A Merry Christmas

Our Christmas was truly wonderful!  Not much beats that warm, cozy feeling of love as we spend time with friends and family.
On the 23rd we got to have my sister's son join us for some fun on the ice.  The kids loved it.  They seriously love every minute there. Here they are warming up with some hot chocolate in the club house. Let me tell you, it is seriously good hot chocolate.

 I got the best early Christmas present when I got home and found my blog books on my front step.  I have been wanting to start printing my blog for years but at almost 6 yrs the task seemed expensive.  My sweet grandparents always send T and I Christmas money so I put it toward my first two books which printed off 2009-2012.  I'm hoping to get another done for my birthday.  I absolutely treasure it. 

 Chippey the Elf came in spiderman style for his last day with us this year.  The kids loved it.

 Christmas eve we headed over to my parents for our annual appetizer style dinner and treats.  We kept it much more low key and didn't plan a bunch of games like usual and just visited and played.  The kids opened up their Christmas jammies before we went over and sure looked cozy all evening.

 While T drove his family home from my parents place the kids and I got ready for Santa to come.  I always love how excited they are to go to bed!   We checked the Santa tracker on TV.

 And got out some milk and cookies.  AL left a note for Santa that she wrote at school trying to convince him to let her be one of his reindeer ;)

 After the kids were asleep T set up the wii we got for the kids....and then "tested" it out.  We have never allowed gaming in the house until now.  For us behavior post electronics isn't always positive so we really weighed this decision out.  I don't want to completely shelter the kids, nor do I want them always wanting to go to neighbor's houses just so they can play.  We decided to get a used wii system since most of the games involve a bit more physical activity.  We set some strict rules on it (easier to go in heavy then try to do it after the fact).  The kids can play for 30-60 mins/day if homework is done, beds made and behavior good and even then it may just be saturday only.  The controls and games are kept out of reach in the top of our closet.  So far it seems to be working really well.

 Santa came in the night and left some pretty fun things!

 The kids could harldy contain their excitement in the morning.

 Santa really nailed it when he brought this train for WR and combined his two loves, diggers and trains.  JA might just love it too.

 The best part of the morning was when we opened gifts and the kids insisted we open all the treasures they had made and wrapped first.  Seriously nothing is sweeter.

 After all the gifts were open we told the kids that we had one more gift for them upstairs.  They couldn't believe their luck.

 At noon we headed over to my mom's house for brunch.  I love how close they live!  I could still tend to my turkey and enjoy this.

 After a yummy meal we opened gifts with my family.  My brother spoiled my kids with a tablet to share (it falls under the same restriction as the wii and lives out of reach to be used as a small reward - I just never want my kids to be those kids that spend all day with a screen and need one to go to church, out for a meal, etc ). To say that JA was happy would be an understatement lol

 The girls loved their scarves!

 AL got some beautiful horses and doll accessories.  There isn't much more that I love then watching her play! (I'm pretty sure my horse loving sister was just as excited here - note the black blanket on her lap is actually a blanket for her horse with her name embroidered onto it)

 The boys got these great (yet loud) wooden pop guns from Cabella's that have been so fun

 I loved seeing how much WR gravitated towards my brother especially considering he only sees him once a year.  Two peas in a pod.

 T is looking forward to warmer days to hit the tennis courts with his new racket.

 After our brunch we headed home to get the two large dinner tables set and all the food prepped.  It truly was awesome that my mom could cook some at her place and just bring it over too.

 The food was so delicious.

 My brother kept things lively at the kids table and kept WR laughing while he ate non stop jello salad lol

 We even managed to snag a few pics of my family.

 After we recovered from dinner we served dessert.  The last few years we have preordered these "yule logs" (cake/chocolate mouse) from a dessert company and it has been the best hassle free idea.  Served with raspberry sauce it is nice and light after a big meal.

 On Boxing Day T was up at 5:30 am to score a fabulous deal on a lawnmower of all things lol. 


These two boys have a way of melting my heart. They got cheesy matching Planes shirts and love them!

 We headed to my sisters acerage to do some sledding on the neighboring land.  We had a half hr of fun and then it went downhill fast when their dog got completely out of hand with poor AL (I wont' go into details but we left right after sadly).  A great time up until then though.

 Love these faces

 My brother's flight left a few hrs later but just before he left I snuck over to visit some friends with him.  The couple in the pic had been good friends of ours when we were teenagers (although they lived a few hrs away).  They married, had 5 kids and are still just as adorable and seriously never age.  I've seen them here and there over the years and they are now living in the neighborhood for the year which has been awesome.  It was fun for my brother who hadn't seen them since our teens to catch up.

 The best part post Christmas is watching kids play.  I have found AL building with WR's blocks more then once.

 On the 27th we went down to the lake and lucked out with tons of friends there at the same time.  AL gave her new hockey stick a go

 WR got some sled and boot time (moms back was a bit tired of holding him up on skates)

 AL and I tried out our moves

 I got some awesome new insulated, fleece lined skate on boxing day.  I love them!  My toes were oh so toasty.

 JA had non stop fun playing hockey, rolling around and being goofy with a bunch of his buddies.

 Grandpa joined us and I laughed when I looked over and saw him playing goalie with all the kids.  He loved every minute of it.  There is such a nostalgic, small town feel to life on the lake, it is hard to describe it.

 I kept finding JA laughing like crazy with all his little buddies

WR loves it just as much, although watching the zambonee clear the rinks was a pretty close second

After an afternoon of hockey we headed to a junior hockey game that the kids won tickets to.  This was their first time going to a game and it was so exciting.  I loved watching their faces with all the excitement.

 It was pretty late so we took Grandpa and our cousin and left WR at home with Grandma who was so kind to babysit. 

The perfect end to an awesome week.