We had a Christmas treat for breakfast to get us all in the mood for Santa. Ryland and Reed were so excited to see Santa on their plates.
I found the Santa pancake idea on Pintrest, and John Chris and I had fun putting them together.
Later that afternoon when Reed and John Chris napped, Ryland and I worked on a little baking. We have the cutest gingerbread cookie cutters that assemble to create a three dimensional reindeer, sleds, snowmen, and trees. Since the dough had to be chilled for a few hours, we were really excited to get started. After a few failed attempts to cut out the shapes, we decided to go another route.
Reindeer poop! It was so obvious to me at this moment that God knew what he was doing when he blessed me with boys. Ryland and I laughed hysterically and couldn't wait to try them.
We all got dressed in our "handsome" clothes and headed to church. Unfortunately, church was packed when we arrived, and the sanctuary was already at max capacity. We decided to come back for the next service, so we had about an hour to burn. Just enough time to swing by the grocery store for Vanilla Bean ice cream and deliver a few gifts.
The later Christmas Eve service was completely full as well, but we were there in time to find seats. The music was beautiful and the lighting of the candles to Silent Night was absolutely breathtaking. It is my favorite moment at church every year.
We headed home to get the last little things together for Santa. Ryland and Reed spread the reindeer food all over the side yard to make sure the reindeer were full for their long night.
One last attempt to capture a cute picture of the boys in their Santa pajamas and rain boots
We headed out to take another look at the beautiful Christmas lights. Reed requested to see Santa, so we drove to the over the top house in our neighborhood. They have a huge Santa sitting in a chair with about a million lights all over their house and yard.
Ryland was out.
We couldn't go to bed without leaving Santa some delicious cookies and a Coke. Lizzie and Pops had a Christmas Eve present for us to open, and it was a cute glass plate just perfect for Santa's treat. Ryland also wanted to leave Santa the pictures he and Reed had colored earlier.
We decided to continue celebrating Ryland's birthday tonight by making a cake. He is very curious every time I bring out the mixer and tonight was no exception. He climbed up the stool and started helping. 
" Cheesing" with Daddy. 
We let Ryland choose the color of the icing, and he chose bright yellow. After we added the coloring, Ryland started spreading the icing on the cake. 
Even a 2 year old knows that you can't ice a cake without sampling the icing. Ryland wanted to make sure the icing was just perfect. 
Oh no, some icing dropped on the countertop! Ryland was quick to lean over and lick it off. Talk about a child that isn't going to let any icing going to waste. 
We were ready to sing Happy Birthday when I realized we didn't have any birthday candles. I improvised with a votive candle, and who would have known the difference. The look on his face as we sang Happy Birthday and told him to blow out the candle, was priceless! He is such a happy little boy, and we are thrilled to have him as a son.