Our Christmas

We had a wonderful, busy Christmas season.

Sims was in our church's Christmas pageant again (for the 4th time).  He was a shepherd for the 2nd year in a row, and this was the first time that I was actually able to sit down and watch the entire pageant.  Every other year I have been helping behind the scenes, so that I was only able to see the parts that Sims (and Merritt last year) was in.  It is such a sweet pageant!  Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pictures of Sims in his shepherd costume this year.  This is the best one I have.  He is on the left in the green headdress.

We went to visit Santa at the art museum.  Their holiday family event is always fun, but Santa is the main reason that we go.  Merritt wasn't so excited about Santa though.

You've gotta love Santa's expression as Merritt started to cry.  After we "saved" Merritt, Sims got the chance to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, which was a guitar and some surprises.  When Santa asked what his sister wanted, Sims just shrugged.

On Christmas Eve, we had our usual cookie decorating family get together before going to church.

Sims and Isla really loved decorating the cookies this year, but I couldn't help but giggle at their technique, which consisted of dumping as many sprinkles as possible in one big pile.

We decided to start a kids table this year for Sims and Isla.  I think that we've outgrown our dining room!  They made their own gingerbread house place mats, which turned out really cute.  We did this last year, and I was amazed at how much more thought Sims put into decorating his gingerbread house this time.  He really thought about how he wanted a front door and door to his bedroom.

Table top gingerbread house was the one Sims made in his Kindergarten class.

 Here are some other photos from the day.

Maxwell's first Christmas

Christmas morning was exciting and crazy - just the way it should be with small children.  The kiddos woke up fairly late, then we spent the rest of the morning playing with all of their loot.  I didn't take many photos because we were just hanging out and having fun together.

I think that all of their gifts were pretty big hits.  Actually, they both seem to enjoy playing with the toys that the other one received as well.

We went over to Mom and Smith's during the afternoon, and the kids had a big time hanging out.  (Have I ever mentioned how much Sims and Isla LOVE each other?!)

Sims and Isla playing in their new sleeping bags

The day after Christmas we took off to Charlotte to spend some time with Jason's family.  We had lots of fun, and it was very relaxing.  I, of course, have no pictures from it.  It was hard to go back to work and the real world after a little over 2 weeks off.  It was a fantastic Christmas!

Christmas 2013

This is the last Christmas post.  Promise! 

We had a wonderful, busy Christmas week.  Instead of having you read all the details, I'm just going to show some pictures.



Aunt Tina finally met Merritt!

I hope you had a fantastic and special Christmas!

Holiday Concert

Sims' class performed a holiday concert this year, and all of the families were invited.  Sims has gotten really into singing lately, which makes me happy.  He never wanted to sing much before, but he loves to sing now.  He even wanted us to sing Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland last night.  I guess we will be singing Christmas songs all year long.

This year's holiday concert also included a Hanukkah song, which seems to be one of Sims' favorites.  He even wanted to sing it as we decorated the small Christmas tree in his room, and how could I say no?

Here's a video of the group singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.  When they get to the part when they are playing "instruments", you can imagine me laughing so hard I was crying because that's exactly what I was doing.



Priceless!

Christmas Pageant

This year both of our children were in our church's Christmas pageant.  It was magical, to say the least.  Sims was a shepherd, and Merritt was the baby Jesus.

It will be a couple of years before they are both in the pageant again, which made this year extra special.  Sims loved the shepherd's staff that he got to use, and he keeps talking about how he wants to be a shepherd again next year.  Merritt slept through her entire stage debut and looked like an angel (if I do say so myself).  It was a wonderful evening. 

Christmas Celebration

Here it is: the final Christmas post!  I've likely been dragging this out because I really love the Christmas season and I hate to see it end.  We didn't take down our Christmas decorations until Epiphany (which is appropriate, since that is the last day of the Christmas season), and we still have a few Christmas things lingering around our house, like the gingerbread house we made and Sims' art work.  I guess those will have to come down this weekend. 

I should have taken some pictures of the decorations in Sims' room.  I have always put a small tree in his room, but this year he went all out.  Mom was purging some of her old Christmas stuff, and Sims wanted a huge amount of it!  His room has filled with Santas.  There was a chef Santa, fishing Santa, golfing Santa, NC State Santa...  He was so sad to put them away, but he got to put some model airplanes in their place, which made him very happy!  (Thanks, Smith, for the airplanes!)

Well, on to our Christmas celebration.  Our celebration always starts on Christmas Eve.  Mom, Smith and Isla came over to help us decorate dozens and dozens of sugar cookies.  Both of the kiddos did a great job decorating without a lot of help.  Once they had the icing on the cookie, they spent a fair amount of time and creativity on each one.

Cookie decorating is a newish tradition for us.  We've only been doing it for a few years, and it is something that we all look forward to doing.  We made so many cookies though!  I think we may still have a couple left!

I, also, have to mention that this was our first Christmas with our new kitchen, and I just kept gushing about how much I love the kitchen.  And this was after days of baking and baking and more baking.

After our Christmas Eve dinner of shrimp and grits (perhaps the beginning of another tradition?), we headed out to church.  Once home, Sims chose some cookies to leave out for Santa, and we all got to bed early.

Surprisingly, Sims slept in on Christmas morning.  The first thing that he said when he woke up was "Did Santa come?"  He has so excited to see that Santa had visited our house, and he got exactly what he had asked Santa to bring him: a 3-wheeled scooter, a helmet and a trumpet.

Playing his trumpet while balancing on his new balance board that Jason and I gave him.  That takes some skill!

 

Showing off his chef's hat and apron

After a lazy morning opening and enjoying our gifts, we headed over to Mom and Smith's house.  Sims spent the afternoon mastering his scooter skills.

It didn't take him long to get the hang of turning and using the brake. 

Once Isla got there, the two of them had a grand 'ole time.

Those two love each other so much.  It is such a wonderful thing to see.

This was a special Christmas Day celebration because Neely's parents got to join us.  They are lots of fun, and we loved having them with us.  I hope they can join us every year.

The day after Christmas we left for Charlotte to visit with Jason's family.  We spent the rest of the week there, where I didn't take a single picture.  It's all or nothing when it comes to me taking pictures, I guess.  We spent our visit hanging out, eating, shopping, looking at art at the Mint Museum, and having a girls' night.  The girls' night consisted of dinner and a cute play called the Winter Wonderettes.  Girls' nights are always fun!

We came back home exhausted but happy.  We had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Pageant

I know that the Christmas season is over, but before I can move on, I have a couple more posts.  I just had to share that Sims was in our church's Christmas Pageant again this year.  This was his second year, and this time he chose to be a cow.



Sims is the cow in the very front.

He did a great job, even with a large audience.  We were all really proud of him!

I'll be back soon with my last Christmas post, then I will be on to the New Year.  I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

Holiday Concert

Sims' class had a holiday concert this past Friday, and it was so entertaining.  I wasn't sure if he would sing this year, since he didn't sing at last year's party.  He just watched everyone else sing then, even though he knew all the words.  So I had no idea what to expect this time around.  Not only did he sing, but he danced!  It was great!

He was so excited to see us there, and he immediately started to ham it up a bit.

Jason got a video of them singing Feliz Navidad on his phone.  It's not good video or sound quality, but you get the idea.

 

 

He had a wonderful time, and we loved watching him.  One of the great things about Mom and Smith living nearby is that Mom got to join us.  I know it made her day as much as it did ours!

Visit with Santa at Holiday Express

We were happy to get tickets with some of our friends to go to the Holiday Express event at Pullen Park.  We had planned to do this as a group last year, but we bought the last tickets before our friends got theirs.  So last year we went solo.  Luckily they do this event every year, and of course, it's always more fun with friends!

This is the only time that Sims got to see Santa this year, so this was kind of a big deal.  He had been telling us that he was going to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, but I wasn't sure he would actually talk to him once we were there.  I'm glad that I was wrong!  He told Santa that he wanted a scooter, a helmet and a trumpet.  Santa then gave him a small lecture about always wearing his helmet, when he rides his scooter.

He listened very politely and even gave Santa a hug.

I have to say that I have always been impressed with how well Sims does on Santa's lap!  I was 18 years old, before Mom could get a picture of me on Santa's lap.  (Yes, I got my picture made with Santa when I was 18 years old.  But in my defense, my poor mother didn't have a single picture of me with Santa!  I just couldn't do that to her anymore.)  I'm just so proud of how brave Sims is!

Christmas with the Family

We started off our Christmas celebration with Mom and Smith coming to town.  The family came to our house on Christmas Eve, and we decorated sugar cookies. 

We had dozens of cookies to decorate, and most of us, usually, just decorate them very quickly.  Smith has always been the one who takes his cookie decorating very seriously.  He will only decorate a couple of cookies, but those cookies will be works of art!  This year, we had Neely with us, and she surprised us with her cookie decorating skills and gave Smith a run for his money.

Afterwards, we all went to our church's Christmas Eve service.  Then we came home and got ready for Santa to visit.

Sims was definitely spoiled with all the gifts that he was given this year.  Santa brought him a kitchen and many kitchen accessories.

Currently, Sims has a nicer kitchen than we do.  Give us a couple of months though!

As you can see, he also received a raccoon figurine (along with other North American animals), a Carolina Hurricanes sweater and a doll stroller, which he promptly used to take "Jennifer" for a ride.  Have I mentioned that he renamed his Grinch doll Jennifer.  He loves Jennifer, and she is one Christmas toy that did not get put up with the rest of the Christmas decorations. 

I was also very spoiled and even received a kitchen sink.

Of course, this is the one we will start using in less than 2 weeks, when our kitchen will be gutted.  We will be forced to clean dishes in the bath tub with our new kitchen sink.

We spent the rest of Christmas Day at Alex and Neely's hanging out with my family and overeating.

Then we headed to Charlotte to be with Jason's family for a few days.

While we were there, we went to the Discovery Place,

helped Tina make some big decisions on coats by recreating her daily experience of riding the Tube in London,

and tried out different moustaches. 

You know, the usual.

We had a great Christmas, and we got back in time to do nothing for New Year's Eve, which was exactly what we wanted.  I hope you all had wonderful holidays, too!