Christmas Day 2013

Santa came!

 So Christmas day we have a very busy schedule in order to see everyone.

So normally I have to wake up the kids, this year we decided to sleep until 7am.

Brandon has a little internal clock that NEVER lets him sleep past 7am.

So I wake up at 6:45 and i'm waiting to hear him...

right about 7am i hear him get up and he doesn't come in our room...

I give it a minute and then get concerned.

I go out and see him sitting on the couch in the living room in the dark with the TV on and he says

"Mommy Santa came!"

I realized he didn't know he needed to get us, he was just doing what he normally does on a sat which is go in and quietly watch TV until the slacker parents wake up. 

He didn't touch a single present!

So we quickly get Lily up and the first thing she sees is her new shopping cart and Elmo and Abby.

She basically pushes that around all morning which was nice because we could watch 

Brandon open all his presents. Then after that Lily opened all the rest of hers. 

We had our big breakfast and then off to my parents, then my Grand mothers. 

 Lily and her Great Great Grandmother 

 Then over to Kenn's Mother's house

 All of the Grandkids

Then we went home for a quick nap then we went to Kenn's Aunt/Uncles house for his dad's side of the family and a big dinner.

The kids were all playing with their new electronics so not to be left out, Lily sat next to them with her "tablet"

 The kids did really well the whole day!

We were ridiculously spoiled as always and we spent the whole next day playing with our new toys!

As Brandon announced "this is the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER" and we agreed!

Christmas Eve

Brandon agreed to be in our Church's Christmas Eve Pageant this year

(as long as he didn't have to say anything) 

He was a Shepard, and did a great job :)

 The Shepards had to whisper..

 Lily loved watching the Angels,

and then later in Mass decided to take all of the wipes out of the container and clean off the seats with them. 

I started to protest but then figured it was cheaper to buy more wipes then to have her scream. 

Brandon being "scared" when he saw the angels.

We had Christmas Eve Dinner at my parents, Lily playing with the nativity. 

 Brandon picked out his tie this year. 

We went home and Lily went to sleep, Brandon was getting into bed when he was visited by "Santa" outside his window and a note telling him to get to sleep. he immediately kicked us out of his room

Polar Express Party

Based on something I saw on Pintrest I decided to throw a Polar Express Party the Friday before Christmas. 

Everyone came over in their PJ's.

I baked little train bundt cakes

 We had the kids  put icing and decorate them with candy

 Then the kids made beaded necklaces with the P.E. Bell

 I made "hot chocolate" cupcakes and kenn made real hot chocolate and

they ate popcorn and watched the movie. 

 Brandon declared he was going to marry Brianna tonight...

 He and his good friend Brady.

The kids really had a blast and were pretty quiet through most of it. 

I definitely think this will be a yearly event!

Longwood Gardens Dec 2013

We had such a great time a few years back my parents decided to go with us this year 

to see the light display at Longwood Gardens. 

We figured with Lily who is so fascinated with lights it would be perfect. 

We purchased the timed tickets a good month in advance and well we apparently we chose poorly.

Lily got a double ear infection a few days before we left, we still thought it would be ok since she had antibiotics in her system for 2 days or so...

In addition the forecast was calling for snow, we thought hey its only like 3 miles from the hotel...

So we get up to the area, have lunch and then check in to the hotel and get lily a nap.

Everything is working well...

Get to the gardens and see the beautiful inside areas

(as always these pix are with my camera so not the best example)

 Lily in her snowsuit with GrandRuss

It started to snow while we were there. It was beautiful!

Then Lily fell asleep just as we finished up the inside.. We didn't want to wake her to go outside.

So we decided to run over to the restaurant and eat dinner while she slept and then it would be dark and we could see the outside lights. 

 She did sleep through dinner, then just as we were packing up to go she woke up.

And she was not happy. 

When we got outside this time the snow was coming down HARD.

I was the only one in snow boots... they were plowing but it was still a lot.

we started to walk and Lily just was not having any part of it. 

At this point Kenn and my mother couldn't take pictures outside anyway so Kenn so sweetly said he would take Lily back to the hotel and the rest of us (in my dads car) could finish up.

We walked for maybe 5 more minutes and decided it was just too snowy and should leave also.

I was able to get 1 picture in the snow. the rest was so hard the camera could only focus on the snowflakes

On the way out Brandon broke something in the gift shop and we knew the night was complete.

The snow was so bad getting home both kenn and my dad had issues getting to the hotel.

We ended getting back around the same time, put Lily to bed and then the bad snow storm turned to rain.

An hour late the roads were completely fine so we used the free babysitter to take Brandon out to see

"Frozen" at the local movies. It was really really good!

 (all the while my sweet parents were stuck with no cable at the hotel due to the weather)

Lily woke up like 2x that night in the hotel and we had one more small mishap in the parking lot involving a luggage cart and a Lexus and we then went home.  

Overall we all still had a great time even if it was exactly as we planned. There is always next year!

Wolf Lodge Dec 2013

We got to spend the first weekend in Dec at the Great Wolf Lodge 

(thanks to Aunt Gail) for my Birthday

Obligatory first picture before getting into the water

Lily LOVED the waterslide! The picture above was her with Brandon, 

but she went down a good 5-10 times on her own!

I don't have any pictures b/c that required to parents (one at the top and one at the bottom)

 They also had this FANTASTIC life-size gingerbread house! 

It was completely made out of frosting and candy. It smelled sooo good. 

 At Night Brandon got his PJs and Daddy and I took turns Running around the hotel with him while he played MagicQuest

 In the morning Lily watched was fascinated with the Wolf

 and kept watching him and watching him. 

 Finally we got to go up and meet him. i'm not sure how excited she was to be that close

 The kids also got to write letters to Santa and mail them in the big mail box.

This really is an amazing place to take the whole family and we absolutely hate to leave each time we visit.