Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very
Merry Christmas!

Traditions

This year we've kept true to a few of our holiday traditions and we might of even created a few new ones.

Hunting for that perfect tree was on our list of continued traditions. 

While hunting, Santa made an appearance which made my childrens' day.

Ashton yelled, "Santa!" the entire time we searched as the carolers and Caitlyn sang, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Fun tradition! 

A new tradition on our list was the Preschool/Church Christmas Pageant.

This one might only be on our list of holiday faves for the next few years... until all our children grow out of it, I guess. Their rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High was music to my ears and the chorus gave me and everyone else in the audience a good chuckle!

 Chex mix was a must! This year, I made no short of 30 batches. Those that made it to the sweater party got a very yummy party favor.

 Cookie decorating was squeezed in last minute with a lot smaller of a crowd than usual.  Caitlyn, 38 weeks pregnant-Cocia Ksavera, Babcia, Ashton and I decorated our hearts out of 6 dozen holiday cut outs...

and when Dad was upstairs, he totally missed out on Santa's very quick visit to our house.  While decorating cookies, Cocia Ksavera caught a glimpse of Santa through our back window, Caitlyn jumped outta her chair and ran to the other, bigger window to see him, he peeked in at her, waved, and gave a hardy, 'ho ho ho!'

Caitlyn, Ashton, and I went to every single window in the house to see if we could see him fly away on his sleigh.  We actually did find lights in the sky that looked just like Santa and his Reindeer and we watched them until we couldn't see them anymore.

Each of the kids have countdown chains in their bedrooms and in the kitchen is a special count down for Jesus' birthday, so far Jesus' birthday countdown cake has 21 candles on it.

4 more days!

This Christmas is my favorite so far... and it's not even here yet.

♥

Naughty or Nice?

My children were definitely on the NICE list!  There was no one in line to see Santa so we got to sit and talk with him for a while. Surprisingly, Caitlyn shared her list with Santa. Ashton was somewhat shy, but after he ate his entire candy cane in record time, he had the courage to talk to him. He kept trying to go back up to Santa while lifting his shirt and saying, "belly button!" 

PRECIOUS! 

Sweater Party 2010

Appropriately dressed for the 'Ugly Sweater Party',

but my kids were far from... 'ugly'!

In fact I'd say they were pretty darn adorable.

 Posing for next year's invitation.

 This year we posed for a group shot.

It wouldn't be an Ugly Sweater blog post without the collage.

This year, a lot of holiday cheer was shared and we all looked so good sharing it. Thanks for another fun year.  Although I was grunting and groaning during the preparations for this annual event... (and afterwards while steam cleaning my carpets)... We'll definitely be doing it again next year.