Christmas 2013

Christmas Day was spent at home this year.  We were able to celebrate with my dad's family the weekend before Christmas for the first time ever!  The kids had a blast.

Can you guess who woke first on Christmas morning?  I'll give you a hint: she's the only one dressed!

 They LOVED their new beanbags from Oma and Opa and played with them in ways I never would've imagined!

 Everyone enjoyed opening their presents and stockings.

 We celebrated Christmas lunch or dinner (I can't remember; it's been too long!) with the Torres family and the kids enjoyed a gift exchange.  Can't believe they won't be here this Christmas to celebrate with us!

Christmas Eve 2013

We decided to let the kids open 1 present on Christmas Eve this year.  They were pretty excited to open this gem from Joe and Lisa.

 An xbox!  They were pretty excited, and Reef immediately started hoping Minecraft was coming in his stocking! Thanks, Joe and Lisa!

 Then we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service.  After 3 potty trips in the first 30 minutes (tell me again why I potty trained over Christmas break???), we decided to come home early.
We threw out our reindeer food...

And put out lamingtons for Santa Claus..

 I guess Poppy had gone to bed before this picture:

After the kids were in bed, these Santas got to work!

I snapped a picture of our tree in the dark.  Still not quite what Pinterest showed but a vast improvement over last year's attempt!

Co-op book exchange

We had a fun Christmas book exchange with our co-op!

Here's the whole gang:

 The children drew names and were all really excited to see what books they got.

It was such a fun evening with special friends!  We are so thankful to not be doing the homeschool journey alone anymore!

Pre-Christmas Fun!

Tree decorating!

 Hey, look, a rare picture of Mommy!

 I did some baking with the girl.

 A big, cardboard gingerbread house was donated to the garage sale and didn't sell.  I'd been saving it for months!

 It kept these 2 busy one day while I did school with the other 2.

 Poppy and I went for a walk to see lights one evening while the brothers sneaked off to church.

 I'd like to say she just liked playing close to the tree.  The entire side of the piano was COVERED in poop when she vacated her spot.  It wasn't pretty.

Breakfast with Santa 2013

I'm almost to the end of 2013, guys!

All the kids enjoyed our annual Breakfast with Santa.  There were crafts:

 Don't you love those boots with the footed pj's?

 I love it when he cooperates for pictures.

 The boys were so ready to share their lists with Santa...

 But this girl wanted NOTHING to do with him!

 Candy-topped pancakes are always a hit!

 I'm not really sure why his lips are blue!

More Christmas Day fun

I realize that it is now February (!), but I'm still catching up on December!  Oh, well...Shouldn't take long to do January anyway since my camera and I were not friends.

After breakfast on Christmas morning, we headed to a park with a nice sidewalk for some scooter-ing.

The playscape actually got more love than the scooters.

 But Jonas and Reef did make a few loops.

After fun at the park, we headed to the Redbox.  Troy and I decided to treat the kids to a double feature Christmas:  Brave and Madagascar 3.

It felt weird, but we spent Christmas evening on our own this year.  Usually we're with the Torres's or out of town, I guess.
Our extravagant menu included: pizza puffs, pigs in a blanket, fried pickles and chicken wings.

Not our healthiest meal, I admit.

We ate all that fabulousness (plus some veggies) while watching the second movie in our 2-movie-Christmas: Madagascar 3.

What a great day it was!

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

After our annual Christmas Eve servce at church, we headed home to put out lamingtons and milk for Santa.

 I think this was the first year Lachlan got to be in on the action.

 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and stuffed to the brim by Santa.

 The next morning, the boys were excited to see that Santa ate every bite.

 Someone had a hard time waking up.

 They dove into their stockings first.

 Poppy was content once she found the cookies.

 Then we moved on to presents under the tree.  Gigi and Mr. Don got all the boys new pajamas and backpacks.  Jonas is pretty thrilled with his Texans jammies.

 Then they took a jelly bean break.

 Lastly, it was time for Santa presents.

 He was pretty excited with his car garage!

He jumped right in with his new "lemon" car.

 Reef and Jonas each got scooters.  Santa was unsure about this gift for Jonas.  He had changed his mind several times in the days before Christmas.  Reef wasn't super surprised since it was the only thing he asked for.  He also told Troy later that he saw the scooters in our closet before Christmas!  Oops!  Thankfully, he's not really questioning Santa.  He believed that Santa sent them early since he would be so busy on Christmas Eve!

 Poppy loved her new cash register.

 All the boys got in on the car action.

 After breakfast, we headed out to test the scooters.  You can't tell from this picture, but those are big smiles on their faces!