I think my New Years Resolution should include posting on a more regular basis!! Anyway, December is always a very busy month with all of the activity surrounding Christmas.
We kicked off the season with "Pancakes with Santa" which was a fundraiser that the United Way puts on every year. For $5 a person you get a pancake breakfast and the kids get to visit with Santa. All of the proceeds go the gift drive for needy kids so well worth it.
Eliana still loves showing off her lost teeth!
Mimi, ever the cautious and shy one, was not so sure about Santa. When in fact she met him last year while she was in the hospital. This is the same Santa who brought her a Teddy Bear last year during her stay there.
Of course after visiting with Santa we had to go pick out our Christmas tree. Andrew decided it would be much faster to put the tree inside the vvehicle instead of on top so the girls had a squishy ride home, but they smelled nicely of pine!
Decorating the tree is always fun for the girls..and then I have to sneak back in and redistribute the ornaments higher than three feet.
Finished product!
Eliana's school had a Christmas workshop one Friday night. We got to go on a horse drawn sleigh ride in the woods, decorate cookies, make ornaments, sing Christmas songs and
visit with Santa!! The same Santa we saw at the fundraiser and the hospital. This guy must love this time of year!
I decorated the upstairs tree. I selfishly do it all by myself at night once the girls are asleep!
Then we made a Gingerbread Village. Eliana likes to sample all of the building supplies.
Andrew hard at work. His house was very creative!
Mimi even did some landscaping. Her reindeer needed some bushes she said.
Mimi's school does an annual K-1 and Kindergarten Christmas performance. It was fun watching them sing. Meirah did a great job, she knew all of the songs but had a perpetual look of being unimpressed.
On Christmas Eve we opened the gifts we gave each other. This year I wanted to make sure the girls were able to buy a small gift for each other and us so that they learned the joy of gift giving. I also gave them their pillow pets from Andrew and I because every year I do all of the work and Santa gets all of the credit!
Ready for Christmas morning.
Eliana thought Santa must be really hungry and gave him all of the cookies we made which then had to hidden away so that her feelings wouldn't be hurt because Santa didn't eat her cookies.
Christmas morning arrived at 4:30 AM. After the opening Andrew and went back off to bed. When I came back down later I found them on the couch watching their new Toy Story movie with their toys heaped around them and chocolate candy wrappers strewn all around. I believe I would call that success. I broke down this year and got them American Girl Dolls. Due to the outrageous price I was holding out until they were older and bale to take care of them. I scared Eliana so badly with talk about taking care of their dolls that she was afraid to play with it at first!!
The day after Christmas we headed to Duluth to see Grandpa and Great Grandma Jean and Great Grandpa Russ. Mimi scored some desired ice skates and Eliana felt very grown up with her first MP3 player.
All in all a wonderful and joyful holiday season!!!
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