Christmas Day

 Christmas morning is always so fun! The kids woke up and ran in to make sure Santa had been to the house! They were super excited to see he left a bag for them along with full stockings and a note! So Dan read the note to them and then they dug into their stockings.

 Santa always brings lots of candy!

 Next, they got to open their gifts from Santa.

 A new baby that had diapers to change!

 A super cool marble track kit

 A real working cash register!

 The cutest little fish on wheels!

 Then we all settled down to open all the presents under the tree from everyone. It's chaos and crazy and I wouldn't have it any other way!

 After spending the day playing and eating, we loaded up to go see the new Star Wars movie at the drive in. It was super cold, but it was so fun! We met up with some friends who saved us with their homemade and delicious hot chocolate! It was the perfect night!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve!!! My sweet little elf is helping me get the cookies and milk ready for Santa!

 Every Christmas Eve we try to go out to a nicer restaurant for dinner (nicer but still family friendly!) This year we chose P.F. Chang's. We love this place but it is definitely on the "nicer" side for us! So we all got dressed up and headed over for a yummy dinner that everyone loved and that I didn't have to clean up!!

The day before, this was poor Lucy. She had been sick for a while and when I got her in to the pediatrician, she had RSV which is a virus that attacks the lungs and causes labored breathing. She had a breathing treatment in the doctor's office and got an inhaler to take at home along with some other medications. As you can see, she was feeling much better by the following day!

Early Christmas

 We decided to let the boys have one of their presents a little early. They assumed the present was outside but when they ran out to look, they were disappointed, hence the photo.

 But once we clarified that their present was in the garage, we got this!!!

 They had been wanting this silly karate cat that swings nunchucks around and sings a song. So he was sitting on top of their "new" Powerwheels Jeep! We found this beauty on Craigslist for a decent price and it was big enough to haul both of them around.

 Everyone had to try it out!

 The plan was to buy it, let the kids see it and then have them help fix it up. They had a lot of fun and it turned out pretty cute once it was all painted!

Ben is super thrilled!

Parent Fail

 So we heard about this cute house near us, where the owners decorate their entire house for Christmas, dress up as Santa, offer hot chocolate & cookies and welcome kids on weekends.  Oh, and their house is basically a mansion. And this was the last year they were going to do it due to their ages and health. So we decided to give it a shot and try it out while we had the chance. It turned out to be a giant parent fail. We got there and the entire neighborhood was basically shut down due to all the traffic. We had to park super far away and walk up a lot of long hills in the dark to get there. Oh, and I had dressed the kids in their jammies since I thought that would be fun. It was cold, it rained on us several times during the HOUR AND A HALF we waited in a giant line to get in. Then I'm guessing we built it up too much in our heads, because we were disappointed and thought the whole thing was a bit weird. Didn't see Santa, didn't see any hot chocolate or cookies. But we made some memories. Oh and when we got home, I discovered that Lucy and Henry were running high fevers. Oops.

 My not so happy campers.