Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was finally here!  I woke up pretty early and couldn't wait to see Claire come downstairs.  To my total shock, she really was listening when we told her she couldn't come down until 7 am.  I saw the light on around 6:30, but she did not open that door until 7 on the dot!  My parents arrived just before so we all got to see her come down and discover what Santa had brought!  It didn't look like much - some of the gifts were hidden behind the furniture so that Fielder couldn't get to it  :-)

One of my favorite things we did this year was take Claire on her own shopping trip (to the dollar store) so that she could pick out gifts for us and her cousins.  She really put thought into what she wanted to get each person.  I got a mug for my coffee and Daddy got an elephant nail brush (because he likes elephants of course.)
She was SO excited to see each person open their gift - I can't believe she actually kept them all a secret.



Of course the big excitement was seeing what Santa brought.  He came through on the Doc McStuffins doctor kit!  He also brought a Doc doll and Stuffy too.  A couple pet shops, snow mittens, a book, and toothpaste were in the stocking.  Mommy and Daddy gave her ballet shoes and a note that told her she would be taking ballet classes at the Y in a couple weeks!!

 

Santa didn't forget about Fielder!  He got a couple things he needed in his stocking and a toy remote.  Santa must have known how much Fielder loves remotes!

It was a very Merry Christmas morning!!  We had a nice breakfast with my parents and while the kids played with their new toys, Rob and I packed up and got ready for a trip to the farm.  To be continued....
 

Christmas Eve 2012

Elfie on his last night here....we'll miss the little guy!  See ya next year Elfie!

This year, we hosted Christmas Eve. It was Gin's tradition (and still the Hulchers') to do soup on Christmas Eve. That's what I did a couple years ago, so we decided that would be our on-going tradition whenever we host. I made 3 different soups and invited all the grandparents and Jake over to celebrate with us. It was really nice for me to watch the kids in their excitement and be with family. Fielder is not quite to the point that he can be happily handed off to someone (can we say "Mama's Boy"?!) so each of these photos were taken moments before a melt-down!

Mom is wearing Grandpa's Christmas vest....I can still picture him wearing it on Christmas night at his house for pizza and presents!

We let the kids open a couple more gifts - these were from Brooke Southard.  I think Brooke knows how much Claire loves books - she got an Olivia book and a Sesame Street workbook.  Fielder also got 2 books, which Claire will occasionally let him see.  I didn't get too many pictures other than her opening and Fielder standing on top of her gift!


After dinner and dessert, it was time to get everything set up for Santa and try to get some sleep!  (I didn't think Claire would go to bed so easily...at one point she was literally trying to fly she was so hyped up.)  Claire put a cookie out for Santa - only 1 of course because she wanted the rest - and she left him a card and bracelet she had made.

Last step was to leave some oats and a carrot on the deck for the reindeer!

We read The Night Before Christmas and shockingly, both kids went right to bed!  It was really a great Christmas Eve with so many fun memories!  My favorite night of the year!

 

On the countdown...

 

"Hyper" does not even BEGIN to describe Claire over the last week before Christmas.  We've all been having fun getting ready and counting down the days.

 

One night Mimi came for dinner and we took Claire out on a tacky lights tour.  We had fun, but Claire wasn't quite as enthralled as I expected her to be (she kept saying she was tired and ready to go home!)  The first house on our trip was my favorite - you could walk through their backyard and there were just thousands of lights.  Claire was excited to spot Frosty AND they had candy to give out  :-)  (Lintz Lane for future reference!)



We've been spreading out the excitement a little by allowing the kids to open a couple gifts here and there as they arrive in the mail.  The first one was from the Swicks - it was an adorable book read by Madison and Cole.  Claire loves it and Fielder mostly liked the paper!

Next up were a couple gifts from Mary Lynn and Uncle Mike.  She was BEYOND excited to open them....see what I mean:



5 is just the best age yet for Christmas-craziness!!  I can't even imagine what next year will be like when Fielder actually understands that he is getting presents.

 

Santa!

We finally made it to see Santa one week before Christmas.  Rob very patiently went an hour and a half early to wait in line while I got the kids ready and came to the museum seperately.  As it turns out, Santa Land was not busy AT ALL and we were 2nd in line.  Claire was so excited!!  She loved watching Santa come down the chimney (that's the main reason Rob went so early....we couldn't miss that part!)

 

Then she met with the Snow Queen as she waited for her turn.

Just as I predicted, Claire struck a pose while Fielder screamed.  He started crying the second I tried to put him on Santa's lap.  Makes for a funny picture!!  I took Fielder to the side so that Claire could have a minute to talk with Santa and tell him what she'd like to have for Christmas (a Doc McStuffins doctor kit)







After visiting with Santa, I let the kids play in the museum for a while!  Fielder loved running around and playing in the farm area!





2 happy kids ready for Santa to come! 

 

Mommy/Daughter Day

I haven't mentioned anything here about the tragedy in Newton yet because I feel like this is my family "scrapbook" - a place to post about happy times with my family and a little bit of bragging about the kiddos.  I can't help but say that I've been thinking of That Day constantly and aching for those families.....it's made me (and many others I'm sure) want to hug the kids a little tighter and spend some good quality time together.  That's just what Claire and I decided to do on Sunday (16th).  We made our gingerbread house in the morning while Fielder napped.  (She might have eaten more candy than what actually ended up on the house)

Then in the afternoon, we went out on a special Mommy/Daughter date.  Mimi gave us tickets to see The Nutcracker - it's performed at a local high school by a professional dance group.  We had both been looking forward to it for a long time.

Claire saw several of her friends there.  Her favorite part was during intermission when lots of the girls came down to the stage to dance.  It was adorable watching them all twirl around.

 Unfortunately, just a few minutes into the 2nd part of the show there was a fire alarm.  We all had to go outside - including the performers.  We waited and waited and as we were walking around, we found Clara and took a picture with her!  What fun meeting a "celebrity"  :-)

Eventually we were able to go back in for the rest of the show.  (The alarm was having techinical difficulties and went off a couple more times, but we were told to ignore it.)  I was so glad I didn't have to tell Claire that we would have to miss the end of the show.  She really enjoyed it and I loved doing something special with her!

Slumber Par-tay!

Matt and Alison had a Christmas party in Richmond on Thursday night and Claire was beyond excited to have her very first sleepover with Katie.  She was expected to arrive sometime around 6:30 - I missed their voicemail that they'd be there at 6:45 so here was Claire "in position" from 6:15-6:45 waiting for Katie!

As soon as she arrived, I needed to put Fielder to bed.  So what did I do to keep the girls occupied?  I gave them a cookie and put them in a box!  Ha!  Uncle Rob was there to supervise of course.

There wasn't much time for playing.  After Fielder was in bed, the girls had a bubble bath together and then we got ready for bed.  Do these girls look like they are ready to go to sleep?!

I read them some stories and Katie said a goodnight prayer for us:
"Dear God, I love you, no matter what you say. Thank you.  Mumble...mumble....something something(??) The End."
I knew it was going to be party-time when I left the room so I didn't even try to get them to go straight to sleep.  I told them they could play quietly and I would come up to tuck them in later.  I eventually went up and was pleasantly surprised to see that Claire had turned the lights off and gotten herself into bed.  Katie on the other hand had a million and one reasons that she was not ready to go to sleep!!  She needed more water (cup was already half full), she wanted to know if Claire could rhyme, her belly hurt from eating too much dinner, she was hungry, and my all-time favorite:
"I need my time capsule.  I can't sleep without my time capsule."
"Ok Katie, where is it?  Is it in your bag?"
"No, I buried it in my yard."

Eventually they went to sleep and there were only 2 wake-up calls at 2:30a.m. and 4:45am!!  I slept on the floor beside Katie until 6:30 when I figured I should get up.  :-)  Katie definitely missed her mommy and Daddy, but I think Claire and I did a good job at helping her feel comfortable!  It cracked me up though when the first thing I heard her say to Claire in the morning was "That was the best sleepover EVER!"

The girls came downstairs to find Elfie in another silly predicament.  He tried to decorate the kitchen with lights and got all hung up in the ceiling fan!

2 cute cousins with bed-head!!