Wrapping it up

Well I missed blogging about our last few activities. Sorry about that. Wednesday our advent activity was to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Well actually I intended for us to stop by the girls favorite place, Chick Fil A, and order a few yummy milkshakes to enjoy as we drove around looking at the lights. However, neither girl ate their dinner ( a way too common occurrence) so no dessert. We barely started on our light looking journey when The Bear starts saying "Where are we going?" "Why aren't we going home?" "I want to go home!" " I don't want to look at lights!". Needless to say our adventure didn't last long. The next day Curly got an ear infection so we spent time at the doctor's office, the pharmacy and home. She's better now. Today Grandma and Pap Pap came. We all went to Christmas Eve services at our church. Tomorrow we will celebrate our first Christmas in our own home. We've travelled every Christmas since we've been married. This year we decided to stay in our own home. We are very excited to see the girl's reactions in the morning. Merry Christmas everyone!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM US

Activity Advent Day 21: Making Snowflakes

Today the girls attempted to make paper snowflakes. The Bear needed help with the cutting but she loved the decorating part. Curly is feeling a bit better. Still very stuffy but at least her eyes have stopped watering. We are hoping she will be 100% by Christmas.

Hard at work

Activity Advent Day 20 : The Giveaway

Before Thanksgiving, we went through the playroom and had the girls pick out all the toys they wanted to giveaway to children in need. We filled up a couple bags full of toys. I was very proud of them. However, I knew there were still plenty of toys in there that they no longer played with and could be given to kids who would love to play with them. So today my plan was to have each girl choose a few more toys each to give away and then actually go to Goodwill or a Toys for Tots drop off and let them hand the toys over. Sadly our little Curly was sick. She is very stuffy and her poor little eyes are so watery she looks like she is crying all the time. The girls did pick out toys to give but we are putting off the drop off until another day when Curly feels a bit more up to it.

In other news, The Bear adopts a new personality each day. When she wakes each morning she tells me what she wants to be called. In the past week she has been Clairce the girl reindeer, a pony, a baby pony, a cat named Jilliana, Dora, Diego, Alice (Angelina Ballerina's best friend), and a horse. Today she insisted on being called Hailey. Hailey is a friend of Curly's who gave The Bear some hand me down pink cowgirl boots. The Bear wore them all day around the house. If anyone forgets and calls her by her real name instead of her chosen personality she gets offended. "I Hailey" "I Pony" "I Baby Pony" she yells. The different ponies and horses throw me for a loop every time. I am working on her being more polite when asking to be called a different name. Bear say "Please call me Hailey". "Okay mommy, I will" she replies every time. Each morning I do a little devotional with the girls while they eat breakfast and then we say a prayer. This morning the devotional was about being kind to people even if you don't want to. As I said our prayer I mentioned the girls by their real names, The Bear immediately started crying and yelling "I Hailey! Call me Hailey!". That whole kindness thing just went in one ear and out the other in the matter of seconds.

Poor sick little girl

"Hailey" spent all day in her new pink boots

Clearly they have more toys to spare

Activity Advent Days 18 & 19: The Polar Express

Last year, Curly was obsessed with The Polar Express. She wanted to watch it continuously. She loved the music mostly. It has beautiful music. She sang the song "When Christmas comes to town" just about every day since last Christmas. So this year I was determined that we were going to track down a real Polar Express to ride. There were a few to choose from but we decided on the one in Bryson City, NC. It's about a three hour drive from here to the mountains of North Carolina. We surprised the girls Saturday morning. They were excited about visiting the Polar Express but probably more excited about staying at a hotel (or Wootel as they insist on calling it). Those girls love staying in hotels. I don't get it. So we loaded up the van and drove up to the mountains. It was a beautiful drive. The girls were very excited that there was some snow on the ground. Our train ride wasn't until 6:30 Saturday evening. We dressed the girls in their Christmas PJ's just like the movie and headed to The Great Smokey Mountain Railroad to board The Polar Express. The waiters in our car were great. They definitely got into character. They served hot chocolate and a snack. They sang Christmas carols. We got to see the North Pole from the train. We didn't actually get off the train in the North Pole; however, Santa and one of his elves got on the train and visited each car. He gave all the children a jingle bell. Curly and The Bear had a blast.

Curly being a goofball at dinner before we boarded the train

Waiting for The Polar Express

Checking out Santa's Sleigh

IT'S HERE!!!!

All aboard with their tickets.

The Bear and Daddy playing

Bopping balloons around the train. The rule was to keep balloons going during the whole ride. Our girls did their part.

Curly was in Heaven

Hot Chocolate!

Singing Christmas carols while waiting for Santa

SANTA!

The girls LOVE their bells.

Activity Advent Day 17: Watch the Polar Express

Tonight we watched The Polar Express and ate popcorn by the Christmas tree. Tomorrow morning we are telling the girls that we are going to see the real Polar Express. So excited to see their reactions.

Activity Advent Day 16: Family Game Night

Yesterday our town was covered in a sheet of ice, so today the schools were delayed by 2 hours. This sounds okay in theory but it's horrible. At 9:30 everyone in our entire town is on the road trying to get kids to school by ten. All the cars, all the buses, all the people who decided to go into work late to make sure the ice was gone, EVERYONE. Today was Curly's preschool class's Christmas party. I was a parent volunteer for the party. So I loaded up the kids in the van in what I thought would be enough time to drop The Bear off at a friend's house and get Curly and I to the preschool for the party. I was wrong wrong wrong. I've never seen our town covered in so much traffic even during the normal busy times. It was annoying. Thankfully the kids had chapel before the party so I had some time to spare. I dropped Curly off, took The Bear to my friend's house and then drove back to school in time for the party. The kids had an awesome time.

Today our activity advent was to play games as a family. The girls picked out our Cat in the Hat game. It's a super fun game to play with little kids. It makes you do wacky things with objects from the book. We played it 4 or 5 times. The girls never wanted to play anything else.

Curly and her teacher Ms Carol

Her other teacher Ms Kris

Curly got a new Christmas book as a present from her teachers, she couldn't wait to read it to The Bear as soon as we got home.

Ready to play the game

Step over the Trick a ma stick with the fan between your knees

Walk backwards around the Trick a ma stick with Mother's new dress on your head

Activity Advent Day 15: Tangled

Today's activity was a trip to the theater to see Tangled. In case you don't know what it is:

I got into a habit a while back where I don't tell Curly about any activity/party/playdate/trip , or basically anything fun we are going to do. I let everything be a surprise. It started because when I told Curly about stuff she would get crazy excited. Then if whatever event got cancelled, or someone didn't show up that I said would be there she was so disappointed and would go on and on about how something didn't go the way I told her it would. Honestly I just got annoyed with it, so I started letting just about everything we did be a surprise. If she never knew about something, she never got let down when it was cancelled. However surprises make her happy. Win for everyone! I need to stop, she's older now and can understand better when something gets cancelled and why. But like I said it's a habit, so I sometimes forget to tell her things. Curly came home from preschool yesterday and said "Mama, Claire said we were going to see her tomorrow at the movies to see that new Rapunzel show. Is that right?" Oh yeah, oops, I forgot to mention it. We headed out this cold and slightly snowy afternoon to meet some friends to watch Tangled. The movie was so cute and fun. I recommend it to all. Curly observed that Rapunzel's hair was "Bigger than Goliath". The Bear thankfully sat still and enjoyed the movie and her popcorn. It sleeted the entire time we were in the theater. When we left the roads were covered in ice. We drove about 10 MPH the whole way home. The van slipped and skidded all the way. It was very scary but thankfully we made it home safely as did Daddy.

Waiting for the movie to start with our besties!

Advent Activity Day 14: Breakfast for Dinner

Let me start by saying I have no pictures from today. The second Tuesday of each month is my Bunco night. Unfortunately Daddy had a last minute business trip planned and he not only couldn't join us for the breakfast dinner but he couldn't stay with the girls so I could go to Bunco. Boo. I don't like when he travels, but it's his job. I still cooked eggs and pumpkin muffins for the girls. They devoured the muffins. They barely touched their eggs. Curly spilled her milk. The Bear threw her cup. It was loads of messy fun and I didn't stop to take pictures. After dinner I surprised them with a trip to Aunt Jenna and Uncle Prem's house for the evening. They were so excited . Thank you Prem and Jenna for letting me have my monthly Bunco outing by watching the girls. Curly and The Bear had a really fun time playing. Tomorrow we have a fun activity planned and I promise pictures.

Activity Advent Day 13: The Gingerbread House

This was our first attempt ever at a gingerbread house. I tried to make it as easy as possible. I got a very small and simple house. The girls loved it though they are still confused as to why they cannot eat it. "It looks so yummy mommy" says Curly.

The Set Up

The Decorating

The finished product

Activity Advent Days 11 & 12 : Christmas Parties

This past weekend we had two Christmas parties to attend with the kids. The first one was Saturday morning at our friends Sheperd and Grant's house. They hosted a breakfast and craft party. The whole family was invited to come in their Christmas pajamas and enjoy a yummy warm breakfast and then the kids made a craft. All the little ones were so cute all dressed up in their pajamas.

Painting ornaments in pajamas

All the kiddos

Curly and Kate

The next party was Sunday afternoon. Our sweet friend Claire and her mommy, Melissa, through a hot chocolate party. There was hot chocolate, cookies, cupcakes and crafts. Claire was very insistent that boys were NOT allowed at her hot chocolate. That meant Daddy was not invited and Claire made sure her Daddy and little brother were out of the house. All of us girls had fun.

Stirring up her hot chocolate. It was actually more luke warm. Curly doesn't eat or drink anything hot.

Enjoying the cookie she decorated. Pretty sure she just licked off the icing.

The Big Girls

Activity Advent Day 10: The Carriage Ride

Our activity for today was to ride on a horse drawn carriage at our local outdoor mall. They offer free carriage rides every Friday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our sweet friends Avery and Abby met us for the ride. Curly said she felt like she was with her sister princesses on their way to meet their princes. We had a great time.

Curly also got a hair cut today. I was trying to grow it out but she begged to get it cut. Daddy wanted it cut too so I gave in and got it cut.

The Bear found a little statue child that kept her entertained while we waited in line.

You cannot really tell, but we are in a carriage.

The girls were too excited to look at the camera.

Princess Sisters

Activity Advent Day 9: The Pink Pig and Santa

Today I surprised the girls with a trip down to Lenox Mall to meet some of our favorite friends and ride Macy's Pink Pig and meet Santa. We did this same thing last year with these same friends. Guess it's a tradition now. The Pink Pig is an Atlanta tradition. It might be the most random tradition ever. A large pink pig and Christmas go together right? Well they do in Atlanta. We all had a squealing good time riding the Pink Pig train. There was a person dressed up like Priscilla the Pig at the entrance. Curly was so excited. The Bear wanted nothing to do with a large pink pig dressed in a poodle skirt initially. She eventually warmed up to Priscilla and even sat on her lap for a picture. After riding the train, we headed to see Santa. There was no line. Both Curly and The Bear sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Santa gave them candy canes. Curly ate hers up quickly. The Bear took one lick and threw it on the floor. She apparently HATES the taste of candy canes. I swear that girl is the world's worst eater. We finished up our super fun morning with lunch at Chick Fil A, of course.

Tickets in hand. Ready to ride the Pink Pig.

Sweet Friends

Curly and her new friend Priscilla the Pig

Curly didn't want to leave Priscilla side at all.

Priscilla trying to make The Bear her friend

It worked!

All ready to ride!

Curly and Avery

Pure joy on their faces as we rode the Pink Pig for a second time

We rode the Pink Pig and got the stickers to prove it

SANTA! (or HoHo according to The Bear)

A jolly ole hug from St Nick