Christmas Traditions and December Family Fun

I updated some of the past blogs where the pictures were cut off. I am having to download my pictures to snapfish first and then copy them to the blog and if I don't format, it gets cut off.

Anyway, I wanted to post pictures from our cookie making day this year. Aunt Jacy came over and we baked and baked.
Ava and Noah love to help me bake. They fight over who gets to put in what ingredient. We take turns. Noah loves to eat the batter or batter-ern as Ava says. Noah will put his finger in everything, even the flour bowl.
We did sugar cut out cookies and both of them loved doing the cut outs as well as decorating or just eating the decorations as Noah did.

Noah and Mommy

Ava and Aunt Jacy

Doing the cut outs

Eating the sprinkles

Making the frosting

We also went and looked at Christmas lights a lot this year. We decided against zoo lights because it was just too much with everything we have been doing. Plus, there is a neighborhood by us that does it up right and it's free and we can stay in our warm car!

Mike's brother, Peter, his wife, Maya and their daughter, Marie-Claire came to visit.

It was a great December and looking forward to the new year!

Christmas 2012

We had an amazing Christmas this year. I really enjoyed it myself and I know that the kids did too.

We spent Christmas Eve at my step brother's house per the usual tradition. Santa generally is too busy to stay, so he drops a bag of toys off and runs on his merry way. The kids get a kick out of it.


Lately, when we do stuff in the evenings, the kids have a hard time sleeping through the night and that night was no exception. Ava woke up at 2:20 am, 3:30 am and 4:15 am and I was up for all of them and couldn't fall back asleep. I guess that is the usual for me. I really never slept on Christmas Eve as a kid. Finally around 5:40ish Noah woke up and we brought him into our bed. We went into Ava's room at 6 am to get her up and because she was up so much the night before, this is what she was like...

I told her at least 2 times that Santa had come, but she was too tired to register it. Finally she work up and was super excited.
We all came out into the Living Room together and they were so excited. Ava couldn't wait to open presents. She was really into opening them and Noah was more into playing with what he got. Ava would say "Oh, this is the best present ever" and "I always wanted that". It was cute. After about 5 gifts, Noah wasn't really interested in opening presents anymore, he just wanted to play. Here are some pictures of them opening gifts.









Our family picture


The family came over around 9 am for breakfast. I made it super simple, an eggbake, bacon in the oven, cinnamon rolls, muffins, fruit and of course mimosa's and coffee.


I also hosted dinner as well which was nice because we didn't have to travel anywhere this year. The kids were able to play with their new presents all day. They loved it as did I.

The overall favorite gift this year is the Thomas the Train sets that Noah got. It has taken over our Living Room.

Silly Pictures

The kids are silly a lot. They don't know it, but they are.

Check out this Aves....




Check out Noah...

He has such girl hair. Many would die to the volume that this boy has!! Sorry Noah!

Mailing Letters to Santa

Yesterday, we went to the mall (Macy's) to mail our letters to Santa along with the ones from my mom's second graders.

They have a big mail box and the kids loved putting all the letters in it.



Ava wrote a letter to Santa too. Here is her letter.


I asked her what she wanted to say and this is what we got. She is so polite!!



This is Noah's.

After we mailed the letters, we walked by where Santa was sitting and the kids looked at him from afar.

Don't they looked thrilled!!
Not sure they will ever want to sit on Santa's lap. I think I am ok with that, because to get a picture taken with him, it is going to cost a minimum of $22.

Making Gingerbread Houses

This year, I decided that it would be fun to make gingerbread houses. Ava was soooo excited. She just really wanted to eat the candy.

Last weekend, before the kids naps, I put the houses together so that the frosting could set and when they woke up we could decorate. As soon as Ava woke up, she said, can we make gingerbread houses! She was ready.


The very next day, we ate them. Ha! I didn't want to have them around for me to pick at the icing.




It is a fun tradition and I think we will do it again next year!

Freddy the Elf and Christmas Decorating

This weekend, our friend, Freddy the Elf on the Shelf arrived at our doorstep. He always comes on the eve of December 1st. I told Ava to be on the look out for him and after her bath, he arrived on our doorstep.
She was beyond excited. We unwrapped him and read the story together.


So far, Freddy has gone back to Santa every night and come back to a new hiding spot. It is definitely a good way to cheer the kids up when they wake up in the morning.

Friday night, we also got our Christmas tree at Lowes. We put it up so that we can decorate it on Saturday morning. When we woke up, Mike pulled down all the Christmas bins and in an effort to find the lights, he opened up all the bins. The kids were in HEAVEN. They wanted to see and touch everything in the boxes. Mike was trying to put up the lights and I was trying to make breakfast. It was pure and total chaos. Next year, we are going to put the lights up after the kids go to bed so that we are a bit more prepared. They had a blast putting the ornaments on the tree. Even Noah got in on the action. We got the house all decorated in a couple of hours and lots of conversations about how the Christmas stuff is to look at with our eyes and not touched with our hands. So far, so good.
 
Isn't she so precious!!!

Looking forward to some fun traditions.  We are still putting cotton balls on Santa's beard every morning. I have 2 of them, one for each of the kids. We are going to go and look at Christmas lights. We are going to go to Zoo Lights. We are going to make sugar cookies and decorate them. I bought a Gingerbread house for them to decorate.  I know we will have many more.

More Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of the kids.... well mostly Noah, but Ava will get her facetime soon!

Kids riding their bikes in the garage while Mom walks on the Treadmill.

Test Pictures

When I was writing my Thanksgiving post, I got an error message that said I had used up all my photo space and I could buy more space. What?!? I was kinda pissed because blogger is supposed to be a free blog. So I am experimenting with different ways to download pictures.  So here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

Kids riding their bikes

Melissa, Brian and Jacy

Dad cutting the Turkey

Ava and Papa Ron at the dinner table

My Boy

The kiddos playing