Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It is neat to see how much more excited Kylie gets for things as she gets older and begins to understand things more. She anxiously awaited Jesus' birthday because she wanted to see what 'Happy Birthday Jesus' gifts Santa would bring her. We have really tried, this year in particular, not to focus on Santa but on Jesus and the nativity. We found a nearby church that put on a live production of the nativity and we went to it. We sat in the car and watched as the church member reenacted the nativity in the snow. Kylie was just mesmerized. We have tried to read at least one book about the true reason of the season for bedtime and her preschool has really focused on the birth of Jesus (One good thing about sending her to a religious preschool). For the last week of the Christmas season, Kylie kept asking "Is it Jesus' birthday yet?' but we were able to keep her busy with cookie baking, bell ringing, and present shopping/wrapping.

On Christmas eve, we went bell ringing in the afternoon and then came home for a relaxing evening in front of the fire, just the four of us. We had a yummy dinner, made Santa's cookies, tracked Santa's whereabouts and watched Christmas movies. We tried really hard to make it to midnight mass as that is Michael's favorite; but Kylie feel asleep around ten and there was no waking her when it was time to leave for mass. We'll try again next year. So, Santa came and it was off to bed for the adults!

Christmas morning started a little late since Kylie and Caleb were up so late the night before. We made our Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate (healthy, I know ) and opened up our presents. Caleb had no interest in opening presents. He just wanted to climb on them and eat the wrapping paper. So Kylie opened all the presents this year; including a wii that Santa brought to our whole family... it is our new family addiction (there should be a warning on it). After cleaning up after ourselves and getting ready to go, it was time to head to my father's for Christmas day festivities. Kylie had lots of fun playing with her cousins and got thoroughly spoiled by everyone there with lots of independent play toys (I love the freedom they brought!)

Our busy weekend continued with Mike's family the day after Christmas. We decorated sugar cookies with the kids, had a wonderful meal, shared gifts and spent some wonderful time together. It was great that everyone was able to be there together, it is really hard to find a day when all the guys are off since they work different shifts. It always seems like someone is missing. But not this year :)

We hope that your Christmas was as great as ours, but hopefully a little less crazy ;) As the new year approaches, we hope that everyone has a great 2010 and we are excited to see what it holds for us.

Where does the time go?

I don't know what is happening this holiday season, but I feel like it was Thanksgiving and then I blinked and it is the week before Christmas! I have no idea why, but adding Caleb into the mix has completely thrown us for a loop and we are not nearly as organized or scheduled as we were before. Oh well, I swear we will get into a groove sooner or later!

Anyway, we have been very busy getting ready for the holiday season, a favorite for our whole family. We went and got our Christmas tree a little later than usual this year because we were waiting to go with Michael's brother and his girlfriend. We had a lot of fun walking around all the trees searching for the right one. Mike and I thought we had found one, until Kylie burst our bubble and decided it was 'too prickly'. So off we went to find another. Mike said we could have stuck with the original instead of letting a three year old dictate our tree choice. But my thinking is the holidays are about the kids and if a different tree would make her happy, then it's a small battle lost! By the end of day we had found our trees and after cutting them down, the boys happily carried them to be bundled!

The day after our tree extravaganza, we went to a Christmas party for my mother's legion. Kylie had a blast playing the games and Caleb ending up sleeping through most of it. Santa and Mrs. Claus came towards the end of the party and Kylie was excited to see Santa....from a distance! She wanted nothing to do with him, but we did convince her to sit on Mrs. Claus' lap for a picture... with a death grip on Grandma. Caleb on the other hand had no problem sitting with Santa. He smiled and talked and blew raspberries for him.

Since that fun weekend, it has been days filled with shopping, present wrapping, playing in the snow, Christmas movies and cookie making. All the trademarks of the holidays. I can't believe that Christmas is just one week away!

Tis the season...

...to ring the bells!

On black friday, while everyone else was out hunting bargains, we were out ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. Caleb stayed behind as we figured his attention span just wasn't there yet, but Kylie hung in there for three hours of ringing the bells and filling the kettle. We signed up through the fire dept who always has a major shift competition to see who can raise the most money for the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army does a lot for the fire dept; when the have fires or major accidents they come out to give them snacks/meals/drinks or assist the families affected by the incident. So, this is the departments way to give back. We had a lot of fun and all the shoppers seemed to enjoy seeing Kylie out there and she enjoyed it as well!