Christmas Eve (2014)

On Christmas Eve, we got all dressed up for mass and took family pictures:

After mass, the kids got to open their Christmas Eve box:

It is always filled with new jammies, hot cocoa, a new Christmas movie, and a Christmas treat.

After they opened it, I realized that I got jammies that were two sizes too small for Riley, so at 7:15 on Christmas Eve, I ran to Walmart to get new pj's.
That was not fun.... ;0)

After the movie, the kids set out cookies and milk for Santa and went up to bed.

Christmas Cookies!

The kids have gotten to decorate two kids of cookies this year. The first was a funny take on gingerbread men. We made Ninja-bread men!!

I got this fun kit at Big Lots and immediatly though the boys would love it. They did, but so did Lily! :0)

This was my attempt at a Ninja:

These are Zach's ninjas:

Riley's:

Lily's:

Zach biting the head off of a ninja... ;0)

A few days later, we decided to make sugar cookies so we had cookies for Santa. They all took turns cutting cookies out of the dough:

We didn't get to decorate them that night, but the next day, the kids got out all of the sprinkles we own and the icing that Grammy gave us and got to work!

These are some of the ones Lily made:

Some of Riley's:

And some of Zach's:

They each got to choose one to set aside for Santa:

Now all of our Christmas baking is done! :0)

Polar Express Night!!

On Saturday night, we had a Polar Express Night!! We had lots of yummy treats, hot cocoa, and yummy things to put into our hot cocoa! We also watched The Polar Express on "the big Screen" in our familyroom. We decided we couldn't enjoy all of this fun by ourselves, so we invited the kids' cousins to come over and join in.

Here are the yummy treats we had:

Hot Chocolate cookie cups:

Reese's Trees:

Marshmallow Dippers:

Hot Chocolate Cookies:

Adult hot chocolate bar:
;0)

Hot chocolate bar:

All of our yummy treats!

Everyone came over in their jammies and they got a ticket for the Polar Express!

Then we dug into our treats!

After everyone was all sugared up, we started the movie!!

Suddenly, we heard a distinctive "Ho Ho Ho!"
Santa had come to visit us!!!

Everyone got a chance to talk to Santa and he even gave them all a bell from his sleigh! Just like in the movie!!

Brigid:

Ceridwen & Brigid:

Ceridwen:

Emma:

Lily:

Ares:

Johnny:

Alyssa:

Riley:

Tabitha:

Zach:

Grammy even sat on Santa's lap! ;0)

Everyone with Santa:

It was SO fun to see the kids reactions, especially the littlest kids! They LOVED seeing Santa and getting to talk to them!

After Santa had to go back to the North Pole, we settled back down (as much as they were going to hyped up on sugar & Santa, lol!) and watched the rest of the movie.

It was a fun night!!