This past week and a half has been packed FULL of so much Christmas goodness so I thought I would share some of the highlights below.
We went to my parents’ house this year for Christmas, but before we left we made a trip to see the big guy in red. The kids were anticipating this outing for a few days before and when it was their turn they ran up to him in delight for a big hug. First year without tears!
The next day was Gwyn’s Christmas program at school and our sweet girl was a cow. 🙂 And she rocked her lines and we beamed with pride!
This night, Grammie and Poppie also came over to exchange gifts and if only you could hear the sweet, sweet sounds coming from their new karaoke machine. 🙂
The next day we were off on our first family flight. I am relieved to say it went very well!
One of the first things we did once we got there was to bundle up, hop in the car and drive around town looking at all of the pretty lights. Cal, totally into it, quietly studied each house and when excited yelled out, “Christmas!” Now, Gwyn. She was either anxious to hand out the little “Best in Show” award we give out to our favorite house, or was over it and wanted to just hand it out to the first one with a string of lights and be done with it.
Ultimately, our favorite was the house below. Not over-the-top, but still a good amount of effort with qualities we all enjoyed. And the recipient was quite pleased with his award.
The next day we made cookies for Santa, and my inner baker held back and let the kids completely take control of this one. Sprinkle party!
One of Gwyn’s favorite things to do at Christmas time is to stick a peppermint candy stick into an orange and suck out all of the juice. Because these special peppermint sticks are so porous, the juice just comes right up! And she thinks this is just fabulous. My mom got these at the Vermont Country Store, if interested.
Another thing my mom does all year is keep her change so that we can all play Bingo for a huge pot. We split it into three games this year and I luckily won two of the three! Parking is on me!
We also went to the Candlelight Service at our grandparents’ church and we were going four generations strong that night. Felt pretty cool!
Once the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve we did our parental duties of playing Santa and my inner child came out during all of this. SO much fun preparing the cookie plate so that there were just enough crumbs left, writing the letter from Santa, stuffing their stockings full and arranging the gifts just so. I would have to say that being on this side of the magic is 10x more fun than experiencing the magic as a child.
And the next morning was a whirlwind of fun. But I would have to say that my favorite part of the day was just sitting with these two cherubs and playing Legos. All was calm. No agenda. Still in jammies.
Perfection.
My favorite gift? This target practice game the kids received. It was basically run for your life while the adults went at it.
Another fun tidbit- Grandma’s little Olaf pancakes.
We are heading to stay with some friends for New Years before heading back home to begin 2015! Do you go big for New Years? Any fun traditions I should know about?
Thanks for stopping by!
