It's December the Twenty-Fourth!

December the Twenty-Fourth finally rolled around, and the reason for the season was officially pulled out of the last pocket on our Nativity calendar.

 All 3 kiddos patiently waited for their turn to open the pocket all month long, and Miss Leah ended up getting to put Baby Jesus in His manger bed, making our scene complete.

We totally surprised the kids Christmas Eve morning and woke them up at the crack of dawn to tell them we were traveling by train to the North Pole to see Santa. They were a little confused and a little cranky, but Jon and I had been saving this secret since November! I'd reserved special tickets online to the "Santa Train" at Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Manitou Springs, CO and we were up and at 'em on and on our way by 8 a.m.! 

The depot was about an hour away and we had to be there to board by 9:30 a.m. Luckily some very friendly elves greeted us as we got in line!

It was SOOOOO freezing cold! Holy cow! We were traveling up to almost 15,000 feet and the wind chill at the top, or the "North Pole" as it was deemed for the day was -2. We needed a lot of Christmas cheer to keep us warm.

Ready to go see Santa! Leah was ecstatic about being on a Christmas train! I think this is the first year she's really understood Christmas and been so excited about everything from start to finish.

My handsome boys and Zach's signature "troll face," ha ha.

After about 30 minutes straight up the mountain (no joke-- it was a STEEP climb for that little train) we made it to see Santa and Leah was first in line!

She told Santa she wanted "princesses and princess palace pets for Christmas," and asked Santa if he wanted to eat our cookies (that we'd made the day before). I'd warned her back at the depot that she'd better go to the bathroom before she sat on Santa's lap because she couldn't pee pee on Santa or none of the other kids would get to see him. As soon as she finished talking to him she proudly announced to the whole room, "I didn't pee on him, Mom!!"

Zach-O wanted Legos and Hot Wheels, and Lucy just wanted a Kindle and some Harry Potter surprises. I could have told him that myself!

CHRISTMAS EVE 2015

Back at the North Pole we had to wait for the rest of the kids on the train to meet Santa obviously, so we killed some time scarfing down the free hot chocolate and Christmas cookies, and posing as snowmen!

Back on the train, Mrs. Claus and Santa joined us on our way down and led everyone in singing Christmas carols-- much to Lucy's delight. She has been wanting to go caroling all month long! You can tell how thrilled Jon was to be singing with our fellow train passengers. It was so fun to surprise the kids and was totally the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve morning. I think we'll make it a new tradition!

We headed back home to hand out the cookie plates we'd made, and then watched "The Nativity Story" to put us in the right mood for our Holy Supper. The kids look forward to this special meal all year, and I love that it helps re-focus everybody on the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas since Santa seems to take over the next day anyway.

We light the candles, lay out the foods Joseph and Mary might have eaten that night-- flat bread, fish, goat cheese, hummus, nuts, and grape juice, and listen to "Jesus" music as we eat sitting on the floor. 

After our Holy Supper, the kids act out the Nativity story in Luke 2. Here is our faithful shepherd watching his flocks by night.

Lucy was Mary, Jon was Joseph,  and Leah was Baby Jesus-- see how very still she was holding lying there in the manger??? I had a hard time not laughing, but she was determined to be Baby Jesus, and NOT the angel! We always write our "Gifts to Jesus" right after, which are resolutions we make to be better in the next year-- as our first and most important gift of the season. 

Next everyone opened a brand new pair of pajamas!

Here they are! Zach got Yeti jammies, Lucy got Hedwig jammies, and Leah got Snowman jammies.

Even Jon opened some new Star Wars jammies.

It's become our tradition to have peppermint ice cream mud pie (since you can only find that kind of ice cream during the holidays) for dessert on Christmas Eve. It doesn't really fit with the Holy Supper, but holy cow is it yummy!

After dessert, we finally got Santa's cookies and the reindeer's carrots set out, the stockings placed on the couches, and it was officially time for bed! Thankfully since we'd been up so early, all three of them fell asleep really quickly and mom and dad could get to work.... Jon and I have probably watched "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas Eve since we got married once the kids are in bed, and this year was no exception. I love it. It's the perfect backdrop to setting out Santa gifts!

Lucy got two new Harry Potter shirts, Crookshanks the cat, some new chapter books, and a Kindle.

Zach-O definitely got his Star Wars Legos and a Hot Wheels track, and his long-awaited "check shoes" (Nike sneakers). 

Leah got a new play tent, Frozen sleeping bag, Princess Palace Pets castle, and lots of princess stuff!

Thankfully the little rascals slept in until 7:30 a.m. or so and came straight into our room ready to see if Santa had come. Here's their three different reactions. The pictures are blurry because obviously, they were running at full speed once they heard that Christmas music!

Whoa! I love how excited Zach gets when he sees his toys!

It was so cute because as soon as Lucy and Zach saw that Santa had indeed come, they both immediately went over to Leah's chair and helped her see all of her new toys and were just as excited about seeing her stuff as she was. They pointed out each and every toy before they finally looked at their own stuff. It was very sweet. 

Lucy helping Leah open her new Princess Palace Pets castle. She was elated! 

In an effort to slow down Christmas morning and really make it linger, I've started wrapping more and more Santa presents and making them open them in rounds, one at a time. It's pure torture for my kids-- but I love it because I want to see their reaction with every single present! Here's the aftermath.

We finally got to the toys under the tree and started Christmas Morning Round 2. Leah's new baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa Morris. She LOVES her!

Zachary opening his new Harry Potter robe from Grandma and Grandpa Cardon.

As soon as he'd opened the robe and Harry Potter wand, he got dressed in this new red sweater and was ready to play Harry Potter with Lucy. I think we have another HP fan on our hands!

Lucy opening her gifts from very generous and thoughtful grandmas and grandpas and loving every minute!

We finally finished up around 10:30 a.m. or so, and it was time for MY favorite part of Christmas morning-- Round 3, Christmas Brunch. We have creme brulee french toast (which I made with egg nog this year instead of regular milk and it was to die for), deviled egg casserole, sausages, shrimp cocktail, and cinnamon bun white hot chocolate. Mmmmmm.

It's hard to put the new toys away long enough to come and eat breakfast, but I put my foot down and make them because I love this part of the day with my little family. 

Zach-O relishing his shrimp and french toast! We spent the rest of the morning playing with toys, building new Lego sets, and getting ready for our Christmas dinner with Jeremy and Kylene's family.

We decided to make it a "Grinch" themed dinner, and had Roast Beast, Who-Potato Hash, Cindy-Lou Salad, Grinch Greens, Mt. Crumpet Crescent Rolls, and Grinch Punch. For dessert of course we had Who-Pudding with lots of yummy toppings. Everything was delicious!

Happy cousins talking about what they got for Christmas and enjoying their Who-Feast! It was such a nice Christmas and we feel so blessed we were able to celebrate together as a little family, here in Colorado for the first time, and that Jon has a job that's able to provide for our kids' Christmas wishes and make it all so magical. More importantly, we're so grateful for that little baby born over 2,000 years ago who offers us love and life!!

I totally crashed Saturday morning and slept in until 9 a.m.!! I think the last few busy days had totally caught up to me and I was just SO tired! We didn't get going until later in the afternoon which was just fine with the kids, who wanted to stay home and play anyway. We finally headed out into the melee to return a few things, shop the after Christmas sales at the outlet malls and get dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I felt like I'd been in the kitchen for 3 days straight and I INSISTED I was not going to make dinner!

Whitney's package arrived with these adorable hand-sewn bears for each of the kids! So very thoughtful and fun from a long-distance auntie! You can see the only way we convinced the kids to come in the car was if they could bring along a new toy or two...

On our way home from the restaurant we caught this herd of deer on our neighbors' lawn eating a post-Christmas snack. It's so crazy to me that we see SO much wildlife here in Colorado-- even in our little neighborhood. I think we counted 8 deer total.

WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015!!!

'Twas The Week Before Christmas...

The week before Christmas we got hit with another major snow storm-- dropping almost 15 inches and cancelling school for the second time since moving here to Colorado! I had it on good authority that "snow days" were few and far between here, but so far we've had two in less than a month this winter and we've barely begun!

This was the view out our back window all day. Not too bad when you've got no place to go, the kids at home, a Christmas movie is on, and the fireplace is going!

Baby it's cold outside! Here's the little rascal at 34 weeks. I swear it looks like I've stuck a basketball up my shirt, but there she is-- proof she's growing by the minute! The "puffiness" stage has hit and I feel like I'm always walking around on swollen feet and with a puffy face, but that's life I guess.

Lucy and Zach's classes both had pajama parties on the Thursday before their Christmas break started (December 18th), and Lucy's teacher emailed these pictures to the parents. They had a yummy Christmas brunch, and then changed the lyrics to Christmas carols to their own version and performed them in front of the class (and yes, that is a boy named Jay who is her partner. He has long hair and talks like a girl, and is SUPER smart, so of course everyone makes fun of him. Lucy says she is the only one who will volunteer to be partners with him or sit by him at lunch. Gosh, I love her!!)

Lucy's selfie with her teacher Mrs. Younge and their twinner ornament earrings!

The Saturday before Christmas, instead of hitting the shopping malls like millions of Americans on the "biggest shopping day of the year," we decided to hit the mountains for a day of glorious sunshine and sledding. We headed north of Boulder, to a little area in the Rockies called Nederland Lake. It was a GORGEOUS blue-skied, 50 degree December day! We had ourselves a lovely little picnic out in the snow.

Then we tried to find some decent sledding hills which proved much, much harder than we'd anticipated. The snow melts SO fast here! So although we'd just gotten the 15 inches (probably more here in the mountains) on Tuesday, in most places it had already melted. We trekked (well, I waddled very slowly) up to this little hill near our picnic and ((TRIED)) to sled down, but it took forever to get up the steep hill which had too many trees anyway, and the snow was crusty and icy, and the kids only got about one run in before we threw in the towel. Ironically we have some really decent hills right here in our neighborhood!

At least we had a beautiful view to look at and we definitely got our vitamin D quota for the day!

The best part? Finding a Starbucks back in town and sipping peppermint white hot chocolate on the drive home!

We had a gift card from Uncle Beans to Olive Garden that we stopped and used for dinner on the way home. This is Zach's all-time favorite restaurant (he can eat at least 25 breadsticks) so he was in heaven. It was such a fun way to end our winter outing!

That Sunday I had to take more pictures of my cute children in their Sunday best because they all just clean up so nicely!

Miss Leah and her gingerbread man dress! She has officially graduated out of nursery and will be a Sunbeam next week. I can't believe it!

My handsome little man, Zach-O!

Cute little kiddos ready for 9 a.m. church! Which has incidentally been no easy feat. The five of us have had a pretty good track record as far as not being late, but next week we switch to 1 p.m. church and I am totally dreading it. It will be easier with a newborn most likely, but I sure love our lazy Sunday afternoons!

Monday afternoon we dropped Leah off at Sophie and Isaac's house so Jon and I could take the other two to see the new Star Wars movie. Lucy and Zach (and Jon for that matter) were SOOOO excited to see "The Force Awakens." They've been watching the movie trailers for months!

We'd bought our tickets online and gotten to the theater about 10 minutes before it started and it was PACKED! Jon and Zach sat together on one row.

And Lucy and I sat together on the row just below them. Jon surprised the kids and bought popcorn and drinks (which we never splurge on)-- but this was an epic moment and rite of passage as this new generation become die-hard Star Wars fans! They loved it.

Tuesday was our crazy, run-around, complete ten million errands, and almost-put-mom-into-labor-day. Looking back I'm not sure how we squeezed it all in! I taught Body Pump that morning at noon, we ran out to IKEA to look at some new baby furniture, then headed to Walmart for all of our Christmas groceries. By the time we got done with that it was time for me to cook dinner, and then we'd planned to drive to Larkspur (about 10 minutes south of Castle Rock) to see the Drive-Thru Christmas Lights at Jellystone. Phew! It was a long day!

They have several miles worth of lights-- and different themes like Candy Land, Colorado, and the Nativity, and some of the lights are synchronized to a radio station playing holiday music they connect you to at the entrance.

Here's our car selfie! We sure had fun oohing and ahhing at all the pretty lights!

The pies de resistance was this light tunnel you drove through that "danced" along to the music. Pretty cool way to get in the Christmas spirit! 

Wednesday I went slightly cookie crazy and decided to bake 3 different kinds of very involved Christmas cookies (complete with frostings and decorations), all while watching 5 children (we had Isaac and Sophie over all morning), and then subbing another Body Pump class that evening at the gym. Jon was working until 6 p.m. so he luckily he missed my meltdown right around 4 p.m., ha, ha. My feet hurt!

The kids were definitely awesome helpers and helped me decorate every last one of those gingerbread men, and even helped me clean up! I don't know what I'd do without my Lucy in times like these.

We made Swig sugar cookies, gingerbread men, and peanut butter cups to take as cookie plates to our neighbors and people in our ward. I think they all turned out delish! And despite it being another jam-packed day, this pregnant lady stayed up until midnight wrapping Santa presents and getting ready for Christmas Eve the next day!