Santa

Last Thursday was Hometown Christmas.
This is such a fun tradition our little town has.
Santa arrives on a fire truck and lights our city tree.
Our family has these very special best friends. We are all close--the kids see each other as cousins or siblings as do the mommies. It is so special to have forged such great friendships.

The kids entertained the crowd by singing Christmas songs as they paraded around the tree.
These ended up being my favorite photos of the night.

Then came Santa. I do have to say I was a tad disappointed about the backdrop or lack there of...I wish they would have thought it through better. There is a tree just on the other side of MW. However the angle of the chair means it won't show up in the photo. Just a tad annoying but the real reason is for the kids to see Santa and that is all that matters. Who needs a photo op? {ME! ;) }

Grandma Rachel brought over this suit jacket of Chad's from his childhood on Wednesday. MW thought it was the most wonderful, coolest jacket ever. When I told him to get around for Santa he insisted on wearing his fancy gold button coat for the occasion. There was no way I could say no. So he is looking quite dapper for his visit.

MW is finally getting ok with seeing Santa. Here they are telling Santa their wishes.

The rest of the night was spent eating chili, making smores and crafts. It was a really fun night made extra special with good friends.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas {2014 Part IV}

Welcome to my final installment of Christmas.

Again, I have to re-iterate that this was by far the best Christmas. The kids were both at such fun ages to do things with and they both seemed to really be in the spirit of it all.

Here is a our family Christmas Eve picture. Stunning I know... ;)

We headed to my mom and dad's for soup post Christmas Eve service. It wasn't planned, but when you have zero food at  home it was a fantastic idea. Finally, after we pried the kids off papa aka the fun house, we loaded up and went home to start the Christmas Eve prep.

Notes to Santa...check.

Cookies for Santa and Oatmeal for the 'deer {because we were out of carrots and I heard once oats are their favorite treat!?! ;)} Check.

Write a gift for Jesus. Check.

Lay gifts to Jesus in His manger. Check.

Go to bed!! CHECK!
I really try to get good pics of the tree and silhouette stuff, but I just can't seem to get it right...
Baby Jesus in the manger.

Santa comes. Check.

The next morning the kids came in to wake us. Lo had this great idea for me to take a photo of them "sleeping" in our bed and then do a WAKE UP face. They turned out cute. Great idea sister!!

IT's CHRISTMAS!!!!

First things first we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. BUT Daddy filmed it and videos aren't my thing, so just imagine this was us but one year older...

photo from 2013

Then we moved on to the Santa gifts. MW is super hard to buy for because his mind changes as the wind blows. However, he is always super excited no matter what he gets. I realized after just watching him, that he does like to sit and play with his toys, it is Lo who doesn't...so I Santa figured this Rescue Bot Fire House with Heatwave was the way to go. I Santa was spot on.

Lo got her gym bar...only Santa I no Santa screwed up. Apparently even though I Santa read all the pinterest tutorials and even thoughtful planned this DIY endeavor out, it was a bust. Not sure how it all went wrong but the bar just wasn't stable enough to not topple over or bend. Daddy and I tried all we could and spent another $40 trying to make it workable, again a bust...thankfully all of that was returnable, but still she was disappointed. So was I. I Santa worked so freakin' hard on that thing. However, she understood, because she is the best like that and decided it would be ok if Santa brought her a new gift. {2 weeks later...a Bitty Baby Monitor from the AG store for her dolls}
So here it is the only moment of her on her bar. We are going to make a sprinkler out of it this summer, see lemonade.

Opening stockings.

GUM!! HA!

Now for the best moment.
OUR gift FROM Lo. Look she even wrapped it. Bless her. Just bloody bless her heart.

This is what was inside...handmade drawings and notes. I mean I still tear up seeing this. She is just the most thoughtful girl. She just makes your heart explode and you realize the best gifts are never the expensive things, but the gifts from the heart.

This year since they were older we had them each do something for each other. Again, she made MW this car ramp. She came up with the idea, and I supervised some of it, but she painted it and peeled the tape off for the road lines and then picked him out a special car to go with it...here she is showing him how it works. They are just wooden planks that he can take anywhere to make a road or ramps for his cars.

Heart. Puddle.

Oh my gosh, she so wanted a robe. This may have thrilled her more than anything.

Tangrams!!! Just shows her personality. She loves to create.

Christmas morning was so laid back and low key. The kids played and played and Chad and I just sat back and watched and talked. So very nice. We didn't have to be anywhere super early so we enjoyed the morning. 

Lo playing with her bar with her doll, since that was the only safe way to use the bar. HA! She was the perfect coach.

For lunch we headed to my MIL for Christmas "dinner."
Kids saying hello to her baby Jesus.

Then more gifts!! AH! They are two clowns.

Their faces is what is priceless. He got a TMNT plate and he thinks it is the.best.

Transformer!

Dress up stuff. She modeled everything.

Hey it's 2p...why not put on your jammies. It's Christmas. Matching dollie and me jammies. 

MW wore this super hero costume for 3 days, until he spilled OJ on it and I made him take it off. Such a goof ball. He loves pretending.

Mommy got a Christmas day nap while grandma Rachel and daddy played with the kids!! See I am a cheap person to buy for. Just give me things like a nap, or a bed to myself and I am a happy happy girl!

We left around 430p and the kids assured me they weren't tired through their long blinks...uh huh, not tired. Four days of no naps and sugar and grandparent overload does that to a kid. Needless to say they went to bed by 615p that night and slept 'til morning. Even my Buddy the Elf aka MW was down for the count.

And to all a good night!