Christmas Day 2017

Merry Christmas! We had a (mostly...more to come on that) fun and lively Christmas Day at our house, as you can imagine with a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a dog. We actually had to wake Carter this year, which is super rare. He's normally waiting (im)patiently for Addison to wake up. They were VERY excited to see the living room when we finally gave them the "go ahead." 

(Making them pose before we let them dig in!)

We managed to do gifts a bit slower than normal this year which was nice. As always, we had the yule log going on the TV for our "fireplace" and Christmas music. The kids didn't ask for a whole lot this year...they were pretty consistent in what they said they wanted, too, when they were asked by people. 

The big thing the kids wanted were fit bits!

In a total lapse of judgment, we bought our already boisterous peanut a real, live, working microphone! :)

Here are the gifts this year (Addison, Carter, Danielle, Seth)

After we did gifts, my parents and gram stopped by for a visit and to play for a little. We had appetizers for lunch and showed them what we got. Later in the day, we watched a movie cuddled on the couch and just took it easy. Which was a good thing because, at bedtime, Carter randomly threw up with no warning whatsoever. And that began the Christmas Day Stomach Bug 2017. The kids didn't know this either, but we had a trip planned to go to Inner Harbor 12/26-12/28. I quickly called and postponed the trip for a few days later because I had a bad feeling things were about to spread through the house.

Thankfully, my sweet boy was only sick for about 4 hours. He had a fever on the 26th and was really tired and mopey. He took two long naps and wouldn't eat much. But by 12/27, he seemed as good as new! More on our trip to come...

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!