From our family to yours

I got my Christmas cards out on time this year - except I didn't print enough!  I mailed them to family, but never got around to printing more for my friends.  I loved getting everyone's cards so I hope all my friends knew that I wished them a Merry Christmas and now a Happy New Year!

Barnes Family Christmas

Saturday the 27th was our Barnes family gathering.  With Jake living in Madison and now that Matt and Alison have moved, it was so great to all be together.  Kind of a miracle we found a date that worked for everyone including Sally - AND Alison was able to get over a stomach bug just in time!! Everyone gathered at our house for lunch, presents, and then lots of time for the kids to play.  We even got to celebrate another special thing - Matt graduated PA school AND found out he passed his boards!!  We are so proud of him.  

My pictures turned out pretty bad, but here's a few anyway.  It was crazy during the gifts!  Kids had a blast.  From M, A, J, & K, Claire got a Frozen watch and Fielder got glow sticks, a headlamp, and a little car.  From Jake, Claire got a rainbow-maker for her room and sidewalk chalk and Fielder got his first baseball glove as well as a light-up car.  From Popa and Abu, Claire got 6 new Ivy and Bean books AND a Barnes and Noble gift card!!  And Fielder got a Big Wheel :-)  From Sally, the kids got magazine subscriptions, outfits, pajamas, and a book for Fielder and a pillow-making kit for Claire.  Everyone was so generous and we love everything!!  So lucky to all be together :-)

Slumber party at Mimi and Papa's

 Friday after Christmas, Claire got a special day with Mimi and Papa and then got to spend the night at their house.  Mimi and Claire did a little after-Christmas shopping and found a few treasures.  They also made white chocolates together.  Then, that evening, Mimi had front row tickets for a play at the Childrens theater.

Claire with one of the little bears they found while shopping.  (I think she likes the bears more than anything Santa brought!)

They checked out some cool lights on the way home.

Our Merry Little Christmas Day

One of my favorite Christmas moments each year is turning on the Christmas tree lights in the early morning and seeing all the gifts set up before the kids come downstairs.  I love to imagine their excitement and can't wait to see their faces when they know for sure that Santa had come to our house!

Fielder was up first and I ended up having to wake Claire up!  Mimi and Papa arrived just in time to see them come downstairs.

We found that Santa had left only a crumb from his cookies and he had hung the magic key up on our new Nutcracker from Elfie.

Stockings were first of course and Santa came through on Fielders biggest wish - a candy cane!  (He ate it in about 30 seconds.)

Claire was thrilled with her nutcracker ornament.

Then they opened their gifts from us.  Fielder got pretend money, a piggy bank, a spiderman "mallet" - thanks Daddy - and a stuffed caterpillar.  He's slept with that caterpillar every night since!

Claire got jewelry and cowgirl boots.  Here she is striking a "cowgirl pose."

Santa brought lots of wonderful things.  Sleds for both kids - we're hoping he'll send a little snow our way too!

Claire got Barbies, a Barbie car, and a new scooter.

 Fielder got a tool set, a binoculars and telescope set, and a light up "microphone."  (He immediately chomped the binoculars and broke them and not much later broke the telescope.  The microphone only lasted a couple days and it's broken now too.  The kid is nothing if not rough.)

 Another favorite moment of the day is watching Claire while we open our gifts from her.  We both took her shopping and she used her own money to buy us gifts.  She got Daddy new sunglasses and candle holders with red candles for me.  She was SO excited to watch us open them!

 I fixed a nice brunch for everyone and the rest of the day was truly relaxing!  We were able to play outside and test out the new scooter.  We even went back out to play after naptime and rode bikes more with our neighbors who very generously gave us a hand-me-down bike for Fielder.  We had a very merry day!  Thanks Mom and Dad for joining us.  (The kids loved having them there, especially to climb all over Papa and try to keep him from getting a nice nap!)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was hosted by yours truly this year.  I was really excited to host and continue our Christmas Eve Soup night tradition.  (And it just so happened that I got new soup bowls from Mom for Christmas in my Winterberry pattern!)  We had a favorite, lasagna soup, as well as a new one - homemade Brunswick Stew with chicken and smoked barbecue (nope, no squirrel!)  Not the fanciest meal, but it's easy to prepare ahead of time so that I can enjoy the time with my family.  Our kids hate soup so they had "deconstructed" meals....plain pasta, plain vegetables, and breadsticks.  They were happy with that ( ugh, maybe one day???...)
Anyway, I love finally having a dining table that we can fit the whole family around and we are thankful for the family that could join us that night!

After everyone left, we had to get down to business.  We left oats and carrots on the back deck.  We hung our magic key on the front porch Christmas tree (because we don't have a real chimney.)  We left cookies for Santa, put the elf shoes in the tree, and read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  But the BIG thing that the kids had been looking forward to ALL day was that they got to hug and kiss Elfie goodbye before putting him back on the counter for his last night at our house.  He had left a cute poem for us on our last day explaining that for just that moment, they were allowed to touch him.  I wish I had taken a video because it was so quick that I couldn't really capture it in pictures, but the look of pure joy on their faces was priceless.  Claire thought it was truly magical to be able to touch him and I heard her whispering to him "thank you for letting me hug you."  She noticed he does in fact feel like a toy - and we decided he is just a toy until nighttime when he turns magical.
Goodbye Elfie - thanks for all the fun this year and we'll see you again next year!

Both kids were surprisingly easy to get to bed that night - Claire wanted to be sure NOT to be awake when Santa got there!  We checked the night sky one last time before bed and luckily did not see Rudolph's nose just yet.  This is the MOST wonderful night of the year!

Days of rest (and rain)

After the excitement of Christmas with the Masons, we had a couple relaxing low-key days as we geared up for Christmas Eve.  The rain kept us home mostly except for quick runs to the Y and grocery store.  (I'm pretty sure I spent more time and money at Kroger than on all Christmas gifts combined.)
One day while Fielder napped and the rain fell, Claire and I sat by the fire and tried out her new finger looms.  We had so much fun making bracelets and she was really proud of them!  It was great to spend a little one-on-one time with my girl while she had a break from school.  Just wanted to post this so I would remember a quiet moment during the "craziness" of December that puts a smile on my face!

Christmas with the Masons

Christmas celebrations started out with the Masons on Sunday the 21st.  The kids in their matching "jammies" were adorable and the outfits definitely helped bring out the extra silliness!  We tried to get a cute picture for mom's Christmas card, but I think the outtakes are better than the "nice" ones.

We had a nice casual lunch together and then opened stockings and gifts.  The kids were beyond hyped up (who can blame them?) and we did our best to control the chaos.

 

This is me smiling to say "thanks Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara for giving us ANTS!!"  Actually it will be pretty cool to watch the ants make their tunnels, so long as the ants and sand stay inside their home and not ours!

Lots of wonderful gifts from everyone - the kids have so many fun things to play with!  (Thank goodness because it ended up raining for the next 3 straight days.)

After presents, we had the afternoon to read, play, and make messes in Mimi and Papa's house!

Fielder stayed in Tara's lap for a long time looking at books.  He loves to do whatever cousin Samara is doing!

 The kids had a blast retreating upstairs to the toy closet and playing in Mimi and Papa's guest room.  I'm not quite sure what all they were into but I know it included getting in and out of the crib, "sleeping" in the big bed, finding needles in Mimi's sewing stuff, coloring with colored pencils (only a tiny bit on the carpet), dumping out the huge bin of teeny tiny Lego's, brushing teeth, and....wait for it....eating salt out of a child's potty seat.  I have no idea whose idea that was, but we'll just add that to the growing list of really gross things Fielder has eaten.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner, courtesy of Mimi and headed home after a fun-filled day.  Thanks Mom and Dad for everything!!