Christmas Fun

We had a great Christmas this year in our own home with my parents, Grandma and Pap Pap. To make it even better, it was a White Christmas. Altogether we got about 2 or 3 inches of snow. It even lasted a few days before it was all melted away. A few days after Christmas we headed down to visit Gran and PaPa in Augusta for a few days. The girls got to experience Christmas all over again.

Both girls got their much desired Pillow Pets. Curly got a pink pig pillow pet which was especially hard for Santa to find. The Bear got a unicorn one which was readily available in any store that sold Pillow Pets. The girls have had a lot of fun playing with all their new toys. I've had a ton of fun arranging and rearranging the play room tying to find the best way to fit it all in neatly =0). The biggest gift came from Aunt Katie and Aunt Jenna and Uncle Prem, a big trampoline. They are coming up in a few weeks to put it together. The girls are very eager to start jumping.

I'd write more but it's all about the pictures on Christmas so here you go...

Santa came!

Curly ran and tackled her pink pig pillow pet which is named Pricilla.

The Bear running to her purple unicorn pillow pet which she named Unicorn.

Rip It Up! Tear It Up!

Thank you Aunt Lauren and Uncle Luke

Pocahontas in Santa socks

Wearing the new Christmas aprons their GG Lucy made

The Bear's little snowman, Frosty

Snowball fight with Pap Pap and Daddy

Daddy in the snow

Christmas in Augusta

"The Comeback" Thank you Lauren and Luke

New German baby dolls from Gran and Papa.

Checking out the trampoline box

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