Christmas a little longer...

A few years ago I read on a blog about how fun it was to have a Lego advent calendar.  Lily was just starting to get interested in Lego's and I have a deep love for advent calendars.  I searched out the Lego advent calendar and bought one.  I'll be honest, it was pricey...aren't all Lego's pricey?!  But I know now that it was worth every penny.  The girls can hardly wait until daddy gets home from work each night to build the Lego piece for that day.  Countless times throughout the days I have caught Lily and Allie playing with the Legos or rearranging them.  They just can't stay away from them.  I'm so glad I started this tradition with our family and I look forward to doing it each Christmas.

I had the girls each pick out a favorite Lego piece today and this is what they showed me...

Allie's favorite...

Lily's favorite...

Tree ornaments are also a favorite of mine.  I love adding new ones each year.  But I also love pulling out old familiar ones and remember the stories that go along with them.  I encouraged the girls to look carefully at the tree and pick out their favorite ornament this year.  

Charlotte chose this cute one she made in nursery...

Lily chose her very first Christmas ornament she received...

Allie chose baby Jesus.  She looks forward to putting him on the tree every year.

As the Christmas season is winding down it has been fun to look at some of the traditions we have as a family.  Soon it will be time to pack them away, but for now we get to enjoy them a bit longer.

Merry Christmas!

 Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

{Click on the letter to enlarge and read}

Finding Cookie: Day 24

 We were all shocked this morning when we woke up and this scene in our Christmas Tree!

  

Wait you can't see the problem?  Okay, let's zoom in a bit!

 

Cookie crashed the girls Barbie car into the tree!  That Elf is so naughty some times!  I was so shocked by Cookie's stunt that I forgot to take a picture of where she was hiding today.  I can't remember now either where it was.  However, I do remember that all day long the girls went up to Cookie and shook their fingers at her and kept telling her how naughty she was.  Lily even suggested that maybe Santa should put Cookie on the naughty list.  Hmmm...we'll have to see if that happens or not!

Christmas Eve

Today was another nice relaxing day as a family.  We didn't do much which was fine by me!  

We did have our traditional pizza dinner though.  Russ kept asking if I wanted to make chicken bacon pizza.  I kept telling him no.  Finally he asked why not.  I explained to him that part of the reason why my family had pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve was because it gave my mom a nice break from having to cook dinner.  During the holiday season there is so much baking and cooking that is going on, that having one night off is nice.  I explained that I liked to have it off too, and that is why I didn't want to make chicken bacon pizza even if it is our favorite.  With a look of realization Russ replied, "Oh, well lets order pizza then!"  Love my hubby :)  We ended up ordering from Pizza Hut because I used to {note used to} love their pizza and breadsticks.  Lets just say we will not be ordering from them again.  The girls barely touched their pizza and Russ and I were less than impressed.

After pizza we all bundled into the car and headed out to see the Christmas lights.  Lily was wound up from the excitement of Santa coming that night that she kept asking if we could go home.  Russ and I weren't quite as patient with her as we should have been.  Sadly, Christmas light looking was a tad stressful this year.

When we did arrive home we found that Mrs Clause had used our key to get in the house.  She had left wrapped presents for everyone.  How exciting!  We opened them up to find nice new warm jammies to wear!  New Christmas jammies are a favorite in our family! 

I'm not sure who was excited the most about Russ's new jammies, the girls or him?  Apparently Mrs. Clause knows that daddy is a Batman fan.  The girls giggled and giggled over that.

After jammies I wanted to try out some photo techniques I had seen on Pinterest.  I didn't get it quite right but the photos are still pretty even if they aren't perfect.

I love how Charlotte is looking at Allie in this picture.

By this time it was time to get ready for bed.  Daddy pulled out Twas the night before Christmas.  Perfect bedtime story for Christmas Eve right?!

Hopefully the girls are now asleep with sugar plums dancing in their heads so Santa can come visit.  We did warn the girls that if they stayed up late Santa would just skip our house.  Mean I know, but Lily has a bad habit of staying up late even when she isn't excited. 

Finding Cookie: Day 22

Cookie's bum was getting a little cold so she had to warm it up by sitting the candle!  The girls were rolling on the floor when I explained to them that was why Cookie must be sitting on the candle.

Ho-Ho-Ho!

We recently taught Charlotte how to laugh like Santa.  I may be a little biased, but it is the cutest thing ever!

Christmas Craft

Every December I write up a schedule of a bunch of different crafts I want to do with the girls.  A lot of them fall by the wayside because of time.  Others are such a hit that we repeat them year after year.  This year I was shopping at Target and saw some fun wood Santa's & Snowmen in the dollar section.  I thought these would be a perfect craft for the girls to do.  I bought them and put them in the closet waiting for just the right time.

After being at Kroger's with the girls today I almost pulled my hair out.  I knew that we needed to do something that would be nice and calm for me, but fun for the girls.  I remembered the wood crafts and pulled them out.  The girls LOVED this project.  They each worked diligently on their craft for quite some time.  It provided a nice peaceful break for Russ and I!

Charlotte really got into the activity, which isn't too surprising since she has been on a coloring kick lately.

 

When finished the girls wanted to show off their crafts.  We took a picture of each of them and then placed them up on bookshelves where everyone who comes to visit can see them.

Lily's classroom party

I volunteered to go in and help with Lily's class party today.  Sadly their wasn't much for me to do.  I helped pass out some food and that was about it.  I was happy though that I got to spend a little bit of time with Lily. 

Jacob K's mom had come in earlier and helped the kids make Christmas trees out of waffle cones, icing, and candy.  Lily was so excited when I gave her permission to eat hers.

I couldn't believe the amount food and goodies the kids had.  Lily took a bite of everything and then brought a huge goodie bag home to share with the family.  We also got to bring home all 24 cupcakes they had asked me to bring for the party.  Anyone want a cupcake?!

Finding Cookie: Day 20

Cookie was hiding a top the archway today. 

Finding Cookie: Day 19

The girls gave Cookie a good talking to today.  They reminded HER that she needed to be a good elf too.  Swinging from the chandelier is not a good idea.  I seriously got the giggles listening to them tell her that SHE was being naughty!

Secret Cousins

A fun tradition that the Jones family does each year we get together is Secret Cousins.  Leslie and Suzi pulled names out of a hat to match up cousins from different families.  My girls loved coming up with ideas for presents for their Secret Cousins.  I had to do most of the shopping for them because I was trying to do some family Christmas shopping at the same time.  Obviously the girls couldn't tag along for that :)

When we realized that we wouldn't be going to California this year we hurried and got the presents wrapped.  The girls insisted on wrapping their cousins presents since they didn't get to buy them.  Both Lily and Allie were so proud of their wrapping job.

 

We got them sent off today (which is whole other stressful experience!) so hopefully they will make it there in time for Christmas.  Fingers crossed!

Finding Cookie: Day 18

Cookie was caught hiding behind another one of our Santa's today.  The girls thought she looked super cute playing peek-a-boo with them.

Change of plans...

This evening started out with me, the girls, and Sprinkles driving to the Gonzales's house.  We met Russell and Raphael there.  Raphael and his family graciously agreed to watch Sprinkles while we headed to California for Christmas.  We spent a little while talking with Gonzales's.  While there I got a bit concerned.  Charlotte was running around chasing their dogs and cats.  Her breathing sounded terrible.  I brushed my concerns away.

Awhile later we headed to the McDonald's for dinner.  While waiting for our food to be prepared the girls participated in a craft that McDonald's was hosting.  They each made a mitten ornament for our Christmas tree.  Lily and Allie really enjoyed doing this.

Charlotte on the other hand was getting riled up from the activity and was beginning to breathe even harder.  It was getting hard to push away my concerns.  We thought though that if she settled down and ate she would be okay.  Not so much.  She began to eat and her full blown asthma attack settled in.  She couldn't breathe and ended up throwing up all over me and the table.  *sigh*  We hurried the girls along with their dinner while we struggled to calm Charlotte down.  While there I turned to Russ and said, "You know what this means don't you?"  He nodded and said "yeah"  We weren't going to California for Christmas :(

After eating we went back to the Gonzales's and picked up Sprinkles and then headed home.  The whole time Charlotte was breathing heavily.  I could hear her from the front seat.  An hour later we finally got home and was able to give her a breathing treatment.  Russ called and let his family know the bad news.  I'm so grateful that they were understanding.  It was a huge disappointment that we wouldn't be seeing family but some things just can't be helped.

And before I forget...here is a picture of each of the girls ornaments...

Allie

 

Lily

 

Charlotte

 

A letter in the mail!

Receiving mail is one my girls favorite things.  They always are asking if they got anything in the mail when I go check it.  The were ecstatic today when they each received a card from Lala and Papa Joe.  (We are having a bit of picture crisis around here lately, so pardon the subpar photos.)

Finding Cookie: Day 17

Apparently Cookie enjoys playing the Wii!  Don't all elf's enjoy playing games?!  The girls thought this was hilarious.  They couldn't stop laughing the Cookie had played the Wii while they were sleeping.