Merry Christmas!

In keeping with our Star Wars theme, we made Yoda and Darth Vader pancakes for our Christmas breakfast this morning!

Thank you again to Andy and Reina for such a fun and yummy gift! It wasn't long after breakfast was finished that we got down to business. This is the first year Christopher has been really into Santa and he was pleasantly surprised when he came into the living room and saw that Santa had indeed visited our house. At the top of his list this year was a Lego cargo plane which he started talking about in September. Well, Santa came through and Chris was very excited!

There is nothing quite like watching a little 5 year-old boy open presents on Christmas. Of all his Christmases so far, this was definitely the most exciting and magical for Chris because he truly is into Santa this year. He also received gifts from our family back east and was equally happy when he opened the cargo ship from Grandma and Grandpa…

Chris wasn't the only kid who had fun this Christmas. Holly and Kasey enjoyed helping us open our presents too.

There were all kinds of Christmas presents in the backyard for them (no, not the ones you are thinking). The presents that smell really good to a hound dog and hop (and eat my hostas!). Here are the girls watching intently from the couch…

These two pups literally sat/stood on the couch for 20 minutes watching the bunnies in our backyard. They also had treats in their stockings from Santa. This is how intently dogs who live in a vegetarian house will sit and wait for beef treats…

After a morning of watching "Planes" (another wish fulfilled by Santa) and assembling toys, Grammy joined us for lunch and visiting. Here she is reading a math book to Chris…

Merry Christmas everyone!

May the Force Be With You

Christopher is hoping that Santa is a big Star Wars fan this year because we made specially shaped sugar cookies just for him…

A big thank you to Andy and Reina for the very fun cookie cutters! This afternoon we are off to do some sleigh riding at Loose Park then the Christmas Eve service at church. Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

P.S.--Anyone want to take a bet at what time Chris will be up tomorrow? He was up at 5:30 this morning and that's the day before Christmas...

Second Annual Gingerbread House Building

This morning, thanks to the Eakin family and their love of holiday traditions, we took part in the second annual gingerbread making festivities at Pizza West. What could be better than all you can eat pizza and endless amounts of sugar? We went with the Eakins and the Titus family and the kids all came up with great designs for there house. As you can see from above, Chris enjoyed eating and constructing his house. He did a lot more of the house on his own this year. Here he is putting the cinnamon toast crunch shingles on the house…

Here is Chris with Olivia and Elliot…

And then the finished product when we got home…

It's not so easy to see but on the right side of the house is a yard for the dogs to run around in. There are two animal crackers representing Kasey and Holly (Chris wanted to build houses for them but there was no extra gingerbread pieces this year) and little candies serving as their toys. Now that we have a dog who can actually reach the counter this year, we will have to store the house in an extra safe location!

The Santa Express

Not only did Christopher have his school holiday party today with all his friends, but Daddy also took a half day and we all went down to Union Station to meet Santa and check out his holiday express train. It was a really great afternoon to do this--no long lines and small crowds. The train was really cool and decorated like crazy with lights and other Christmas treats…

There were even trains on the train!

Most of all, Christopher was very excited to spend some extra time with his daddy…

Chris was in the holiday spirit all day, starting this morning. He is such a dog person and enjoys cuddling with the dogs while I make breakfast in the morning…

Flashback Saturday

When we were just hanging out this morning, Christopher rested on Brian and I took this picture:

It reminded me of a picture I took on the same couch a little over 5 years ago. The most telling difference is that the little boy in the picture was about 5 years younger and 30 pounds lighter!

And while we're showing pictures of Chris resting on Daddy's chest…

The Nutcracker

Today we took Christopher to the Kauffman Center in downtown Kansas City for him to see his first performance of The Nutcracker. It was a great experience and he did very well! During the first act, he was very good about whispering any questions he had. The second act brought a few wiggles but he did well overall. It was a great way to spend a freezing afternoon!

Letter to Santa

Today Chris wrote his very first letter to Santa Claus! This was his Advent activity for today and he took it very seriously, choosing five things that he would like for Christmas…

Advent

This year, we made an Advent calendar with Christopher to countdown the days until Christmas. I put together an envelope with a number on it that represents each day until Christmas. Inside the envelope is an activity (either a service activity or a fun holiday tradition) to do each day. For example, the activity for Sunday was to visit a Salvation Army ringer and donate money in their bucket. For that one, Chris went to his piggy bank and took out the $3 he had in the "donate" section (piggy banks are pretty fancy these days--there's also a save, spend, and invest section) to give. We also found some loose change around the house to give. On Monday, we had a Christmas song dance party and yesterday we donated food to Harvesters. Well, today was a fun activity, one that Chris was looking forward to all day! I found this online and it was to make Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, icing and sprinkles. Here is our boy hard at work!

We made one for Daddy and then Chris and I each made our own. And this activity wouldn't be nearly as fun if we didn't get to eat the trees, so eat them we did! Here's what they looked like before they got "chopped down."

Chris is also having to bundle up now that the temperature is starting to drop! In typical Kansas fashion, yesterday was 64 degrees and we were outside playing with John, Katie and Mary Jane in the driveway with no coats while today we are busting out the down to keep out the cold. I give you the silly boy in his new coat...

Lazy Bones

Mommy's busy cooking dinner and everyone else is laying down on the job!