Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Amber decided to have Christmas at the cabin again so my mom & Mark had our family Christmas dinner/party the week before Christmas.  We had our good friends the Drapers join us.  Lois brought this saran wrap ball as one of our party games.  The kids loved it!

On actual Christmas Eve we went to the mall for a bit and delivered our last 12 days of Christmas surprises to the Pearsons. 

 We had the Drapers and my mom over for dinner, but the Drapers were over an hour late so we finally ate dinner without them and they ate our leftovers when they got here.

 We played games until late and then I read a bedtime story to the kids before heading out to go look at Christmas lights.

 We drove around to our 3 favorite houses that are close by.

 The kids wrote the cutest letters to Santa earlier in the month.

 Christmas morning is always so fun because the kids are so excited to come pouncing up the stairs to see what Santa brought!

Whitney got a beautiful Journey doll.

 The kids have been playing make believe PJ Masks for months and each of them got a costume in their stocking to be able to get more into their make believe!

This year Tommy felt like he was too big for toys so I was thrilled when just weeks before Christmas he ran into this Batman village and all 3 kids were dying to have it so he put it on his Santa list.

 He was really excited when he first spotted it, then acted like he was too big for it, then the next day he was stuck playing on it all morning.  I want him to stay a kid forever!

 Tucker got a Paw Patrol bike and another big vehicle.  I thought he'd be more excited about the bike because he needed a bigger one, but we could never find a Paw Patrol one big enough for him, but he was obsessed with the Robo Dog vehicle instead! 

 After Santa presents, Vic and I made breakfast... traditional themed pancakes.

 After breakfast we all got ready and then opened presents.

 Whitney got a karaoke machine so our Christmas day was spent trying that out and hearing the kids sing.  It made it extra festive!

 Grandma got the kids a PJ Mask tower so they hovered over that for hours too.

Cabin Magic

We went up to the cabin the weekend before Christmas and it was so wonderful!  There was piles of fresh powder and giant snow flakes fell all weekend long.

 I finally got Destiny to come up.  It was fun having her and her kids there!

 The kids had fun jumping off the tree house into the soft snow.

 We worked on our track down the stairs.

 The only down side to the powder was that when we went cruising around the trails, it threw a ton of snow in your face!!

Jingles the Elf

We got an elf to come visit our house!  His name was Jingles and the kids LOVED him!  He brought the excitement of Christmas morning to our house all month long.  He did a lot of funny and clever things to make us all laugh.

 Whitney wrote him lots of notes.

 He taught all the stuffies that he was there to play and be friends.

 He brought us pajamas.

 We didn't have time to decorate our tree with all the work we were doing so he did it for us this year!

 The kids had a sleepover together and when they awoke, Jingles and his friends had joined them in the night.

 With all the work we were doing, the kids got pretty naughty and were fighting a lot so Jingles sent us this warning letter that got Tommy to shape up right away.  Whitney struggled a bit more.

 Jingles made Tommy a birthday card.

 Jingles brought us treats to make Christmas popcorn.

 We never learned the name of his friend that would come and cause trouble with him.  She only showed up once in awhile.