Christmas School Musical

Before releasing the kiddos for Christmas break, Will's lower school held their annual Christmas Musical.  This year's was awesome: Isaiah Jones

The theme: Indiana Jones meets Minecraft meets a Christmas message about GOD!

Will performed great!

Here are a few action shots of our little shrimp...

Breakfast With Santa

A week before Christmas we visited Santa - our annual trip to 7 Acre Farms.

This year was MUCH better than last, in the Johnny B department.

He.Loved.Santa.

As soon as we walked in, he literally marched right into the room and said loudly "Hi Santa!"

 Without hesitation, John asked for the following: 1)Red Pillow, 2)White Blanky, and 3)Lego Hobbit Book

 Will then politely asked for a 1)Lego Ultra Agents, 2)Minecraft blocks, and 3)Minecraft head.

 When we were all done with our business with Santa - we headed out to join in the festivities.

Here are Will and I taking a ride (poor miniature pony)....

 And Will jumped on the back of a miniature horse for a ride....

 John preferred to keep his (adorable) feet on solid ground, opting out of the riding bit...here he is hanging out with a donkey...

 Here he is viscously attacking the donkey's ears...

 And then a final picture of the two boys together.  

Stay tuned to see if Santa was able to deliver!

Will's Christmas Piano Recital

Will's music studio held a Christmas recital and Will was able to play piano for all of us and an audience full of onlookers!

Here he is with his music teacher answering a few questions (nervously - he nearly tore his sheet music to shreds) before beginning his recital.  He looks like he is ready for Princeton in this photo with that tie and oxford shirt!

After the introductory commentary, he began playing.  He play Up On The Housetop, Jingle Bells, and  Over the River and Through the Woods.  He rocked it!

 During Jingle Bells, the audience chimed in, singing along!

 And John lasted just long enough (before throwing a John-sized tantrum and having to be walked out of the room) to enjoy Will's performance.

How fun! We were all so proud of him! 

Way to go Will!

....video encore!....

The Pudgy Tree

Always an exciting event, is taking our kiddos Christmas Tree shopping.

This year, the boys wanted a "pudgy", yes "pudgy" tree.

I.E. - the tree no other family would likely pick out and bring home.

The short, fat, "pudgy" tree.

Here are our little elves during selection...

After Home Depot employees were finally successful in pulling it through the shoot that wraps it in a net, we were home and it was standing perfectly straight in our living room...

 We all held our breath when Billy cut the netting, fearing we would be the next Christmas Vacation family to underestimate the size of our tree (stump to window radius)  and watch the branches explode through our window...but all was fine and the "pudgy" looked gorgeous!

 A few snips of some branches, and the addition of ornaments and the 2014 Brown family Christmas tree was up!  

Merry Photo Shoot

Here are the final photos from our annual photo session with our favorite photographer ever who some how, some way, captures the most amazing pictures of us ever!  

Mom I know you are going to want one of each - just let me know and I'll order them for you :)

Trade Off: Paint for Pictures

In October, we took our annual family photos, as we usually do, for our Christmas cards.

Billy was in charge of color selection.  He did a fantastic job picking the 2014 Ryder Cup colors.

(Post coming soon)

I was in charge of bribing, yes, bribing.  

Shamelessly bribing the kids.

Bribing them with whatever necessary to ensure they behaved, smiled, and refrained from fighting.

I brought with us the usual bribing mechanisms: capri suns, marshmallows, goldfish, chocolates, etc.

But the ultimate bribe was the Powder Paint Fight.

They knew, if they behaved, I would let them go bananas following the photo shoot with a super messy, super fun, and super awesome powder paint fight.

The photo shoot went great.

And they were repaid.

In full.

Enjoy the photos!