Our Christmas

Christmas Eve we settled in for a cozy evening at home. We snuggled up on the couch to watch The Polar Express and the girls opened some new pajamas and robes. Mommy made some "coal" for their stockings once they were in bed and Daddy brought down all the gifts Santa has been storing in our closets.  

In the morning the girls opened their presents.  Almost every photo I got was somewhat blurry because they were blowing through the wrapping paper so fast. 

By the time it was over we were all starving! We had our Christmas breakfast and it was a feast. Hashbrown Casserole (like Cracker Barrel's), biscuits egg and cheese, breakfast meat, fruit, and sour cream coffee cake. 

Nathan got the girls a Lego Advent Calendar and it has been the highlight of their day to open the  box each day and put together a little Lego figure. We told them that starting on Christmas they could start playing with the Lego set so after breakfast, they were way excited to get started on that. 

So, this was the first half of the day...the girls opening presents and chowing down on our breakfast. We had a few hours before Nathan's family was coming over so we started on our food for dinner. Nathan was making homemade stuffing (which smelled so good!) and I was trying a new potato dish called Cream Potatoes (yum - just potatoes cooked with cream and butter for 2 hours until a cream sauce cooks up around the potatoes. Highly recommend it!). We also made some cookies and a pimento cheese ball.  When all that was ready, Nathan and I actually took a few minutes to open our presents to each other while we watched "Elf." 
Before long the family had arrived so we opened more presents and had dinner. 

Everyone crashed that night. It was such a busy day but one of the best days of the year when we get to spend time with family.  The next day the girls got to play with their toys and just had a blast trying new things.  Santa really did a great job picking out toys!

This last one is a gift I got from my father-in-law  - a pie box!  He made one for me and my sister-in-law. Isn't it cute?!

A great Christmas so far. Looking forward to seeing my family next week!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Here we are at the week before Christmas! I don't know if it's because we don't have any snow yet or the temps haven't been that cold, but it has really put me in the Christmas spirit :)  We've had fun doing some pre-Christmas activities the last few days.

First of all, one cannot properly celebrate Christmas without a new pair of Christmas pajamas. We gave the girls each a new pair and they loved them. I think Megan wore hers for three days straight until they were so covered with cookie dough that I had to peel them off her and throw them in the laundry.

The girls were in the church Christmas play. They were angels (great casting, right?) so they just had to be on the stage and look cute in their costumes. Easy Peasy.  After church they were very excited that their Sabbath School teachers got them Christmas presents to open this week.  They really love their Sabbath School classes and teachers and it was a fun surprise to get the presents.

The next day the girls also got dressed up in their Christmas dresses again to see Santa. We usually go much earlier in the season but this year time got away from us and we realized that we were just days before Christmas. I seriously considered skipping this year because I just hate crowds and lines and finding parking spots at busy shopping malls. Thankfully Somerset Collection starts their Santa visits an hour before the mall opens, so we got up early on Sunday and were in line at 8am. (Nathan and his mom were taking a baking class so it was just me and the girls.)  It was still a wait, but not as bad as I feared. The girls loved seeing Santa and were so excited to get some coins to spend at stores in the mall. (We ended up getting cookies at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company and packets of hot chocolate at Hallmark.)  

Since we hadn't eaten breakfast yet we stopped at Burger King for some egg and cheese sandwiches, hashbrowns, and french toast sticks.  It was a fun mommy-daughter morning!

                    
                      ...and yes, Chloe is drinking the leftover syrup in this picture. Later I found Megan eating the rest of the ketchup so I guess my kids love their condiments.

When we got home we took a few more pictures and finished the Christmas project we'd started the night before. (Those are our mall cookies in the photo of our project.)

Best time of the year!

Florida Trip 2014

We had a great flight down to Florida! The girls are finally an age where they are starting to entertain themselves a bit. (No joke - I actually read the free airline magazine during the flight.)  After take-off we had some snacks, played iPad, and did some coloring.  We may have covered Megan with stickers. Random stuff like that. But it worked and before long we were on the ground in Tampa.  Dad and Chris met us at the airport and we went to their house for a yummy lunch (mashed potatoes and gravy, meatballs, yummmm). After settling in and tooling around on the golf cart we decided to get some more grub so we headed to The Ice Cream Dr for a supper of hotdogs and ice cream. It was so good to see the "Florida family" again and...it's always good to eat hotdogs and ice cream :)

For our first full day of vacation we headed over to St. Augustine to see the sites. It was cloudy, WINDY, and cool so no swimming (boo!) but we had a chance to see some really, really old buildings which always make my inner history geek very happy. Our first stop was the Castillo De San Marcos - a big fort centuries old. We didn't go inside but we walked around and had fun seeing everything and taking pictures.  Nearby was the St. Augustine Lighthouse - again, didn't pay to go in ($10 a person?!)  but I managed to get a nice photo and a pretty goofy selfie. We also had a chance to explore the downtown area. I saw several old cemeteries (love those) and we tried some super delish treats. I saw a restaurant called "French Fry Heaven" so we sampled some of those (like we could pass it up, right?) We topped off our day with a trolley ride through town to see the Christmas lights. They even gave us special glasses so the lights looked like snowflakes. So cute! Plus Santa was waiting for us at the end with sugar cookies and cider.

Monday was our day to do nothing.  Dad and Chris had offered to watch the kids so Nathan and I could have some free time. While Grandpa and Grandma put the spoiling into high gear, Nathan and I hopped in the golf cart and stopped at the town square in their village. We saw a movie and tried a new restaurant ("Las Tapas"). Yum!  Afterward we finalized our planning for our two days in Orlando and went to bed a little early to prepare for our early day. 

 Here are some shots of our lunch at Las Tapas. So delish!

Tuesday and Wednesday were our big days in Orlando. We decided to just do one day at Disney so we got up really, really early (5:30!...on vacation!) so we could be at the gates of Magic Kingdom when they opened at 8am.  We high-tailed it to the back of the park, maneuvering through the crowds in time to get in line for our number one ride - the new dwarfs mine ride. It was a worth it. Great ride!  (BTW, is 39 too old to change careers to football? because based on the way I move through a crowd, I have some sweet offensive moves and could show the Lions a few things...) Meanwhile at the front of the park (by the castle) they were filming the Disney parade that is supposed to air on Christmas so the crowds didn't make it to the back of the park until closer to lunchtime. We got to go on several rides and see a bunch of characters without waiting. If every day at Disney were like this, I'd go all the time. It wasn't too hot, almost no lines, not crowded. HEAVEN. After lunch we headed over to Epcot to hit a few rides and walk around the world showcase. At this point our 5:30am wake up was starting to kick in and wear us down so we decided to take the monorail back to our car and check into our resort. We stayed one night at the Port Orleans -French Quarter. Thank goodness they had a food court right next to our building so we unpacked, got dinner, and hit the sack.

Our Character breakfast wasn't scheduled until 10am so we got some extra sleep Tuesday night. We needed it! (I had my Fitbit on and it recorded 17,847 steps on Tuesday!)  Cape May Cafe (at the Yacht Club) was not far away from our resort so we drove over and had a few minutes before our table was ready. They had a carousel made of gingerbread and chocolate! I love how Disney does stuff like this at Christmas time :)  The food was really good (I didn't realize I liked grits until I ate their cheesy grits - come to mama!) and as a bonus we sat down just as the characters were coming around so by the time we left, we saw each one twice. The girls were so excited - I mean they were chanting Donald Duck's name in the aisle while he was at the next table. Seriously, my kids have an unusual level of excitement for these characters.  Once we were done stuffing ourselves, we did some walking and headed over to Downtown Disney. The girls saw Santa and we were able to do some Christmas shopping. Consumed a hot fudge sundae.  More Christmas shopping.  A full day!

After our two days in Orlando we were so so tired! We got back Wednesday night and had another good sleep session.  We had a light breakfast and then took the golf cart over to Dunkin' Donuts to get a donut and salted caramel hot chocolate. We met up with Dad and Chris at some of the other shops and had lunch {warning: we do a lot of eating on this day} at a new deli. While at lunch we remembered that we were going to take Dad and Chris to their first trip to The Melting Pot. Realizing that night was our last chance, we made reservations and headed to Ocala. It was a bit of an adventure once we were at the restaurant (the kids, oil that wouldn't heat, etc.) but we had a nice time and had some super good food. The restaurant was on a town square and when we came out there was a holiday party with Santa, the Grinch, and a ton of lighted trees. It was super pretty! 

By Friday, full on depression had hit because it was our last day.  There is just never enough time to fit in all the fun stuff we think of to do!  We ran over to The Ice Cream Dr one more time for a quick lunch (and scoop of ice cream) and then met more family for dinner at City Fire (one of our favorite restaurants to eat at in Florida).  It was a nice, relaxing day.

Headed home! The girls took the news very hard (Chloe collapsed on the floor when I told her to get in the car and Megan threw a full-on tantrum when she saw her pack-n-play put away) but all vacations have to end. We always look forward to our trips to Florida and can't wait to go back!