Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.

I told Ethan to wake me up before going downstairs, he got up at 6:30! HE usually rises around 7:30am.

He checked to see if Santa ate his cookies...

Opened his stocking

Then started opening his gifts from Santa first

I asked him if he had a nice Christmas and got everything he asked for (like the scene in A Christmas Story) He said, yes, most of it. I was so proud that he wasn't complaining about not receiving a Wii. He had added that to his Santa list.

Then I noticed there was another gift hidden behind the chair, wrapped the green Santa paper!
It said to: Ethan & Family

He got his Wii.

Doesn't it look like he is saying "Wii" here?
Ethan picked out a cardigan sweater for me in my purples, I really like it.

Trent is really liking his Guitar Hero flannel pants that Ethan got for him. HE has never worn pj pants. But I think that is because he has never owned any! He thinks they are so soft and comfy.
We had to be at my parents house for breakfast waffles by 9-9:30. I think we got there at 9:30. It wasn't too rushed. I just brought my cookies.

For breakfast we had our traditional waffles made by my dad. My mom made up sausage, bacon, apple slices, blueberries, raspberries.

My mom's display in the great room..

My parents with their grandkids

Our friends The Conards came over and had gifts for the kids. So nice to see them.

Amanda with her awesome brunette Barbie with purple outfits from me, of course.

My Dad opening up my gift - a new Old Man on the Bicycle shirt

Matthew acting like his sister's new American Girl Doll...

my mom told me to take this pic of the 2 of them with their bows...

My sister and I got each other the exact same sweater...

My mom got both of her sons-in-law a case of beer! So surprising and funny

Ethan lost a tooth on Christmas while eating, too! This is #6.

Christmas Eve at T's parents

We went to Trent's parents house for a Christmas party on Christmas Eve around 3:30.

We had our appetizer meal. I brought potato skins, taco dip and chips, and my cookies.

Everything was so nice and we had to put up another table for everything.

Meredith and Derrik with Ethan in the vest they got for him.

We drew names this year. I had Meredith - got her towels from Restoration Hardware. Dale drew me and got me a Kohls gift card.

Of course, I had to make a photo calendar for T's mom. She wanted me to make one for Dale this year, so I made a duplicate one for him. It is always her favorite.

We did the Yankee Christmas/Grab bag thing there this year. A $10 gift. It didn't really turn out right. Maybe it was because only 7 people were there. I ended up with one of the gifts we brought as did Trent. And poor Meredith got stuck with what she brought, but just kept it. I thought it would be fun and silly, like on my side. But it doesn't seem to work with a smaller amount of people maybe. I won't be suggesting it next year. Trent was the one that actually suggested it for this year.

Ethan got such neat things. He had asked Santa for Rhino Rampage and I had told Derrik that would be a good game to get for him.

When he opened it up he said, "OH no, I'm going to get 2 of these."

We were like, why do you think that?

He said, "I told Santa that I wanted Rhino Rampage and he is bringing me one tomorrow."

That kid, so funny. For some reason he really believes that everything he asks for he gets...that won't last forever.

I love that Trent and his brother played the game with him, it was a highlight.

It was still icy out that night. It was scary walking up and down their driveway. We parked in the street on purpose. We always bring Ashton with us to their house and he slipped big time walking down their driveway.

Cheryl always gets our dog a gift and honestly gets so much enjoyment out of watching him sniff it to death and try to open it up.

It was a nice family get together. We are so blessed.Came home around 8:30 and finished up wrapping the rest of the presents and was in bed by 1am, not bad for me.

2 Days Until Christmas & It's Freezing Cold Here!

It is so bitter cold here! We had a big ice storm on Friday and all the trees are still covered in ice. T took these pretty pics on Friday morning. Usually the ice thaws out the next day or 2, but it is Tuesday and everything is still icy.

We got more snow this afternoon. I drove home in a wintery wonderland. It took just an additional 15 min to get home, not that bad.


Ethan is having such fun changing all our advent countdown calendars. He got the 'old school' santa beard countdown at aftercare. I so remember creating the cotton-ball beard in 1st grade. So great & he loves it. I gave him a baggy of cotton balls and he just simply uses his glue stick and sticks it on the correct date.


I needed something for the wall above our sofa for Christmas. Everything I had was too small and to put it in a grouping they all didn't match, you know?

My mom brought home some garlands from my grandma for me so I thought I'd design something to go with a decorated wreath I already had. I added red & green sparkly balls, white lights and ended up with this...

I really love it! And it only cost me $7!! 2 packages of bulbs 1/2 off at Meijer for $5 and $2 for white lights.

I also like that it is pretty without the lights on in the daylight.

It fits the space so much better now, the wreath looked pityful alone.

Today is my parent's 41st Anniversary.

We have T's parents Christmas tomorrow on Christmas Eve.

It is a fun hors' douvre mini meal. I bring my cookies and our taco dip. We will have shrimp cocktail, meatballs, lil weiners in crossants, crackers, cheese, veggies and more goodies I'm forgetting.

We drew names for the first time for this get together. We are also having the grab bag/yankee Christmas thing. I hope they all remember to do it!

Visit to Santa - A Christmas Story exhibit

I was so excited to see an ad in the paper about A Christmas Story coming home. There was an exhibit at LCCVB in Hammond.

Yesterday was the last day for Santa. It said it was a replica of Santa's mountain as in the movie. Well, it was half scale and about 5 ft mountain. But there was a slide and it did fall into cottony snow! photos were only $5, too!

Trent took video of Ethan going down the slide. He was happy that he could tell Santa what he wanted this year.

Pixos Studio

Legos

Rhino Rampage

Wii (thanks to T's student trainer for bringing that in and getting him hooked on it!)

The exhibit had previously been in Macy's New York store windows. They were all animated and really neat.

Then I made them pose by the leg lamp at the gift shop...

It was super cold on Sunday and still is today. Yesterday was -3!! And we were out in it all!

I had played bells in our church's Cantata. Our church lost power so we were all in our coats. Not really bad. The power came back on halfway through 2nd service, just as the choir sang "Joy to the World"

Our power went off like 6-7 times on Sunday, but came right back on within 5 seconds. Such a horribly cold day to be without heat & power!

I have most of my cookies made. I want to do 2 more sets tonight. I have most of my wrapping complete, too! I had to trek out to Walmart for a gc today. Such a mistake! I knew it would be bad.