They really were this nice to each other. It was really sweet!

Mommy finally gave in and told them to be silly. Should have thought of this first!

The guys in front of our tree!