Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve church service was nice, complete with candlelight hymns. 

We came home to eat and put out cookies for Santa and then it was time to head to bed for the kids while all the grown ups chatted and enjoyed the Christmas Even food and preparations.

Surprisingly, the kids didn't wake up before it was light, but they were jumping around at the first light of dawn.

Stockings first while breakfast cooked and Auntie Jen and Uncle Dan drove over.

After breakfast we opened presents and enjoyed being all together.

I read an idea to document your Christmas Day by setting up a camera and having everyone occasionally press the shutter with a remote, so here's a snapshot of our day:

 We took lots of breaks to play and enjoy our new toys.

Then it was just time to get ready for the Christmas roast beef!

But wait... was there one more present we forgot about??

We told the kids we were putting a Murphy Bed for guests in the basement. Surprise! Instead Daddy had been working hard on installing a rock wall!

Best Christmas yet. Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Season Traditions

Every year, before Christmas, there are a few things we've come to call tradition.

The typical cookie decorating,

A holiday party with our oldest playgroup friends, complete with slow motion video, and a get together with even older pre-kids-friends to eat Chinese food.

With everything checked off, let Christmas begin!

A Quick December Trip

We are in NH for just a couple days. It's tricky to travel so close to Christmas, but Laurie Berkner, one of the kids favorite musicians, played a Christmas concert at the Capital Center for the Arts yesterday and we'd bought tickets months ago when we saw she was doing a Christmas concert.

On the way in, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour headquarters where they have a cafe and shop to have lunch for Auntie Jen. It was so Christmassy! The food was delicious and the shop was full of good gifts.

Yesterday the kids loved the concert. Poor SlimJim was so tired because it was during his nap, but aside from a small fit about not touching a beach ball, he enjoyed it just as much as the girls.

Mr. T. didn't get to go so we brought him to Home Depot to ride the tractors.

Tomorrow it's back to NY to finish up the Christmas preparations!

A Deer Birthday and A Family Music

Sunday we spent the afternoon at a deer-themed 8th birthday. It was a cute theme and went really well with the festive Christmas decor. We even got to make live flower crowns. 

Today all of us went to a make up music class for the boys. While music was fun, the surprising highlight of our morning was walking from music to the post office in the rain.

Don't let those adorable faces fool you though, after the post office it started raining harder and everyone complained. We tried to wait it out in a coffee shop, but by the time we were ready to leave it was pouring. So we braved it and hiked it back six blocks to the car in a downpour. We called it an adventure. Hoping the snow returns! Cold rain is no fun. 

A Dolly Christmas

Last year the girls started a tradition of taking a Christmas photo for Christmas cards with their dolls. I suggested it last year to show off the matching girl and doll Christmas dresses Meamaw and Grandpa got for the kids. This year they dressed the dolls and staged the photo themselves. Then MiniM.E. created the cards and signed and addressed them. They are so cute!

Tree Lighting

The Victorian Stroll in downtown Saratoga and the Gavin Park Tree Lighting are always back to back. It makes for a very exciting and very exhausting start to the season. This year, toting four kids, we decided to go to a "pre-stroll" party on Thursday and skip the walking around in the downtown cold and only do the tree lighting. It was cold and damp but Santa's arrival on the firetruck was worth the wait for the kids. 

And the indoor party with free snacks, movies, and Santa is a huge hit.

Snow Play

We've had some freak snow storms in the past few year that gave us snow on Thanksgiving and once even snow before Halloween. But this has been the craziest December. It's ridiculous the snow we've already gotten and we aren't even a full week in. 

While I know we'll all be sick of it by March, the novelty hasn't worn off yet. Lots of fun playing outside the past few days!

 We even brought the snow play inside!

The girls are enjoying the snow much more now that they can play more creatively and maneuver better in their snow gear. I am pleasantly surprised at how much the boys seem to enjoy being out in the snow!