Christmas at Our House aka Christmas Eve Part 2

 

Christmas Eve, the kids woke up to see that Santa had come to our house.

They were sleepy, but excited.

They started off with their stockings.

Then moved on to their bigger gifts.

This is a parasarolaphus (sp?).  A prized dinosaur from Aunt Christine and Uncle Cam.

His big gift from us was literally big.  A huge T-rex. 

The kids enjoyed their gifts and playing with them together.

The aftermath of Christmas morning.

 

After we picked up a bit, Miles and Isla painted the ornaments they had made for their grandparents.

 

Then we went outside to shovel and build a snowman.

 

Ben and the kids built a snowman while I shovelled.

 

Later on, we got cleaned up and went up to Grandma Sara's and Grandpa Tom's house for some more Christmas Eve festivities.  They give everyone pajamas for Christmas Eve, so we opened our jammies to wear.

 

Isla wore her Christmas dress, even though we weren't going to church.

Isla was quite pleased with her pajamas!

 

Then we tried to get some sleep before Santa came again.  Part 3 (and maybe 4) to follow soon.

Christmas Catch-up Part1

We celebrated Christmas Eve, at our house, a day early.  We were having actual Christmas Eve up at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The original plan was to go to church that morning with Grandma and Grandpa O, but due to Miles' fever the day before (which only lasted 24hrs...weird), I didn't think it would be fair to possibly expose all the other kids since he hadn't been fever free for 24hrs.

 

We started the day out with a project.  We made salt dough ornaments for the grandparents from the kids.  I cooked it up on the stove and the kids helped with the measuring.  They both rolled their own dough and cut out different shapes.  I cooked the ornaments in the oven for them to decorate the next day.

The ornaments were all we gave away, the hand prints didn't hold up to well for some reason.  I think the dough got to thin in some parts, but it cracked a lot, so we kept them.

 

Then we made cookies to leave out for Santa.

 

After the kids went to bed (which took a while for Miles), I wrapped presents and stuffed stockings... 

 

Already for "Christmas Morning" at our house.

Carriage Rides and a Light Show

Here's some more Christmas catch-up. I can't believe it's May and I'm just now getting to December!!! I need to get this blog up-to-date asap.

A local credit union does free horse and carriage rides each year at Christmastime. I've always wanted to go. This year, we waited to the last minute (last ride on the last day), but hurried downtown one night with Auntie Annie. We rode the carriage around down town.

Other than the fact that Miles wanted to be co-pilot, we had a great time! Oh, and the fact that Miles had a raging fever that I medicated well. He felt fine by the time we went downtown, but it spiked again when we got home :(. Isla had the same virus the week prior. High fever...no other symptoms.

Apparently I don't have any photos of Auntie Annie, but she was with us :).

After that, I took the kids to a light show that is by our house. It is free and only about a mile from us. This big red barn does this elaborate light show each year. I forget all the statistics, but there are thousands and thousands of lights. It is about 15min long and synced to music by tuning to a certain station on your radio. It is AMAZING!!!

It is crowded and can be hard to get a spot to see it well, but it is great and worth a short wait. The kids really enjoyed it. There are farm animals, snowmen in a snowball fight, and tons of other great things.

Next, on to our Christmas Eve (Dec 23).