Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year Grandpa and Aunt Holly made the journey down south. Raleigh, as usual, had better weather than the blizzard Winona was getting...but it was cold and rainy here- so not much better. Christmas Eve. The kids have the Christmas jammies on and anxiously await Santa's visit!

Christmas morning. Isaac and Grace patiently wait for Grandpa and Aunt Holly to get up and around so we can all head downstairs and check out the loot!

Santa left a little of one of his cookies- Isaac was more than happy to polish it off.

Santa worked a deal with Disney World and got Grace this official Cinderella Castle with lots of extra princesses and princes, lights and sounds. Good find Santa!

Grandpa and Isaac figure out the guitar that Grandma sent.

Not surprisingly, Grace already knows how to use hers.

Didn't you know that stockings are not to be hung by the chimney with care- they are to be worn.

A tea party.

Go Winona State! (Note that the jerseys sport the number 58...which just happened to be Daddy's number in college and Papa's number too!)

Mesmerized by a movie on a cold and rainy Christmas day.

Mother Mary

Grace was Mary in the preschool Christmas program this year. (The program was last week...I am a little behind) There were no speaking or acting parts, she just sat on stage and played the roll. She had a good time, and I personally think she seemed to fit the part well- with her sweet little face. :-)

Waving at Mommy (Who was standing on a chair in the back with a zoom lens!)

Here is Grace with her good friend Grayson who was the angel.

Isaac LOVES leaf blowers. He especially loves when his daddy blows leaves. On this day Isaac got to do it himself.

He wasn't thrilled with the amount of leaves blowing in the air, so he is now placing the leaves in front of the blower to ensure a bigger flurry.

An Evening with the Elves

We headed back to Marbles this year for the "Evening with the Elves" party. A little different this year- most noticeably the additional 500 people to whom they sold tickets. They ran out of food by 7:30. That was also not good. But all in all we had a good time. The kids got to wear their jammies- which they loved. We also invited lots of friends. So I hated that it was crowded and foodless for all of the money we paid, but the kids had so much fun playing with each other. Since the desserts had run out before we even finished dinner, we had to stop at McDonalds on the way home and get ice cream cones. The kids didn't get to bed until after 10, but slept in until 11 the next morning! Yeah!

Isaac and Sid listen to the awesome band. They really were good.

Sid has only been to Marbles a couple of times. He has never been upstairs...but of course Isaac feels right at home. So Sid took Isaac upstairs and Isaac took off for the tool benches. Sid lost him momentarily and was in a panic. In the distance he saw the tool benches and knew right away that was where his son had run off to- and sure enough!

Grace and Bella built a huge Lego tower and trapped themselves within.

Mommy and Isaac built a big tower too.

Isaac was so proud of his tower. He really did a great job of randomly stacking the blocks.

Grace and Caleb built this tower all by themselves.

Santa, Christmas Tree, and Our New Living Room

We have had a busy week...and truthfully looking forward to things slowing a bit before Christmas. I took the kids to see Santa last night. Grace was so excited and had a nice chat with Santa before we tossed Isaac into the mix. He was fascinated by Santa, but didn't really want to sit with him or talk to him. So I was pretty pleased with what we got.

Last weekend on a 40 degree rainy day we headed out for our Christmas tree. Thank goodness for mud puddles- they always make things more interesting.

And finally our new living room: We love it. No more wet bar and ill-placed door. We have a whole new color-scheme too. It is so nice to utilize the entire room and there is room for lots of seating. We are still waiting on the cabinet doors for the television...but we are in the process of hiring someone to install those as our original contractor decided to get a little too greedy.