Christmas is a magical time! First the magic comes in getting your family to pose for a Christmas card. On Black Friday, I had to work. I got an email about a sale for Christmas cards. I had this idea to model the cover of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." When I got home from work, I mentioned it to Andrew and he said, "Sure let's do it." So we picked out our clothes for the shoot. We dressed the kids first and then ourselves. While we were getting ready, Charlotte grabbed a tub of vaseline and smeared it on her face and in her bangs. Yikes! I cleaned her up the best I could. We posed and set the camera to take 10 continuous shots. It took 6 tries but we got the shot!
Well we got the shot that I filtered and cropped the crap out of until it looked just right. :-)
Would you like to see some outtakes? Here's a focus shot while I set up the camera. I'm a big fan of this one actually.
Here's a lovely one. Don't you like the hallway doors open so you can see in our closet? Also, the kids are hogging the light! ;-)
Mom's gotta fix her hair. Dada is rolling his eyes. :)
Soooooo how did we do? I think it turned out pretty great. We got a lot of compliments. I wish you could see more of Tommy's face but after vaseline, 60 pictures, and everyone sweating, we were ready to be DONE.
So quick little side note, speaking of work (terrible segue btw), I planned the District Christmas party. I swear I planned 57 parties this month between work, Tommy's birthday and Christmas. Sheesh. This party, just like all of them, turned out fantastic!
So on Sunday after our last Thanksgiving, we put up our tree and Christmas lights. Tommy put the star on the tree as the finishing touch.
We had a new tree this year thanks to Aunt Laura, Uncle Andy and cousin David. The kids loved decorating it.
They had a Giving Tree at school where we basically purchased presents for the classroom. I pulled a Barbie doll. So I bought a Veterinarian Barbie complete with a small puppy to doctor up. They were excited!
I also purchased a fire station set for the after school kids class.
We discovered a Christmas app on our cable box so they kids were able to do a little Christmas karaoke.
On Christmas eve, we made Christmas sugar cookies with Grandma Katie's old cookie cutters. I also used an egg substitute that was made out of chia and flaxseed. Odd but it actually made the cookies rise! Amazing! The texture was great and the taste wasn't that bad either. (I will have to try a cake next!)
They had fun making a mess, I mean, icing cookies.
But mostly they just loved eating them.
They turned out quite beautiful, huh?
After the kids went to bed, Santa came and laid out all kinds of goodies. Santa doesn't wrap his presents (thank goodness!) so it didn't take too long. However in the middle of it, Tommy came downstairs after having a bad dream. I have never moved so fast in my life. I don't think he saw Santa or anything since he was pretty out of it but WOW was I freaked out. Oh notice the movie on TV? We finally own it now instead of looking for it on tv every year.
In the morning, the kids were very excited!!
They love their tent and Poppy Troll doll and remote controlled T-Rex. Charlotte also got the necklace that Moana wears and Tommy got Maui's fishhook. They must have been super good this year!
I think Charlotte thinks so!!
After we opened presents, we sat and ate some Christmas Divvies Chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
We headed to my parents house on Christmas Day for Keiper Christmas. If you would have told me last Christmas that I wouldn't be hosting and that we would be celebrating Christmas IN TOWN, I would have slapped you silly. But here we are! This is one of the only pictures I took all day. The kids were playing Just Dance. Charlotte was INTO IT! But she didn't really understand how to play so much. :-)
Here's the other proof of our Christmas that day. Photo cred to Brother Adam. Lovely picture.
The following day, we headed down to Westfield for Thornburg Christmas. I was so happy we were able to get a picture of the grandkiddos and their grandparents!
Here's a cousin pic too! So sweet! Wyatt doesn't know what to think. :-)
Here's one that shows a little bit more candid personality. Ha!
We did a gift card exchange and we skyped in Cait and Scott for the occasion.
One last sweet picture of Pop and Charlotte looked at the beautiful Christmas tree.
We really had a magical, wonderful Christmas this year. We hope you did too! Merry Christmas!
My love/hate relationship with the Elf on the Shelf has reignited this year. It was hard to remember in the beginning but we set a reminder and that helped. Tommy named our elf Jac this year. Not Jack, but Jac. He spelled it for me. :)
Jac arrived with a letter saying, "You have too many dang toys! Get rid of some and give them to other kids!" in much more polite phrasing of course.
Jac decided to take the kids dirty jammies and string them through the living room. How dare that little stinkpot?
But then he started behaving a little better. He rode on one of Tommy's dinosaurs.
He also married Princess Anna. Charlotte loved that one.
He hung on the microwave one day. The next day he fell off. So then he had to heal his boo boo.
So basically if you put M&Ms in water, the M's will float to the top. Crazy right? Explanation is in the link above.
After the M&Ms, the elf decided to remind the kids to regularly brush their teeth.
Tommy mentioned that he really hoped the elf would take a bath in marshmallows again so guess what happened?? Marshmallow bath time!
Near the end, I was losing momentum so he basically just dressed up in the toys clothes. Strange indeed.
The kids really enjoyed it so I have to say I enjoyed it too. It's hard to remember each day but it is fun to see the kids run down first thing in the morning to find him. They love the tradition. :-)
Holy Moses! Sorry, Readers! You have nine posts to read. Good luck to you! But hey I got caught up all in one night. It's a new personal record. Nine posts in one night!
Anyway, we held Thornburg Christmas on New Year's Day. The first Thornburg Christmas got cancelled due to a little man being sick. Poor Wyatt Charles! But he was better for the second scheduled date.
Uncle Andrew was excited to snuggle with baby Wyatt.
Everyone was actually! He's the snuggliest!! He's getting so big!
We tried to get a picture of the grandparents with the grandkids but Charlotte stopped that from happening. She wanted to be by Mama or Dada. So instead, we did a three generations picture. It turned out really nice! My favorite part is definitely the light saber though. We had an awesome Christmas with our traditional Outback meal which was deeeeelish. Christmas with family is always too short. Seriously, Tommy is right. Why can't Christmas be everyday? ;-)
A minute and a half of Charlotte's favorite songs. I have no idea of what some of them are. She was definitely stalling because she didn't want to eat dinner.
Someone wanna run around with me? If not, I'm going to continue to run around in circles!!!!
After awhile, Christmas gets to the best of us. Then the fighting begins. I love how Tommy sees us starting to laugh at them pointing at each other and crying out each other names and he gets over whatever he's mad or sad about and starts goofing off again.
These little stinkers.
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. What a wonderfully lazy day we had watching movies.
The massive amount of cards with family pictures were hung on each side of our archway with care. I do love our Christmas cards every year. Displaying them is the best part.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds. Can you believe they slept in until 7:30 that morning? It was a Christmas miracle!
With visions of "It's a Wonderful Life" danced on our TV and "sugarplums" clinked in our drink glasses. I sobbed. Again. Andrew hadn't ever seen the beginning where he saved his brother and kept the druggist from poisoning that kid. Nor had he seen the stars/constellations/angels talking in the beginning either. It cracked him up a bit.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter.... Just kidding. Tommy got up and snuck into our room and whispered quietly, "Have I slept long enough for Santa to come?" I told him he did great. We got Charlotte up and the kids came downstairs to see their loot. They were so calm. They are still learning about this whole Santa thing. Tommy is still in disbelief I think.
Charlotte settled her brains for a long Christmas morning nap. She LOVED her Mimi presents.
When what do their wondering eyes should appear?? Not only presents but full stockings too! Look what we got, Mama!
I just realized that Charlotte grabbed a pair of my underwear from the laundry and put them on and she's still wearing them in this picture. I sent this picture to my mom. Note: Always check your pictures before you send them. Yikes.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow... would not bother either one of us in our new coats!! We'll be so warm... and we'll be matching!!! :)
Don't shake when you laugh, like a bowl full of jelly. You might knock a piece off the Hamsterolle game. That game was a very cool round Jenga competition. My side of the family came over that afternoon for food, presents, and fun.
Her eyes, how they twinkled! Her storm trooper mask, how merry! Charlotte loves this trooper mask that got that day. She can play along with Darth Tommy now! :)
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow and his beard on his chin was as blonde as the snow. Ha! Uncle Adam got snowboard and wakeboard gear, but of course. The beard is actually a ski mask from me and the towel/Gandolf-looking drapery, is a wakeboard towel.
A wink of their eyes and a twist of their heads, we knew that we had EVERYTHING to dread. Andrew and Isabel had an on-going OMG EWW THAT'S TOTES GRODY conversation. It was like modern day valley girl and it hurt our ears so much. But it was also hilarious. Andrew was on point on Christmas day. Who am I kidding? He's always on point comically.
He spoke not a word but went straight to his work. He jammed all the jams and turned with a jerk.... when he noticed Andrew had been... I don't even know how to describe it... It's not imitation. But it is funny. What a nut. Here's a video for your viewing enjoyment.
After midnight when everyone was finally heading home, we heard them exclaim ere they drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, Thank the Lord for teenagers who can drive us home!"
Adam and Emily spent the night though. They didn't need teenagers. This is the last picture I took that night. Adam is wearing his BeardSki and Andrew is wearing the Bane ski mask. GOOD TIMES! What a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I agree with Tommy's comment, "Can it be Christmas everyday?"
