Christmas Part 2

I had some more fun pictures I wanted to share. These are all from my phone. Yeah-I pretty much always have my phone in their faces. Someday they'll appreciate it (maybe).

Christmas 2012

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas.  Rob and I were pretty sure this was going to be the best one yet and it definitely was.  Avery is old enough to actually get everything, and of course we have Big Ben now which is definitely the icing on the cake.  As usual, the pictures can pretty much tell the story.  

Christmas Eve morning
Why does she look like she's 9????

Happy guy 

All for me???

We had a late lunch in Utica Square and headed back to Gigi and Pepaw's to open gifts.  

Cowgirl boots!

He liked the paper

Big sister, showing him how it works

Lucky girl received a bike

Happy elf

We got home with enough time to put out some cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  She wanted to put a bowl of water out for them too-you know, they might be thirsty.

Santa came

By the way, the "Christmas shoes" were all wrong.  Apparently they were supposed to have TEN HEARTS<--- i="i">information that would have been useful to Santa ahead of time.

But overall she was very excited and we enjoyed watching her open all her gifts. Ben slept a little late and we helped him open his things when he woke up.

After that we all headed to Mimi's for brunch (a huge, delicious brunch).

And of course gifts.  By the way-Avery is finally getting the hang of opening presents.  Until now she had been the slowest, most lackluster present-opener you'd ever seen.  It took a week to open her birthday gifts-no exaggeration.  But now she has the hang of it and rips into them in true kid fashion.

It was a Cinderella Christmas

Bibs for Ben

We headed home full and happy and spent the evening playing with our new toys and attempting to clean up the Christmasplosion.  

I'm always a little sad when Christmas is over.  All the anticipation and preparation and it's over in 1-1.5 days!  I wish it could last a little longer somehow.  But anyway, it was a truly wonderful Christmas for all of us.  These kids are pretty lucky to have so many people that care about them and maybe even spoil them a bit.  And we consider ourselves pretty lucky as well.

  

Christmas Party

Whew, I have some catching up to do.  I took a bit of a blogging vacation due to the business of the past week.  So, let's see.  After The Nutcracker, we went to my family's annual party.  Mimi went ahead and took Ben (since he was a bit too young for the ballet).  I think he got lots of snuggles and love.  Avery had a ton of fun running around with her cousins.  We enjoyed ourselves and ate a ton of food.  And I took two very sleepy kids home at the end of the evening.

The Nutcracker

Gigi and Pepaw wanted to take Avery to to see The Nutcracker (and they graciously invited me and Rob too but Rob thinks once you've seen it once...).   I was a little bit worried that Avery was going to be too young to "get it" much less sit through it.  Yes, she sits through movies but we're talking a ballet...with no words.  We have the book and have read it and we have a few nutcrackers at the house so it wasn't a foreign concept.  She actually did great, though.  She asked a ton of questions, but I didn't even have to tell her to whisper.

Mommy, who is that?

Mommy, what are they doing?

Mommy, where did the Mouse King go?  (she was most excited about seeing the Mouse King)

Mommy, can I have a treat?

And so on.  

She clapped at the appropriate times.  It was pretty precious, not going to lie.

Gigi and Pepaw bought a nutcracker for her which she carried around all day and night.

I think we all enjoyed watching her as much as watching the performance.

Hank

Hank the elf is back for the season and up to shenanigans.

Making snow angels-or as Avery said-a pretzel

Hank the artist

Not sure how he got up there

He was thirsty

Nibbling a corner of the house

How did that happen?

Warming up after his nightly trip to the North Pole

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We had a fun weekend-a nice balance of activity and lounging around the house.

Avery is increasingly a homebody and is perfectly happy not going anywhere, running around in her underwear or dressing up in princess clothes.

Ben is consistently rolling from tummy to back.

Read book? Nah, I eat books.

Saturday we went shopping for a bit.  Avery saw Santa at the mall-from afar- but she only wanted to observe.  We had plans to see another Santa on Sunday.

We went out to look at Christmas lights on Saturday evening.  Even though it was before bedtime, Avery fell asleep.  And I heard her sucking the last of her hot chocolate down before we got out of our neighborhood.

Matching pjs-check

Hot chocolate-check

zzzzzzzz

Sunday we went to brunch for Gigi's birthday and then to see the real Santa.  Everybody knows the real Santa goes to Utica Square.  She was pretty pumped.  Of course, when it was time to actually sit on his lap she did so a bit reluctantly, but with some prompting told him what she wanted for Christmas (Christmas shoes).  Ben seemed none the wiser that he was being held by a big guy with a white beard.

Waiting

Leaning as far away from Santa as possible

We spent the rest of Sunday lounging around, watching movies, and making stew.  Oh, and Avery and I made a graham cracker house out of things we had in the pantry.

Overall, a perfect weekend.