Christmas 2013

We had a fantastic Christmas this year and, for the first time in a few years, we weren't alone!  We picked up Papa from the airport on the 23rd and had Grammie and Papa here to celebrate with us.  Here are some of the highlights

Gingerbread houses

Papa is here!  First time meeting Molly

Christmas Eve festivities

Nativity

Opening Christmas jambes

Matching Jammies!

Opening Grammie and Papa's presents....

Sawyer got a globe!  Isn't that the coolest present ever?  I know I always wanted a globe growing up. He has been learning about the sun and moon and earth and is always asking if we can see China and things so I knew he would love a globe.

(Once upon a time I saw a blogger post pictures of her kids on Christmas Eve by the light of their mini-trees in their room.  From that point on my goal was to have bedside tables for my kid's beds so they could have mini trees on them just so I could take pictures of them on Christmas Eve...is that crazy?  Seriously, that was like 3 years ago I saw it and I couldn't get it out of my head.  But my kids having bunk beds now made that hard so their room looks like this....

Visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.....

And then I took one of this sleeping beauty too, by the light of the bathroom light

Christmas morning!  Waiting on the stairs

Santa came!

Santa brought Kate an iPod (that santa bought on ebay so its an older used one) and a speaker for it so she can jam out while cleaning her room or doing homework.  He also brought her a jump rope

Sawyer got an alarm clock and a "hoolie hoop"

Clara got a Disney princess castle

And Molly got a stuffed monkey (all my kids have one of these stuffed jellycat animals)

I also made my kids hooded towels.  Sawyer has a dog, Kate got a penguin and Clara, of course, got an elmo one!

Thank you Santa!  We love you...even if you are terrifying...

                           

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve we started off by cleaning the house. Isn't that what everyone does? Santa doesn't come to messy houses. After we cleaned and got ready we headed out for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite Italian place, Lui Lui's. Last year we were the only people there but this year there was an hour long wait. So we headed into the mall to kill some time. (and when I say mall...I mean a big LL Bean and EMS with a few little boutiques in between.) The kids posed on Santa's sleigh




Then we ate some fantastic food




Afterwards we headed to Claremont, NH where we had heard there was an amazingly lit up house. We are still wondering if it was worth the drive...but the kids loved it.

 

They had a path where you could walk around and they had a scavenger hunt where you could look for certain things (like 12 candles, 11 soliders, etc) It was all set to music and it was a fun activity. Then we came home and started our traditions of reading and acting out the nativity, drinking wassil and egg nog (that Sawyer kept calling "door knob" all month), opening our pajamas, and writing our letters to Santa.

 

Then Ryan read Twas the Night Before Christmas by the fire





And then the kids practically ran to bed they were so excited. The next morning was fun but I didn't get many pictures. Kate got the new Tinkerbell movie and a set of all the Tinkerbell dolls for Christmas and a snowglobe with an ice skater in it from Santa. Sawyer got a boy american girl doll that he named Freddy and a snowglobe with a bear in it. We watched The Santa Clause and ever since then that was the main thing he asked Santa for. He wanted one with two trees and a house...but the elves were only making ones with bears in them this year! He was happy. Clara got a ball popper machine like the one we had for the other kids but stopped working and a soft stuffed bunny. She sure loves to hug and love on stuffed animals!





Ryan and I had a few big projects that we made for the kids. He made beds for the American Girl dolls while I made the bedding and then I had bought a wooden rocking horse at a thrift store for 1.75 that I repainted and added hair to for Clara.


Ryan also, last minute, made our family marshmallow shooters. They are a little hard to shoot but we had a lot of fun with them. And Clara had fun cleaning up all the marshmallows. And here is the present Kate made us in school, a stained glass candle holder. We used it as a centerpiece for dinner. It is beautiful!




It was a great Christmas morning unwrapping gifts, talking to family, and eating yummy breakfast food. We spent the rest of the day playing, relaxing and eating. We also did some Christmas hot tubbing. I took the picture from my warm kitchen where I was making dinner.


And then eating our Christmas feast...amidst the Christmas mess
 
Although we missed being near family, we had a very Merry Christmas and we hope you all did too!