Our first successful Santa visit!

It has been our tradition for the past 3 years that we go to Noni Jones's work the Saturday before Christmas to see Santa, Mrs. Claus and Rudolph. There is a lot of anticipation for this day, but then the day comes and you never know what will happen....

The kids saw Rudolph right away in the hallway and ran up to him for a big hug....

Last year, there were terrified of him!

 Here they are anxiously waiting in line.

 When it was their turn, there was NO hesitation!

They walked right up. AMAZING!

Avery, of course, helped her little brother along. 

 Here they are on Santa's lap...happy as can be! 

This marks the first year that they both cooperated and were happy and comfortable with the jolly old man! I feel a lot less guilty about making them sit on his lap from now on. 

Christmas Chapel at Preschool

The week before Christmas, the kids celebrated at their preschool. 

Avery's Christmas Chapel was first  and it was a pretty big production. 

She was a shepherd made from an old towel and other random items...  

 This is quite possibly the cutest manger scene I have ever seen!  

 Later that week was Grayson's Christmas Chapel. This was just in his classroom rather than the big sanctuary like Avery's, and even Daddy got to go to this one.  These 2 year olds did awesome! They each stayed on their little mats and attempted to sing the songs, although most of the singing was done by the teachers. Gray later told us that the girl next to him is his girlfriend (just so happens that her name is Avery!)

 His performance was rewarded with a snowman donut. This boy loves to eat!

Pink-a-licious!

Since it was a snowy day and we knew we wouldn't be going out anywhere, it was the perfect day to finally paint Avery's room! Plus, we REALLY wanted her to stop asking us about it!

Would you expect any other color than pink? 

 Grayson lent a hand as well (sometimes I forget when I get my camera out that Grayson is often only wearing a diaper around the house....even in the winter)

 Wowza! Here is the finished product! It's not quite this bright in real life, but it sure does brighten the room up! Next task is adding polka dots per Avery's request. That should tone it down a bit.

We can't thank MomMom and Daddy enough for spending their whole day doing this and working so hard to make this little girl happy!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Last Saturday morning was pretty magical...just as the first snowflakes of another snow storm started to fall, sirens blared and Santa came riding down our street on a big fire engine! 

He came bearing a candy cane and an apple for all of the kids.  

 Our kids 

(plus the boy from across the street who jumped in the picture).

Apparently, lots of places do this but it was totally a new concept for us and very exciting as this kind of thing NEVER happened at our old house! Add it to the list of things we love about our new neighborhood!!  

Our Bakers

It was cookie baking day and the kids wanted to help. Unwrapping kisses is THE best job for them!! It's easy, it keeps them quiet, it's clean and they can both do it with no help from me.

 I guess I didn't want long enough for the cookies to cool. That warm, melty Hershey kiss on top made for quite the mustache!

 The next morning, we found Pickle like this....

 Avery wasn't sure what to think about this...did Pickle poop out a Hershey kiss onto the cookie?!?

 Around mid-morning, we realized that Pickle had fallen off of his cookie....and since he loses his magic if you touch him, we had to leave him there until nighttime!

Letters to Santa

It's official...the kids have written their letters to Santa and they are on their way to the North Pole!

Here is Grayson's letter..... The only thing he really wants is a "choo choo," but we made him come up with something else too.

Here is Avery's letter....

 Interpretation: "Dear Santa....Mirror, spin toothbrush and bedspread. Avery."

Gingerbread-ish houses

I will never forget what Avery said to us after trick or treating this Halloween..."I can't wait to save my candy to make a gingerbread house!"

We let the kids eat the Halloween candy for about a week and then the rest goes into a box for our gingerbread houses, which are really just graham crackers stuck together with frosting. It's a great way to get rid of the candy, especially the things we don't like.  (I will admit that I did buy the fruit loops just for the purpose of this project because I thought they would look great).  If you were questioning the object on the right/middle...yes, it is a fortune cookie! Random I know.

Daddy make the basic structure. Then we each took a child and bag of frosting, let them direct us on where to pipe the frosting and they put the candy on. They were ready to go...even Guster!

 Here is the difference between Avery and Grayson. Avery accidentally gets frosting on her finger and she asks permission to lick it off. Grayson just digs right in and purposefully puts his fingers in it.

  

 They were both very proud of their work!

 Can you tell who made which one? 

 Later that night, Pickle wanted to join in the fun. He left a message in frosting and even got it on his nose...

Pickle has arrived!

Oops...my pictures were a little out of order....

On Thanksgiving morning, we got an early morning visitor! Our friendly elf on the shelf, Pickle, who first came into our family last year, made his much anticipated return! Avery spotted him instantly on the fireplace when we came downstairs for breakfast.

Serious conversations were had with Pickle.

He left a note along with a gift for each child...

 snowflakes to hang their stockings on (never needed these before since we had no fireplace!)

 Mommy and Daddy LOVE this little guy so much! He brings peace to our home, if only for a few short weeks, as we always remind the kids that "Pickle is watching" when they are being naughty.

Levine Tree Lighting

After Bethlehem's tree lighting, we had our own tree lighting at home.  Daddy did all the hard work that morning putting it up and then it was up to Mommy and the kids to decorate it.  

Avery was quite helpful this year...

 Grayson enjoyed stacking the ornament boxes

 and perfecting his "cheesy smile" for the camera.

 Here it is, presented by Avery!

 This is the first year that we didn't have to stuff the tree in a corner of the room, so were able to hang ALL of our ornaments!  The tree actually looks a bit small for our living room. We'll have to go bigger next year!

It's Christmastime in the Christmas City

There is nothing better than living in the Christmas City at Christmastime (well, except for the fact that it gets very touristy and busy downtown), but it is absolutely beautiful! 

The day after Thanksgiving is the traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony outside of our library. We bear the cold as a local high school band plays while we drink hot chocolate and sing Christmas carols. Cousin Madi met us there this year...

and a few other friends were made too.

Getting a better view on Great Uncle Bobby's shoulders.

The fireworks were an unexpected surprise this year!

Here it is....

A bit blurry, but here is a picture of our family in front of the tree....

And Avery and Madi under it.

Then we took a stroll along main street and on the way passed a horse and carriage. One year, we are going to actually ride one!