Half Moon Bay, California November 2012

Monday, December 26, 2011

A Very Merry Christmas!


Talk about a busy holiday season!!!
We started with the children ending their last days of school - before 2 whole weeks of being home with me!  (woohooo!!! -- no need to rush off to school every morning!)

She went to bed with "nothing" to wear... so I promised her a holiday shirt... this is what I came up with and she was thrilled!!!  ;)
Her class party was full of sweet treats!  They decorated gingerbread cookies (sadly, she forgot it at school)
 He always finds a way to get a treat for himself too! ;)
 After school, MD had his guitar lesson - last one of the year.  Here he is with his instructor, Karen.  She really is amazing  and very encouraging!  I made her a hand stamped guitar pick keychain.  It said, "karen U rock!"
 He played a cute song for us too!  I'm so proud of him.
The next day, we woke up later than usual (a big treat for all of us...).  Vince was home with the boys today.  MG and I had a big treat ahead of us....  We were going to see the Nutcracker with Clare and Corinna!  We stopped in to say hello to Uncle Jim first.  :)
 Then off we went!  In the lobby they had a big display of nutcrackers -- waaay too expensive for my budget, so we looked at them!
 And look at these beautiful ornaments!
 MG found this cute little decorative nutcraker:
 So we took a photo!  :)
 And another with Clare and Corinna:
 A nice family walked by and offered to take a photo of all of us!  How sweet, right?!
 And check out this life size nutcracker!!!
 She was on cloud nine today!!!  Look how beautiful she is!  :)
 Oh -- don't forget the mouse king puppet!
 And then... on with the show!!!!
 It was an amazing performance.  Thank you Clare!  It is now our tradition with Corinna and Clare.  She hopes that MD can join us next year.  We'll see...  On our way out...  Another nutcracker.  :)
Saturday morning came too quickly... but we had a relaxing morning... a morning at the park!

 With dad too!  (what a treat!)
 Later that evening we made reindeer food:
 Baked cookies:
 Fed the reindeer while the cookies were baking:
 They like carrots too!  ;)
 Then they promptly wrote their letters:
 "Dear Santa, I've been good."  (I love his reindeer!!!)
 She wrote a very nice letter:
 His letter was great too!
 I love MD's picture of Santa flying over his head!  Hahaha!!!
 Then we placed their pillow cases under the tree.  (This year we decided to be more eco friendly.  The children decorated a pillow case so that Santa would not have to wrap any more of their gifts in wrapping paper.  I cut out the freezer paper stencils and they painted them.  So now, we can reuse their pillow cases each year!  Great, no?!)
 The cookies were ready for Santa...
 The tree was lit... ready for Santa.  (And all 3 children passed out from pure exhaustion!)  :)
 In the morning the bags were full!  (these are from Santa)
 These are from Mommy and Daddy ( I personalized their bags while they watched Rudolph.)
 last night before putting them to bed, we agreed that they would not wake us up until AFTER 8:00 AM.  I heard MG and E up early talking... but they kept their promise and did not wake us up until 8:01 AM, actually.  Thennnnn it was pure madness!!!!
 He loves Star Wars and Santa brought him some books!
And his Star Wars Lego watch!  

 Daddy is helping E unwrap his gift -- boy, they make toys so difficult to get into these days!  It took a lot of patience AND a screw driver to get this baby out... wait until you see what Santa brought him!
 She got what she asked for -- Zoobles!
 Here they are!
 And daddy finally got through to the packaging!!!  A mini drum set!  Now he can join his brother and sister in their music making!  :)
 And now on to gifts from mommy and daddy -- our little Santa...

 Mommy made everyone Christmas pillow cases:
And pajamas!  (see how making those pajamas for Uncle Leo's skeletons helped their gifts this year?!)

 Aunty Karen and family bought them jerseys for Georgia's football team:
 Go Falcons!!!!
 Uncle Leo and Uncle Matt gave them each these very real looking light sabers!!!  Check these babies out!
Aunty Anita sent these funny looking straw glasses!
 Fun!!!
So cute!  :)
 3 very happy children on Christmas morning!
 MG and DJ -- lucky her, DJ got to spend Christmas break with her since she didn't have much time with her this past summer.
 After breakfast they headed to the park with daddy.  I went to pick up our dear friend, Grandma Jan!

Grandma Jan is the best!
 We love her -- South Dakota, you are so lucky she lives in your state.
 After our Christmas dinner (sorry, no photos, too busy and too hungry! It was a feast!)... we went around the neighborhood and checked out the Christmas lights!
 Wow, it was quite amazing this year!
 These were in the garage section   -- the figures moved and sang!
 Check this out!!!!
 Daddy was helping to fix the train that had stopped working -- we eventually had to take the battery out because we couldn't find the off switch!
 Check out this Disney themed house!!
 Look at the amazing lights!!!!
It has been an amazing Christmas!!!  We hope yours was just as amazing as ours!