Italian Dinner

Our Hill Family Christmas Festivities continued with theme dinner night! This year was Italian and it was delicious! Bradley and Brenham dressed as two famous Italian brothers:

Mario and Luigi!

Bradley didn't want to take off his mustache... even at the table!

And he helped Brenham adjust his hat just right:

Buon Natale!

After Party

After Lucy's party (and naps!) we had an after-party! We planned our trip to the beach for this summer (which is why you see Bradley changed in his Hawaiian shirt) and opened packages.

The kids LOVED the box! Uncle Drew and Uncle Bobby helped them transform that box into a boat that ran away from snakes, took in water and a whole bunch of other things!

The kids LOVED it- all I heard were giggles and squeals from the other room!

Later that evening, the dads put up a tent in the living room and had a "camp out". They watched the movie Brave and Bradley has been asking to watch it again ever since!

Once the movie was over they turned off all the lights and went to bed.

Just kidding! They stayed up protesting the "bedtime rule" until 10pm. THEN they passed out. (And by "they" I mostly mean Bradley... the girls were much more compliant.) Here's hoping the next cousin's campout goes a little more smoothly!

Lucy's 3rd Birthday

While we were in Baton Rouge over Christmas break, our niece Lucy turned three!!

Her birthday theme was "Tutus and Ties" and all of the cousins dressed for the occasion:

The Hill Brothers rocked their bowties:

And here's a shot of Laura and Maria in their glasses and tutus!

The birthday girl with her dad:

And Laura with Bradley:

And Little Lucy (can we still call her little?!) with her THREE year old birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Brenham: 3 months

Our sweet Brenham is three months old!

And, yes, he's still our more serious baby!

However... once in a while he'll think about smiling...

And then, if you're lucky... he'll share a smile!

He still rocks his signature look, "concerned and a little uncomfortable":

But we see glimpses of a laid-back attitude, too:

Brenham still eats well, sleeps fairly well (wakes up once to eat and about 5 times to "ask" for a pacifier). He naps during the day, but when he's awake he much prefers to be held. Much prefers. (And doesn't mind demanding that it happen!)

Big Brother Bradley is still enamored with his Little Brother Brenham... but I'm not too sure how Brenham feels about his brother at this point:

I'm sure they will be the very best of friends... once Bradley stops poking Brenham in the eye. Every.Single.Day.

We love having Brenham in our family and love watching him grow each week!

And now a pop quiz:

Which Hill boy is which?

Papa P's New Car

Alternative title: a very expensive play pen.

Papa P got a new car:

And if you look close... who is in the driver's seat?

Bradley! And Lucy is riding shotgun!

If you look close, you can see a happy Papa P watching two of his grandchildren push every.single.button in his new car:

Yep- Bradley turned on (then up)(then waaay up) the radio- Born to Ride was the song (you can't make this up), then he tried to chat with the onstar people (oops) and honked the horn quite a few times.

The kids were occupied for almost an hour!

So sure, you could buy a pack-n-play... but a blue corvette is a whole lot more fun!

Christmas Dinner

We spent Christmas dinner at the Hunsuckers in Baton Rouge. I've been enjoying their Christmas hospitality for seven years! Things sure have changed... especially in the last three years! Mainly because of these cuties:

Our first photo shoot with all five Hill cousins!

It was pretty hilarious.

Brenham fell over...

Both ways:

 Ms. Julia prepared her delicious Christmas Feast. And the kids enjoyed eating with their cousins:

After they cleared their plates, we let them pop their Christmas crackers- always a hit!

Then they all snuggled up for A Charlie Brown's Christmas. Lucy placed each cousin where she wanted them to sit and instructed Bradley to go to sleep. If only it were that easy!

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

A wonderful, full Christmas!

Christmas Morning

What a magical morning! This was the first Christmas where Bradley had any clue about Christmas morning and boy did we have fun!

I guess I should start with the night before when we let Bradley hold Brenham for some "matching Christmas PJ" photos. Bradley gets such a kick out of them matching and repeats, "Look! Bradley! Look! Brenham!" while pointing to the names on their shirts! He also LOVES to hold Brenham and asks often for the privilege.

And that pretty well sums out how it goes-- Bradley is elated... and Brenham in concerned and uncomfortable.

Bradley loves his brother! And loves giving him (unprompted) kisses:

So back to Christmas morning.

Bradley loved getting all of the gifts and passing them to the recipient:

Of course he also enjoyed opening his own presents:

And playing with them!

We do a lot of talking about Jesus' birth and the reason we celebrate Christmas. With that in mind we try to keep the gifts pretty minimal. But this little guy didn't seem to mind and he proclaimed over and over, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!"

Merry Christmas indeed.

Christmas Eve

A few months ago I got an email asking if I would be interested in having Brenham play Baby Jesus at our church's Christmas Eve service. Of course! I told Chris about it and he was equally happy about it. Then I told him that I would be playing Mary- which Chris thought was fun, too. Then I saw a lightbulb click and he asked, "wait a minute, who is playing Joseph?". With some convincing, he got on board... and that's how the Hill family ended up playing the Holy Family this Christmas:

It was truly a special honor and a fun Christmas memory that we'll always have!

Sadly, the lighting does us no favors here:

Jesus (with a pacifier), Mary, Joseph and... James? Well, perhaps not totally accurate...

Bradley loved seeing the donkey backstage:

Earlier on Christmas Eve we spent time with my side of the family. Here are the Beard cousins:

You can see how elated Bradley and Theo were that we decided to take this photo!

And some shots that I tried to get of my handsome little men:

We certainly didn't have a Silent Night this Christmas Eve, but I wouldn't have it any other way!