Christmas Celebrations, Part 2

At school this year, the children in Quinn's class made Christmas cards and gifts for their parents.  Inside the card they were told to write what they like most about Christmas.  Like most five year olds, I expected a response like, "opening presents" or "Santa Claus" or something along that line.  However, when I opened Quinn's card, this is what I saw:

And as to not disappoint Quinn, we started Christmas Eve off by going to church with the Pooleys, GiGi and my mom.  Together we took up an entire pew!  

  Here are the girls in their pretty Christmas dresses...

After church, we were able to spend Christmas Eve night at the Pooleys - as we are blessed to do each year!

Here are a few highlights from that night:

We spent Christmas morning opening Santa's presents at our house.  Santa left plenty of presents, lots of stocking stuffers, and a thank you note for the cookies.  All in all, a successful venture on Santa's part.

Quinn was most excited to get a new book from Santa this year... she showed shear elation when she unwrapped this present.

Sullivan too was most excited to get new books this year.  She was beyond excited about unwrapping her presents but managed to find a 10 minute break to ask Dad (or whomever would agree) to read her a book or two!

A couple of other highlights from Christmas morning:

Last, but not least, we were able to go to Mer and Matt's house on Christmas morning to eat brunch, unwrap gifts and spend the day together.  This time next year, the house will be filled with much more noise and celebration, as the twins experience their first Christmas season!!

Like all other present opening experiences this year, it became quite a group project.  Sullivan was more than willing to help anyone that needed help unwrapping their gifts.  Quinn got in on the action too....

This year we felt extremely blessed to spend Christmas with the ones we love, sharing the joy of the season and all it has to bring.  

A Merry, Merry Christmas

I will certainly post more about our Christmas festivities later in the week, but wanted to post a quick picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses... they look so sophisticated and so darling!

We hope all our friends and families had a very Merry Christmas!

Ornaments...

Ten or twenty years from now, I will be intrigued to see what the girls remember about the holidays and our traditions.  I will be curious to see what they found exciting, what they thought was corny, or what they looked forward to the most.

Ryan and I have tried to start a lot of traditions with the girls in hopes that they have the very best memory of Christmas.  One thing that we do is buy an ornament (or two) each year for each of the girls that represent something that is special about that year for them.  Each year we take out the ornaments and look at their collection, it strikes many fond memories of the girls.

Like the time in 2009, when Sullivan Grace was 8 months old, and ALL she loved to do was suck on socks.  She was dubbed the "Sock Bandit" at daycare because she would crawl over to other babies playing on the floor and pull their socks off.  She would crawl away and start sucking on their socks.  Here is the ornament that represents that memory:

Or the time in 2008, when Quinn was 2 1/2 years old and ALL she loved was chap-chick (as she called it).  She carried it absolutely.everywhere.we.went!!!  She still has quite the fascination with it, but not to the extent that she did back then.  Here is the ornament that represents that year:

This year's ornaments for the girls?!  Quinn has a school house since she started school this year.  That was a likely choice.  She also picked out a Minnie Mouse ornament since her most memorable vacation was to Disney this year.

Sullivan also has two ornaments.  One is a Lego ornament (that Ryan constructed) since Gracie loves to build with Legos.   The other is a pomegranate ornament... yep, that's right!  A pomegranate ornament to represent the absolute joy she gets when she sees a pomegranate in the room!

Hopefully this is something that the girls enjoy reflecting on each year as they grow up... I know Ryan and I love it!

Life is Sweet...

Who doesn't love Christmas?!?  There are so many great traditions!  One of those that we enjoy each year - making a gingerbread house!

I would love to say that I make it from scratch, but that would never happen!  We stick to the box set where they give us all the parts and we put it together!  Either way - it is still a blast!

This year I think Sullivan had the stickiest hands in the world after we were done.  She would put a piece of candy on the house, then lick her fingers.  This occurred easily 1,897 times!  (Note the fingers in the mouth below) Needless to say it won't be eaten at the end of the season!

The three ladies worked well together to get the job done!  Quinn did a great job organizing the candy and helping her sister out.  She has so much patience for her little sister!!!  

The final product below... note that it looks nothing like the picture on the package.  It may be a redneck gingerbread house, but it is a pretty darn cute one in my eyes!  

Deck the Halls...

We have been busy the past week or two getting prepared for Christmas - decorating the house, buying a Christmas tree, and trimming the tree.

Quinn had a great time this year unpacking the nativity set and getting it all set up.  Her question to me as we were setting it up, "Mom, I know it's Jesus' birthday.  But how old is he going to be this year?"

Please tell me everyone's house looks like this when they are unpacking all the holiday stuff and decorating the house?! What a mess.

Quinn is big into taking photos lately.  Here are her pictures of the ceramic Christmas trees.

Getting all the ornaments out... the girls had to determine "whose ornament is whose?"

And finally, decorating the tree....pretty bright!

Christopher, Part 2

Christopher has been up to his silly antics again... here is where he has been this week:

Leading a Train of Vehicles...

Christopher gathered all the small vehicles we own and led them to the mantle of our fireplace.  You can see he is a pretty good driver!  The girls LOVED that he was driving the car!  They were intrigued as to how he got them all up there... Quinn concluded that there would be no other way than to fly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reading to a Group of Animals...

Sullivan was less than impressed that Christopher took one of her favorite books to read to the stuffed animals.  She made a compromise by allowing him to keep the book in exchange for holding the horse stuffed animal.... imagine that she would take the horse!  Quinn thought it was pretty cool that Christopher wanted to be just like a teacher!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coloring in Quinn's Room...

Christopher made quite the mess in Quinn's room last night.  He decided to color three pictures of himself using Quinn's art supplies.  He hung those pictures on her art hangers in her room!  Quinn commented that he is quite the colorer and managed to stay inside the lines.  That takes some true talent for an elf who is coloring in the dark!