Christmas Day 2014

On Christmas morning, the kids slept in until a little bit before 8 am (thanks to us setting their clock back a tad the night before!).  I snuck upstairs to change Jack's diaper and then all three of them came down the stairs to see what Santa had left for them.  Note how Jack chooses to descend the stairs.  And he does it so quickly.

A scattering of gifts around the tree:

 

 

 

The girls were overjoyed when they spotted the gifts for themselves.  Sam received an easel (she had been asking for one), Sophia received the Sofia the First Royal Academy (from a show that she loves to watch) and Jack got a race track for his cars.

 

 



Santa was even creative enough to use the easel to indicate whose gift was for who so that there would be no confusion!  Ha!

Checking out the race track:

Unwrapping each of the items in her stocking:

Jack's focus was minimal, but he did enjoy opening a few things:

Really though, he was more interested in playing with the items AFTER they were opened.  For example, his harmonica was a big hit. 

(We brought out laundry baskets for each of the kids so that they could put their respective gifts in them.  This made things SO much more organized -- and easy to carry into the other room when it was time to clean up before the arrival of our guests that day).


Such a happy little girl:

Part-way through, Jack just had to go and eat some breakfast in the kitchen.  Little Man tried, but he just couldn't hang with the expert present-openers ... his sisters.  They DID try to bring him a few gifts to open in between bites of breakfast.

And the best part for Sam???  The roller skates that she had been begging for ... She dearly hoped that they were wrapped up among the other presents under the tree, pulling out packages that were "too small to possibly be her skates."  Momma and Daddy did not disappoint.

 

We spent the rest of the day with family at our house, feasting on ham and a baked potato bar.  And cheesecake.  We can't forget the dessert!

It was a nice holiday where we spent all of it at our house this year.  It makes for a little bit of extra cleaning in between celebrations and quite a bit of food prep, but it is so worth it to be able to stay put and not have to travel.  The kids loved spending all of the extra time with family and we are excited to see what the next year has in store for us ...

Christmas Eve 2014

Our week of Christmas started out a little bit stressful for me -- as I ended up taking all three kids to the doctor on Monday, hoping to get all of them started on antibiotics for theirs colds/coughs/irritated eyes/ tummy aches.  Unfortunately, all of their "illnesses" were viral and we needed to let them run their course.  BUT ... I DID insist on something for Sophia's eyes, which were just plain scary to look at.  They resembled pink eye, but without the scratching.  We left with a prescription for eye drops (not fun for a 3 1/2 year old), which thankfully cleared up the redness before the holiday.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with Steve's family.  After our traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner, we migrated to the living room to open gifts. 

A quick family picture:

Aunt Deb made a special blanket for Sophia (her favorite colors are pink and purple; Aunt Deb did a great job picking out the fabrics!):

Modeling her new puffy vest and Frozen sanitizer:

Jack needed a little supervision at first, as he was randomly choosing various gifts (read: NOT for him) to open, but he soon got the hang of it:

Sophia opened a special case (like Sam received for her birthday a month earlier) from Grandpa.  Inside of it, Grandpa had put a lot of Grandma's old jewelry in it.  Sophia was over the moon with excitement:

(Side story:  A few days later, the girls were playing with the jewelry and I heard Sam say, "Mom ... this jewelry smells like Grandma did.  It's the same smell as a lot of purses from her up in bedroom."  With a lump in my throat, I just nodded.  I hope that she always remembers that smell -- Grandma's perfume).

Opening presents can be a very serious job:

A new fire truck!

Taking a little break from all of the presents:

Sophia got a new puffer vest too:

At the end of the gifts, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve PJs from Steve and me. 

Sophia received button-up pajamas with pink reindeer on them:

Sam opened up soft, fleecy PJs with a scotty dog:

And Jack smirked when he opened his fleecy, footed pajamas with a polar bear on the front:

 

 

 

A gift from Grandpa: a Fathead picture for the girls' bedroom wall.  They LOVE it!

 

 

 

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Before the kids put their pajamas on, we bundled up and headed outside to sprinkle our Reindeer Food on the front lawn.  While this is normally an exciting event for the kids, Sophia was just plain tired.  She even told me that she was tired and was ready for bed (it wasn't even 8 pm yet!).  Hence, the crying from her in the photos.

 

Sophia is my sensitive child and even the slightest bit of tiredness can elicit tears from her:

 

We finally got her to sprinkle her Reindeer Food ... See that cocoa floating out of there?

This was Jack's first year doing Reindeer Food with us, so Steve had to prompt him a little:

And then ... Jack chose to eat most of it!  Yup, he ended up with glitter and cocoa all over his fingers!

As soon as the kids came back inside, we got them ready for bed.  Jack went to bed immediately, while the girls were able to stay up for a few minutes longer so that they could prepare Santa's plate of cookies.

They chose a couple sugar cookies and a couple gingerbread cookies:

And some cider for Santa:

And then once the kids were all in bed for the night and our guests had headed home, I changed into some comfortable clothes and set to work putting together some gifts from Santa!



Sophia's Christmas Party

I was able to attend Sophia's preschool Christmas party on Friday morning.  She was so excited to wear her Christmas dress (handed down from Samantha) along with her red party shoes.  Sam got to dress in pajamas for her party ...

(I wasn't able to attend Samantha's school party because of the time conflicts with both of them, but Sam understood; especially because I was able to be at her Halloween one just a couple of months ago).

All dressed up and ready to go!

Having her snack and wearing a reindeer hat that she made as her craft that morning:

Just finishing up their snacks and listening as Mrs. Hicks told them that Santa and Mrs. Claus would be coming soon to see them:

There was a knock at the door ...

The excitement in the room was contagious as Mr. and Mrs. Claus made their way to the front of the classroom.  Just look at how happy Sophia was to be with them!

Each of the kids received a gift from Mrs. Hicks and another from Mrs. Alyce, as well as their gift from the class exchange (the kids drew names a couple weeks ago). 

When it was their turn, the children went up to the front of the classroom and opened theirs gifts for everyone to see.  It was priceless.

Seeing Santa

For the last six years, I have made a point to take the kids to see Santa at the Lansing Mall before Christmas.  It makes for a long trip over to the west side now that we live in Laingsburg, but it is worth the extra drive because it is always the same Santa ... and ... they allow you to take a couple of pictures with your OWN camera.  (I always make sure to buy a nice 5x7 from them, though).

This year, I was questioning when we were going to work this out because Samantha is in school all day and I didn't feel like fighting weekend or evening crowds at the mall.  Steve suggested going to a nearby tree farm, and after I looked into it, I decided that it would be perfect.  We made reservations for the "train" ride to the North Pole -- a log cabin out in the woods -- and bundled up for the frigid temperatures.

Biding our time in the store on some huge stuffed reindeer until it was time for our train ride:

Of course, Jack wanted a turn too:

The girls found this Santa statue and Sam was intrigued by how tall it was:

My three little animals:

Checking out the bunnies:

Sam loved seeing the llamas up close:

And then Jack discovered that the goats would come right up to the fence to see him:

Feeding one of the llamas:

Getting a closer look:

Inside the train:

Santa invited the kids to come inside his log cabin and sit on a bench, while the parents huddled around the perimeter:

Samantha was the first child to be able to sit on Santa's lap.  She told him that she wanted roller skates and an easel for Christmas. 

Sophia told Santa that she wanted an amulet for Christmas (a special necklace that Sofia the First -- a princess -- wears that makes her be able to talk to animals).

I had prepared myself for the fact that Jack might be a but resistant to sit on the jolly old man's lap, but he seemed just fine with him!

Warming their hands with the old-fashioned wood-burning stove inside the cabin:

I attempted to get a picture of the three kids together with Santa at the end, but Jack was D-O-N-E at that point.  All in all, he did really well missing his morning nap, hanging out in the cold and being confined some of the time.

Finally, we ended our visit with hot chocolate.  Santa even encouraged us to dip our candy canes in it.  Yum!  Sam drank every last drop of hers!

And then Jack insisted on checking out what Daddy was drinking ...

He even took a sip!