Thursday, December 31, 2020

Our Christmas Morning

 We had a very relaxing Christmas Morning.  The kids woke up, opened all the gifts under the tree, I spent a good portion of the day cooking and the kids played with new toys.  

The kids left Santa sugar cookies, a carrot and CHOCOLATE milk (per Santa's personal request).  They also wrote him a message and signed their names, "Dear Santa, Thank you for coming! Enjoy the cookies and milk!"

Santa wrote back to the kids

Evelyn is showing off her new Wonder Woman fanny pack.  She got a Wonder Woman wallet too.  Santa is pretty smart with this gift.  She's been wanting a purse but we all know Evelyn would just lose it.  A fanny pack, STRAPPED to her, is the perfect solution.


Scarlet got a pretend vanity kit....but she also got real kids makeup too.


BeyBlade Battle Arena!

She's been wanting a bulletin cork/white board for her room

Dragon magnets to go with her bulletin board

A singing Elsa dolls that moves her lips when she sings

Evelyn got a puppet theater!  She loves to put on little plays and used to drape blankets from the top bunk of her bed for a backdrop but now she has a real theater!


Evelyn has been wanting a Kindle for two years!  I think she's finally ready.  She's been working so hard at her reading! This was her big gift.


Still reading while the grown ups take turns opening gifts

This is Lorelai's big gift from Santa.  She's been wanting a banshee from Disneyworld for two years but I didn't really think she was old enough for it and it was too expensive.  I told her if she saved up half the cost, I'd cover the rest when we went back to Disney.  Well, she saved, but our Disney World trip got cancelled.  I was able to find someone from Orlando that was selling them.  She's thrilled!  The Banshee's name is "Sky".

New Batman car that shoots missles

Joseph's big Santa gift is a new Spiderman bike!  It took him two days to learn how to peddle but he's been cruising up and down the halls of our house because there's too much snow outside.  

This is one of my favorite pictures of the morning.  Lorelai and Evelyn are old enough to have chores and allowance so this year I told them they were also old enough to use some of their own money to buy gifts for their siblings.  It was such a success.  Evelyn (wearing her new veterinarian coat in this picture) was so excited to give out the gifts that she carefully selected and paid for.  I think it's just so important for them to focus on the "giving" aspect of the season.  I just love the excitement on her face!!!



Evelyn was the most exuberant kid on Christmas morning.  This is a picture of her giving Scarlet her present that she purchased.




And of course Joe enjoyed my Christmas prime rib roast!

Videos below in the web version

















Saturday, December 26, 2020

A Special Visitor...

When your kids aren't able to go see Santa...Santa comes to you!  I'm so thankful we were able to have this experience.  The kids were overjoyed!  Santa arrived in the evening.  He brought "conduct reports", analyzed their fingerprints on his naughty/nice meter, gave out candy canes, read a story about the first Christmas along with showing us examples of the Three Wise Men's gifts to Jesus, and let the kids just hang out with him and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  It was amazing, more than I expected.  A very special experience for all, even the adults!

There are many videos in the web version...













Listening intently to the story of the First Christmas











 









Baking Cookies

The kids did a great job helping with the cookie decorating this year.  We made Italian cookies (my favorite), snickerdoodles, peanut butter blossoms, and sugar cookies.