Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your Christmases were as enjoyable as ours. We spent a pretty crazy three out of four days traveling around to family. By the time Sunday night rolled around we were exhausted! We had a really great time with family and the kids were so much fun with everything.
Our constant yardsaling this summer netted this GREAT train set for Chase. He hasn't stopped playing with it since he got it!

With the help of Howard's sisters family we got Howard's parents a digital photo frame from the whole family. Steph sent in pictures of her family and we combined them with pictures from our family. It all got loaded onto a slide show that we played for them when they opened the gift. They loved it.
Chase's Me-Mom and Pop-Pop got him Lightning McQueen slippers which he is hamming up about below.

Us :-)

My family got together on Christmas Eve and of course we can't do that without getting a family picture!

We really did have a great holiday. The kids were given so much stuff which we are reminding them daily they are so blessed to have. Chase did awesome thanking everyone and waiting his turn to open gifts. This was the last year we plan on traveling on Christmas day. We are hoping next year to see family before and after Christmas and have Christmas day to relax and be together.

A Helmet Story

The picture below is of Chase wearing his "helmet" for riding his bike. It is a mesh bag that holds all his Mr. Potato head parts. Out of the blue he decided he needed a helmet and this is what he came up with.


So...Daddy pulled out the motorcycle helmets and the boys hammed it up for me...

...And Chase hopped on his bike for some fun. :-) (We were laughing hysterically at the size of the helmet in relation to him and his bike!)

Snowflakes and Paper Chains

Here's a little trip down nostalgia lane for you. Chase and I spent an afternoon a few weeks ago cutting out snowflakes and putting together paper chains. We've got the paper chains all around the house. We used to make them with my mom years ago and I thought Chase might enjoy getting to use a stapler. The house looked Christmasey before we put the chains up but now it looks downright perfect. It feels like kids are here celebrating too and I love the whimsical feel that creates!

Of other news, our peanut crawled up five steps by herself (daddy is standing guard outside the picture)! Of course we didn't then take a pair of car keys and keep flinging them up a few steps to see if she could do the whole flight (She can)! So Alexa is officially gated into our living room unless someone can watch her. And yes, she's clapping because she was so proud of herself. :-)

Christmas Lights

We traveled about an hour away on Tuesday night to visit the Christmas Village. Talk about incredible. This first shot is blurry but it is of the view of the place as we came over the hill. The night was cold but we had a blast! There are over 500,000 Christmas lights, Christmas music playing, Rudolph, Frosty and Santa about, indoor and outdoor train displays and tons of little buildings like Santa's Toy Shop, Santa's Post Office, Santa's Fire House. Tons of windows where the kids can peek in and see scenes from the north pole. There are also story boards along the whole walking trail telling different Christmas stories. Did I mention that we had fun!!!

At the beginning...it took us two fun filled hours to go through the whole place!

The Nativity. Chase was so excited to see the same thing that Nee Nee and Poppy have in their house!

Alexa loved the trains!

:-)

The indoor train display was really cool. Chase didn't want to leave, he loved it. There were about 4-5 trains running at a time and a trolley car scooting around the town.

Santa and his jolly elf!

The happiest reindeer around!

A parting shot...

We've tried to add ornaments to our tree each year that hold significance from that year. We decided to buy a wooden train ornament from the Christmas Village and have that be our ornament for this year. The kids were just mesmerized by the trains. Chase was so proud to put it on our tree.

Snow!!!

The pictures of snow that I put up in my last post are followed by this later in the evening. Chase had a blast running around in the snow for the next few days.

Our Christmas tree through the window...

How would you ever survive a snowstorm without your trusty mower?

She wasn't so sure how she felt about the snow.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Chase and I spent the week baking batches of Christmas cookies. He helped mix, measure and sample! It was fun and exhausting as we churned out 10 different kinds and made chocolate truffles too.

We make up plates for the neighbors every year. It gives us a nice excuse to visit!

We made a mess but Chase had so much fun and was such a big helper too. We listened to Christmas music and talked. Good times!

I've looked forward to baking cookies with my kids for years. I have great memories of my siblings and I baking with my mom at Christmastime. We always had this huge gingerbread man cookie cutter that my mom would use to make a cookie for each of us kids. We were allowed to decorate that cookie with as many sprinkles as we could fit on it. The cookie cutter was my grandmother's and this year I used it to make Chase's first cookie. When he realized he'd get to eat that big cookie all by himself his face just lit up. Traditions like this one are the kind of traditions I love. The cookie cutter has made its way through three generations now and hopefully I can keep building memories with my kids until I pass it down to one of them.


Today our little man is unbelievably excited because it is snowing!!! If snow doesn't put you into the Christmas spirit I don't know what else will!