Boxing Day Dinner

After the rush of Christmas, and having it seem like it is over so fast, Boxing day dinner is a wonderfully relaxing event. 

and Troy was able to play with his new lens…  Fun all around!

Merry Christmas!

So far, we have still been able to have a bit of a lie in on Christmas morning, and today was no exception!  The kids all slept until 8am, and then it was the chaos of presents for hours it seemed.  There is just nothing like Christmas chocolate for breakfast…

Christmas Eve

Our traditional Christmas Eve celebrations were so much more fun this year because the girls were so excited they could hardly stand still!  After dinner & singing around the tree, we could finally open presents.  YEA!!

Christmas Activities

I’m not sure who was looking forward to Christmas Vacation more, Sophia or I. She was excited for Christmas & I was looking forward to catching up on sleep & not having a 7am ritual on a daily basis…

We spent one day visiting the reindeer & camels that rest at Swanson's Nursery during December before their long night of work. The animals weren’t too interesting to the girls, but the train held their fascination for quite a while!

an afternoon at the play “The Best Christmas Pageant EVER” then it was decorating Gingerbread houses to make the hours of Christmas eve speed by faster…

Considering most of the candy was from at least 20 years ago when I used to do this, there was relatively little sugar eaten. But I think I did see at least one of the girls sucking on the end of the icing canister… And Lexa’s house had finger lanes all over the back where she decided there was far too much frosting (snow) and she had to eat it off. Luckily It was almost time to go!!

The Nutcracker Night

We spent the evening yesterday at the Nutcracker enjoying an amazing performance!  It isn’t the traditional telling with a Sugarplum fairy, but a bit of a modern take, with Clara/Marie being a much more important character.  We took Sophia 2 years ago, but being jet lagged she slept thru the last 30 min of the performance.  No problems with that this year.  Even Lexa was enthralled for almost the entire show!

Oh Christmas Tree…

Wow, it has been 6 years since we’ve cut down a tree for Christmas, and what a day it was.  The tree farm it running a little low on trees, but the girls had a blast running (or trying to) thru the remainder of trees, tripping over stumps, and generally hunting thru every single tree on the property before hanging our hat on one, and beginning the laborious process of felling a tree.  Luckily Dad & Troy could take turns sawing, while the rest of us leaned &/or pulled to help.  In the end we chose a beautiful tree, hopefully with lots of strong branches – now to find the time to put it up!!