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The most wonderful time of the year!! This year was no exception, we had a fantastic holiday season. Here are some highlights:

Dec 1: We heard the doorbell ring and found a package from the North Pole on our doorstep! Inside was new jammies for all the kids, some treats and best of all our beloved elf Jingles had returned!


Jingles brought us notes, gifts, treats and sent us on activities. Some of our favorite were: visiting the reindeer at Thanksgiving point, Driving through an awesome light show "Christmas in Color," making a gingerbread house, growing candy canes, going to the festival of trees, "Polar Express Day" (wearing their pajamas to school on the last day before break), and building a new nativity- piece by piece.

Dec 7th: We rode the Polar Express to the North Pole! We had a blast doing this. The kids remembered it from last year and they were so excited to go again. We saw Santa and had cookies and hot chocolate. The kids loved talking to our "elf" helpers on board and it was a magical night.



Dec 11th Preschool Christmas Program: the kids were SO excited for their performance and had practiced for so long. They knew all the songs and would sing them all the time in the car and at home. Caitlin had a speaking part and she nailed it. She came to the microphone and said her little part clearly. She sang every song and had every word and action down pat. After every song she would make eye contact and wanted a thumbs up or smile from us. Nolan came out strong in the beginning and was singing but lost interest pretty quickly. After a while he was just going through the motions and not really singing and was just making faces at us and getting fidgety. He was hilariously "over it." He pulled it together to belt out "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (his favorite) towards the end. It was pure entertainment and we loved it.




Dec 12th: We hosted a "North Pole Breakfast" for family and friends and had a fun time. We had regular waffles, red velvet waffles, lots of syrups eggs and fruit and donuts. We had a hot cocoa bar and other drinks. We all chowed down and the kids played. We set up a movie projector in the basement and put on a Christmas movie. At one point all the kids lined up for "whip cream shots" given by Paul and it was hilarious. We also had a station to make "magical reindeer food" to use on Christmas Eve!
That night Paul and I got to go to an Ugly Sweater couple's party.


Dec 15th: Caitlin had a Christmas Dance performance at her studio. She and her class did a cute little dance to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and she did a great job. She had an awesome fan club come to support her and of course Dad brought her flowers for after (she's kind of come to expect it and its probably her favorite thing about performances).

Dec 15-18th: Paul and I got to take a quick trip to New York City. We were there for two full days. He had business meetings and I got to sleep in, eat out, visit the 9/11 museum and stay up late in Times Square. We also shopped in SoHo, admired the Christmas lights on 5th Avenue and the Rockefeller tree, and saw a broadway play. It was a really fun little getaway and seemed to miraculously work into our busy schedule.


Dec 20th: Christmas Sunday we had our "Birthday Party for Baby Jesus" We played with our manger and talked about the story of Jesus' birth, we each decided on a gift we could give to Jesus over the following year, we decorated cupcakes (and ate a few) and we ended it with a talent show (showing a few of God's gifts to us).

Dec 21st: Caitlin and I went to see "The Nutcracker" with a few other moms and friends. She loved watching it and was full of questions and comments literally the entire show. The costumes were great and so was the dancing. And it moved a long at a nice pace (luckily, because the one negative thing she said was, "I really liked it but it was a little too long") When the sugar plum fairy came out for the first time to dance to her song Caitlin exclaimed, "This is my favorite song ever!! I know this dance!" and stood up in the tiny aisle to do passes with the fairy. Later during the sweets scene when all the visitors from other countries come, Madama Bonbonaire comes out with her huge hoop skirt. I told Caitlin she had a surprise and Caitlin was chomping at the bit to know what her surprise was. A few seconds later when they lifted her skirt and all the little "bon bon" girls came out from under it Caitlin YELLED, "WHAT?!" and started laughing hysterically. She had never expected such a surprise and her reaction was priceless. Everyone within earshot was laughing (at Caitlin) and she didn't even realize, she just kept giggling about the dance. Taking her was like a show within the show. Nolan and Maverick stayed home with Dad and built a Lego train that Nolan was so excited to show me the next morning.