Christmas Eve

We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve with Jeff's parents, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Lindsay, and baby Parker. In the afternoon we attended UPC's "family friendly" service which was fabulous as always. Grace has never sat so still and paid such close attention during a church service! Charlie, on the other hand, decided he wanted to be a lion half way through the service and started roaring quite loudly. Luckily, there were lots of other kids making noise and he just blending in.

After church, we headed back to Grammy and Bop's house for lots of fun. The stockings were hanging when we got there, and it didn't take long for the kids (and adults!) to dig in and find lots of fun surprises inside. You can barely see it, but Grace is holding on tightly to her new My Little Pony. It was the number one thing she wanted for Christmas this year and was definitely a theme that continued through all our celebrations. After we opened stockings, the kids had planned a performance for us. It was one of my all-time favorite Christmas memories!

Getting ready to announce their first number..."Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." As the kids sang they also "danced" which basically meant they ran around in circles. Grace ran in a large circle, and Charlie spun in the middle. Next came "Away in a Manger." Grace was Mary and Charlie was Joseph.
And for the grand finale, "Jingle Bells!" After the planned program, Charlie, our little musician, played his own "song" for us.
We spent the rest of the evening being spoiled with so many fun gifts and eating tons of delicious food. Such a great Christmas Eve!

Baking with Grace and Charlie

Today the kids and I baked up some treats for some friends in our neighborhood and Grace's teachers. I picked kid-friendly recipes so that they could do most of the work. The first thing we made were Pretzel Turtles, or at least that's what I call them. My sister makes these every year, but I'm pretty sure my grandma is the one who first introduced us to this yummy and super easy treat! It's so easy, I'll let the kids show you how it's done...

First, you lay out pretzels all over a baking sheet. Always make sure you taste your ingredients!
Check out that awesome bed head!! We got to work first thing in the morning. As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason to get cleaned up just to get messy again!

Then you start unwrapping Rolos.

And keep unwrapping. It took a loooooong time, but the kids stuck with it!

Place each Rolo on a pretzel.

Then keep unwrapping...while Mommy checks her email, drinks coffee, does the breakfast dishes...

Oops! One of these things is not like the other!

Bake the pretzels and Rolos in a 300 degree oven for about 4 minutes, or just long enough to get the Rolos nice and soft. Then you push a pecan onto the top of each one. All done!!

I've also done this with Hershey Kisses on pretzels then smooshed down with a holiday M&Ms. Those are very festive, but I like the caramel in these ones the best!

In case you're looking for other recipes the kids can help with, we also made these. Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Bars

Crunch Bars (This one ended up not being too kid friendly, but they did like laying out the saltine crackers.)

Nutcracker Christmas Party

This afternoon we got to go to a really fun Christmas party at Grammy and Bop's club. There was so much for the kids to do!

They got to see Santa again... there were many crafts to do...
and there was a performance of part of The Nutcracker Ballet by "real" ballerinas! After the show, the kids checked out the big nutcrackers.

What a fun day!!

Visiting Santa

We went to visit Santa on Friday. We always go early in the day to avoid the long lines, but this year, even though we were only the third people in line, we had to wait a long time. They were having "mechanical difficulties." That just gave the kids lots of time to look at Santa's Workshop as they waited for their turn to visit the big guy. And it gave me a chance to get a couple of pictures of them all dressed up in their Christmas clothes.

I love this picture of Grace. It looks like she is in awe of something in Santa's workshop, but she's actually looking at her daddy. So precious!! Charlie got tired of standing in line and just sat down for awhile.... When we finally got to sit with Santa, the kids amazed! Both happily sat with him, and just looked at the camera and smiled. The secret? The knew there was a candy cane sucker waiting for them when they were done. When Santa asked the "big" question, "What do you want for Christmas?" they were ready with their answers. Grace asked for My Little Ponies and Charlie asked for a Lightning McQueen guitar. Hmmm...I think "Santa" is going to have to exchange some of Charlie's gifts! I've heard him say he wanted a guitar before, but I was kind of hoping he'd move on to something else. It doesn't like that's going to happen!

Cookie Day!

It has become an annual tradition in our family to get together to make Christmas cookies at Grandma and Boppo's house. In the past, this has usually meant the kids helped long enough to have their picture taken then lost interest until it was time to eat the cookies. I clearly remember Kate and I spending several hours decorating cookies last year while the kids napped or cuddled with Grandma.

This year was a different story. The kids really wanted to be involved in every step of the process. They spent a long time cutting the dough into shapes and even longer decorating them. I really only decorated a few for Jeff and I to eat. (Because the ones the kids decorate have been licked and have piles of sprinkle on them, and well, we just don't eat them!) I loved watching the kids have so much fun making memories, and as always, they LOVED spending time with their cousins, aunties, and grandparents.

Our day followed the normal life cycle of any good cookie making day...the kids are involved, the kids lose interest, the kids start tasting, the kids get a sugar high, the kids don't nap because of that sugar high, the kids meltdown due to sugar crash and lack of nap. (And really by "kids", I mean Charlie.) Even with a dramatic ending, it was a fun and memorable day.

"Hey big kids! I want in on this action!"

Grandma made sure that Charlie got a taste of the sprinkles. I think he may have had more sprinkles than cookies!
Some of the final "masterpieces."

Noodle Making

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed to Grandma and Boppo's for noodle night. The kids got to help make the noodles in the morning. This is Grace's 4th year helping and she's really getting the hang of it!

Charlie was a little more timid at first, but had a great time watching the dough come through the machine.

And then I left to go shopping, and the camera got put away...for the rest of the weekend. Oops!! Luckily I'm not the only paparazzi-prone family member. If you want to see pictures of the rest of noodle night as well as pizza night the next day, you can check out Kate's blog here.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Jeff's family at Grammy and Bop's house. It was such a fun, relaxing day!

Grammy and Grace snuggle up Grace asked to have her picture taken in front of the tree. I'm not one to argue with that!
Grammy and Bop taught Grace to play checkers on a recent visit, so her and Jeff had a good time playing a game. Grace won, of course!

Charlie helped make dinner by putting the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes and the onions on top of the green bean casserole. Just as all good cooks do, he was sure to taste his ingredients before adding them.

Grace helped, too!

Grammy and her girls...

Jeff and Charlie in their very coordinated (although not planned!) Thanksgiving shirts