Santa Found Us!

Not too long after bedtime, Santa came on in and did his thing. Sophie helped by protecting her stocking from would be thieves while Santa filled everyone else's. She's such a good little elf. 

Santa left some loot for Caleb. He received a tackling dummy, a personalized print of the NY Giants locker room with his own name on one of the jersey's, a new Manning jersey, a Sports Illustrated football trivia book, a football shaped candy dispenser, a NY Giants decorative football,  a NY giants lil' teammate set, a Vex Robotics kit, a Lego Architect set of the Spaceneedle and a Star Wars lego set and pillow.  Along with a few small things like NY Giants arm bands, a NY Giants trivia book and candy etc in his stocking.

He also left a few things for Zaric. Santa left him a giant remote control car, a GB Packers jersey, a football, a lego alarm clock of Bad Cop, a lego rocket ship set, a Lego Ninjao set, Quixels, a hidden picture book, a GB Packers Lil Teammate set, and a Spiderman pillow. Along with various candies and small toys and games in his stocking. 

Then he moved onto Zaden's stash where he left him the new Lego Dimensions game for the Xbox with some extra characters, a Cowboys jersey, a Cowboys Lil' teammate set, a basketball, Quixels, a look and find book, a Lego Batman alarm clock, a Lego Movie lego set and a Batman pillow. Along with some candy and small games in his stocking as well. 

And then he moved onto the girlie goodness section and left Faith a few things. She received her American Girl twin babies that she's been asking for since about April, her Barbie Camper Van, her own makeup bag and makeup, bunk beds for her twin babies, a kitchen set and snack stand for her babies, matching pj's to wear with her babies, a stroller for the twins, Aquabeads, a Lego Friends set, a strawberry shortcake doll, a play baking set, some Christmas Chelsea dolls and a Frozen pillow.  And of course some jewelry, candy, chapsticks, lotion and other various small things in her stocking. 

Then along with some cups of wet food and some treats for the Sophie, he also didn't forget Mom and Dad this year. He left us a really nice (and much needed) new cutting board and a fun Star Wars Lego set. Along with filling Mike's stocking with a fun Star Wars luggage tag for his work travels, a Lightsaber mobile charger, a R2d2 ornament,  Nintendo controller boxers, some cologne, a mini Superman skateboard and some candy. 

My stocking got filled with some jewelry sets, some new makeup, a new shirt, and my favorite Milano cookies.  

And he didn't forget to eat some of the cookies. He was even polite enough to leave a little Thank You note on his way out. 

Wow! Thanks Santa! 

Christmas Eve 2015

We made it! The countdown to Christmas Eve this year was a little exhausting for all of us, especially since the kids had 6 full days of school off before it came around. We started the morning with happily finishing off our advent calendars and then getting ready to get out of the house for a little bit. The babysitter was nice enough to offer to take the kids for a few hours, so we took her up on the offer and dropped them off to play while Mike and I did a little last minute shopping and enjoyed the silence of the calm before the storm over a nice lunch together.  I seriously loved every minute of it.

When we got back to the baby sitters house, we were a little panicked that we couldn't find Faith, but we decided that we could just trade her for the adorable Cindy Lou Who that was there instead.

We made it home in time to use the afternoon to get our rooms clean and our chores done because fact: Santa doesn't come to messy houses, he just passes them by.

Once they were all clean, we made sure to take care of Santa's reindeer by spreading some reindeer food in the yard.

After some dinner it was finally time to dis out the Christmas Eve box we'd been dying to open all day.

Inside was our new traditional Christmas Pj's, a new Christmas book,  some new Christmas themed board games and some new popcorn bowls for each of them for some game night treats.

After some quick baths, the jammies were put into action.

And then it was game night time! We started off with the Holiday Memory match game.  Mike won, and Faith was right behind him in second place.

Then it was Christmasopoly time.

Once Mike kicked our butts with this game as well, it was time to make Santa's milk and cookies.

And then we spent some time by the tree together and listed to Dad read us the new Christmas book from the box and the traditional Night Before Christmas book before heading off to bed.

Troublemaker

I knew that this elf was going to get more and more pesky every year he showed up and boy was I right. This year along with some unusual hiding places he also found a lot of creative ways to cause mischief.  Like the day he got into Mike's snack cakes and made himself a little sugar beach on the counter. Complete with a little beach umbrella. 

And even though Faith kept telling him he better not change the milk different colors this year, he didn't listen.  

He got into the boys car stash and had himself a little monster truck rally with a full audience of lego people. 

And when there was still no snow outside in the middle of December, he took matters into his own hands and built a snowman of toilet paper rolls in Caleb's room. 

And there was the one night he kept us up all night while he had a pool party with the Barbies. 

And then used Mike's boxers to play Supeman in the ceiling fan. 

We woke up to his "artwork" on the mirror one morning.....

And when he was feeling lonely, he found a sure fire way to attract some lady-elves......free chocolate! The catch, of course, was a little smooch. 

And since he considers himself a gift.....he spent some time in Mom's wrapping himself up. 

But the Grand Finale was on his last night before he returned to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, he left us a little parting gift of toilet papering the tree and leaving us a nice "See You Next Year!" message. 

I have to admit, it's a little bitter-sweet to have him out of the house for the next year. I can't wait to see what he'll come ready to do next time.

Christmas Baking

I had the cutest little elf helping me do all the Christmas baking this year. We even found these amazing aprons to really show off our skills. 

Along with all of the usuals requested from Mike and the kids, we also tried out a couple new fun things to get ready for the big day. We started by trying to replicate some fun melting snowman cookies I had found on Pinterest. They weren't perfect, but we are pretty pleased with how they turned out. Can you tell which one Mike helped with? 

And we tried out making some Grinch popcorn. It turned out perfect and was dangerously delicious. 

 And when it came time to frost the sugar cookies Mike and I had a friendly little competition going on. We placed some that we each frosted on a rack and labeled them then threw it out to our Facebook friends for a little unbiased judging.

When all the votes were tallied #2, #3 and #6 were the big winners. All of which belonged to.....ME! For the first time ever, I out-frosted the master. I fully plan to use my victory bragging rights for the full next year whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Because I am very mature like that.

Preschool Pop Star

This little girl was up bright and early on the day of her Preschool Christmas program so that Mom could get her ready to go and curl her hair before Mom had to leave for work. The results we adorable, of course. 

After several excruciating hours, it was time to rock the program. They started off with a little dance action.  

And in this long video you can watch her rock all of her program songs. Trust me, you can't miss her. She sang the loudest of everyone and really got into her moves. The poor boy next to her almost got clocked several times. And if you make it all the way through...pay close attention to Jungle Bells, where she proves that you don't need a stinkin' bell to get your point across. One of her teachers talked to me briefly afterwards and was laughing telling me how she's always the best and loudest singer in class too and how they absolutely love it.  (warning....you'll need about 15 minutes and Dad got a little crazy with the camera angle for a few minutes and has since been fired from cinematography duties). 

Can't get enough of this little diva! 

Gingerbread Village

We woke up Sunday to a snowy morning.  And to a little surprise from our elf Christopher.

Guess he was trying to tell us it was time to get these done with Christmas being only 5 days away and all.  So after some breakfast and a couple chores, we got straight to work.

 We were pretty impressed with our efforts.

Turns out right after the group pic, we found out that Mom and Dad didn't make C's earthquake proof.

They immediately went on to eat them, so the village has officially become extinct.