Christmas Recap - part 1

Time for the Christmas 2016 recap! So that everything prints out nicer in my blog book, I'll do some summarizing and then post lots of pics! On December 23, we went to Haucks to celebrate with the Lauver/Hauck crew. We had an amazing dinner, followed by gifts. Minus baby Caleb Ray, we managed to get a pic of Maw Maw with all the great-grandkids! It's hard to believe this was the second Christmas without Papa already. 

On Christmas eve day, we headed to Millersburg. We had monkey bread and fruit for breakfast and, as you can imagine, the kids were ready to dive into the gifts. They were very excited to see the stacks of gifts when we headed downstairs! It was sheer chaos but the kids were SO excited to play with their new toys. Carter and Eli each got huge new Lego sets and were already underway with them within 15 minutes of opening gifts. We had lunch and hung out for the afternoon, before we headed back to our church for the 5 p.m. Christmas eve service. Normally, we go to the 6:30 service, but this year, Oma and Opa were going to be at our house for Christmas so we wanted to go to an earlier one. After, we came back and had a yummy cooked dinner, gave the kids their yearly Christmas eve PJs and got them to bed (harder than usual on Christmas eve!).

CHECK OUT THAT HAIR! She had braids in for Christmas eve day, so she had quite the hairdo when we took them out! 

Christmas morning was LIVELY, especially with Oma and Opa here (they weren't overly hyper; I mean the kids) ;) We put a breakfast casserole in for after gifts, turned on the OnDemand yule log and dug in. We all got great things, and the kids were very excited to get Kindle Fires AND confirmation that they are going to Disney World!! 

The 2017 gifts (in order) for Addison, Carter, Oma and Opa, me, and Seth!

The rest of Christmas day was just very laid back. The kids played with toys, we watched a movie, had a light lunch, played some more, relaxed and then had a big, delicious dinner. My parents came down for a visit and stayed for Christmas dinner, too. We had amazing filet made by Oma, roasted potatoes, garlic sauteed green beans, homemade bread and pie. After dinner, we headed to Sheetz for free coffee and drove around and looked at Christmas lights. It was a wonderful Christmas and we are super blessed!

Getting in the Christmas spirit (the season so far!)

It's been a fun season of getting into the Christmas spirit. As always, we decorated the night before Thanksgiving so that when we came home Thanksgiving evening, we were 100% IN for celebrating Christmas! There's something about a glowing tree that makes early mornings so much better!

 

We went to Candylane at Hersheypark and got to meet Santa. Both kids were so excited the whole time we were in the line, but Addison REFUSED to sit on his lap when it was our turn. And Carter had a near breakdown when the "Nice List" decoration on the wall (complete with some kids' names) did not have "Carter" OR "Addison" on it. We had to let him know that this was just PART of the list for him to bring that lower lip back up. ;)

One sweet little boy likes to sleep with his Santa hat on.

 Addison had her program at school. Her class sang the 12 days of Christmas and that little angel in red was #6 (sometimes 9 when she held it upside down!). She smiled like this the whole time and watched us intently.

 A trip to Bass Pro to see Santa (again). However, they changed up the way they do things and you basically have to get a "fast pass" to return some other time to see Santa. So strange. So we looked at him from afar, played the games and did crafts, and jetted. We got them hot chocolate from Starbucks which they loved. Carter promptly dropped his about 5 seconds after this picture.

While Seth was hunting one day, me and the kids went to my parents and my mom and I made cookies. We made four kinds. The kids enjoyed putting the sugar on the sugar cookies. Addison enjoyed decorating the cut outs (Carter said "no thanks"). There were A LOT of sprinkles on some of them. Part of the experience I guess. :)

 

 We also had our small group Christmas party on December 11. We had yummy food, did a white elephant exchange, the kids exchanged gifts and then we played games--specifically the new "Watch Yo Mouth" game where you where mouth guards while trying to describe phrases to your teammates. HYSTERICAL! 

 

 And don't forget our good friend, Berrence. He's watching the kids like he always does, moving when he remembers, and staying just where he is when he forgets (ahem, cough). Last night, he even built a snowman out of marshmallows and pretzels and I know two little blondies who thought it was the coolest thing ever! He wrote them a message with Carter's Lego pieces last week. I love experiencing the Christmas spirit through their eyes! 

 

Hunting with daddy

Well, hunting season is officially over for us! Seth didn't have any luck in archery season, but got this 9 point buck on the first day of rifle! Needless to say, he was a little bit excited. (And if you ever want to see it in person, don't fret. It's being mounted in our house. Sigh...HA!)

 

 

The next weekend, Seth went up to the hunting land again because he still had a doe tag. He took Carter along with him, and well that is just the cutest little hunter I've ever seen!

They did not get anything that day, but on Dec. 10, Seth went out with my dad and brother while we were making cookies, and he got another one--this time a doe. My dad and brother each got one that day as well. 

So Seth had a very productive hunting season and is one happy husband! After some frustrating hunting seasons, I'm glad to see him happy. But the best news is that he's exhausted all his deer tags this year, so we don't need to deal with late-season archery!! WOO HOO!!