Christmas Eve

 This year I hosted Christmas Eve for the first time & I LOVED it!  It was probably one of my favorite Christmas Eves that I can remember.  The kids and I went to the mall during the day & soaked up some holiday spirit & played at the play area.  We then went & got some fun table decorations from Michael's & went home to set up for dinner.  The table turned out really cute!

We had my Dad & Lana over for dinner & they were such fun company.  

Everyone was in a great Christmas mood :)

Vic requested a Mexican Fiesta for dinner so I made Cafe Rio style salads & enchiladas w/ chips & dips.

 Kids in their Christmas cheer

 Dad & Lana surprised me with an awesome triple crock pot warmer for party serving & a few other gifts.  My favorite was a digital book dad made about his dog.  It was adorable!  Here he is reading it to the kids. It was a great idea & I hope to make something like it soon!

I made Dad this painting to replace the one that was fading out in his hallway. (I made the old one in 9th grade!)

This was my first sunset painting & it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be!

 Here is the kids in their new pj's.  Thank goodness Grandpa got those rocket pj's for Tommy because he wasn't too happy with the ones that I picked out!  (I don't know why, he loves them now, but I think mainly he was upset that Tucker got Thomas. I knew that might happen before hand, but they don't make Thomas in Tommy's size!)

 After Grandma & Grandpa went home it started to snow big beautiful snowflakes.  It made it more magical to go walk around in as we looked at the lights!

It's the hap, happiest time of the year!

Christmas time is the best!  I don't care that it is TONS of work & lack of sleep because it truly is the happiest time of the year for me!  Here is what made our December special...

This year I did the kids' 1st advent calendar.  I didn't want them to have candy every day so I saran wrapped a bunch of cheap Christmas themed toys & they got to open one each night & play with it.

 One night it was blinking Rudolph noses... or eye balls :)

 I really dislike having to do a Christmas card, but receiving them & being to stare at all the people I love all in one spot for a month is the best!

 Christmas Crafting!  I love the ones from Vic's store because I don't have to prep for them & they are still fun for the kids.  It's fun that Whitney & Tommy are growing into little crafters.  It really bothered them that I let Tucker's snow man stay incomplete & crazy looking.

Christmas lights & decorations!  We had a Christmas wonderland going on in our house! Here are a few of our new ones this year.  A outdoor countdown and a white tree.  I love the neon ornaments, but they don't show up on a green tree & our new house has the big windows on the back of the house so I broke down & got a white one for the front window.

 SNOW!  Another wonderful thing about Christmas is building snowmen!  (with hot chocolate afterward!)

 We made Christmas popcorn, Grinch fruit heads, & watched the Grinch... and lots of other Christmas kid movies! :)

Christmas Programs.  I know they are cheesy, but I LOVE it!  Here Tommy is with his buddy from preschool.

 Family Parties!  I love being able to see extended family at Christmas time!

 Christmas Goodies.  Okay, so my hips are not happy, but look at this feast!  It is just as delicious as it looks!!! I love Christmas candy!

 Presents!  Vic's sister-in-law did the 12 days of Christmas for us this year & we LOVED it!  It made me realize that I never let anyone surprise me & it was fun having gifts that I didn't pick out.  The suspense killed me!  I never want to waste money on gifts I won't use so I always pick them out, but it really was a lot of fun to be surprised too!

My 1st Ballet Class!

I had so much fun teaching my 1st ballet class!  I took a million pictures because girls are just so adorable in a tutu so it was hard to narrow down what pictures to keep! (why it's been so long since I blogged last!) I had 7 girls & Tommy.  We practiced in a lot of spots!  Here we are upstairs using my railing as a ballet barre'.

Downstairs worked best because it was so big & open.

 Here we are at the church on parents day so they could all come & take pictures.  The girls are so little they did best when we were in a circle. After that chaos usually broke out! 

 Center floor exercises

 Freestyle dancing at the end

 RECITAL TIME!

For Tommy's solo he danced to the dance of the Russians from the Nutcracker.  He had some boxes & trampoline on stages & did lots of "cool moves"!  He told me that he wanted to make sure his song & lights made him look like "a rock star".   He is funny.  His friend & cousin that came to watch him told him he was so cool & they loved his dance so that warmed my heart :)  It was really fun for him & not girly at all (as Vic was worried about it being).

 The girls main recital song was "Do you want to build a snowman" from Frozen so Tommy was the snowman. 

 

 Each kid got to do a solo & I was so busy I never got a picture of Whitney in her solo outfit.  She did a song from the Nutcracker as well.  I thought she looked like a cute little sugar plum fairy.

 Getting hyped up before the recital!!

 Our first group song was all of the moves they learned this year.  Tommy didn't want to be a part of that because it was too girly :)  Whitney is the 3rd from the left.

 Snowman time!  I was so happy because their final performance was their best yet of any practices!

 I gave all of the girls flowers afterwards & I am glad I did because they all LOVED it!

 We also had an ice cream party for all of our proud supporters!  Whitney & Tommy had both great grandmas there, a cousin, 2 friends, & Grandma & pa Van Sickle.  I wish I would have got a picture of our big support group!  It was fun & they were adorable! :)  

Tommy's Birthday Trip- A REAL Train Ride!

On Tommy's birthday morning we were at a hotel so he got to eat whatever he wanted.  He picked muffins & waffles.

 Afterward, we went swimming in the pool.  I wish we had a decent indoor pool here in Idaho Falls to go to.  It was nice to get back swimming!

 Vic insisted we eat at his favorite restaurant, Tucanos.  It was super yummy as always.

 And finally, the reason for the trip... The Polar Express ride!!!

 This moment was SOOOO exciting for Tommy to have his ticket punched by a real conductor! 

 We had lots of visitors, songs, jokes to help pass the time. Mrs. Clause brought us her own home made cookies & hot chocolate.  Tommy said this was his favorite part.

 There was so much build up to seeing Santa at the North Pole, but with such a warm December, it seemed a bit cheesy.  I'm sure it's much more magical with snow all over!

 I even googled & found a restaurant in Salt Lake that Tommy could eat inside a train for dinner!

 On our way home we stopped at Temple Square to see the lights.

I've never been there when it was this packed.  It was practically shoulder to shoulder so I feel like we didn't enjoy it as much because we were too busy crowd weaving instead of light viewing.  I still liked it to help talk to our kids about the true meaning of Christmas.  Which reminds me.  On Christmas Eve, first thing I said to Tommy was "Merry Christmas Eve!" and he replied back, "you mean Happy Birthday to Jesus, Mom." Ha, he is so sweet to remember that over presents!

 My favorite part was the big pond with floating lights.  I'd sure love to have a romantic dinner next to something like this!