Merry Christmas!!

This year Christmas was perfect! Claire is the perfect age for the magic of Santa and Christmas.  And Oliver is the perfect age for ripping open presents and playing with toys!  

Claire was really into giving everyone gifts this year.  I took her to a holiday party at my school and they had a Santa's Secret Shop where Claire spent a lot of time picking out gifts for her Daddy and grandparents.  She loved wrapping their gifts all by herself and writing her own labels.  I love that she is really into the "giving" thing when it comes to Christmas and not just the "where are my gifts" thing. 

We had Christmas Eve dinner here and everyone had a great time.  We had a really nice dinner with family.  It is always so nice to get together and spend time as a family.  

Oliver definitely fits right in with is love of Christmas.  My mother bought this hat that shakes and plays Christmas songs.  Oliver thinks that this is the most hilarious thing in the world.  He loves to watch it!  And then he started wearing it!  His face was hilarious the whole time that he wore it!  He loves to make people  laugh.  I think we may have a little comedian on our hands.

Oliver with his godparents. 

Claire with  her buddy Uncle Johnny.

After a nice dinner and some visiting it was time for PRESENTS!!!  Oliver jumped right in!!  I am pretty sure he would have been perfectly happy with a bag of tissue paper.

Claire had fun taking everyone's pictures.

And then making everyone else take pictures.

Nana made Claire a scarf for Christmas and she carried it around with her for two days!  Here she is being silly with Andrea.

Then Santa stopped by for a visit!  Claire was in her glory!  Oliver chose to hang back a little and take in the big guy from a distance.

After a quick visit from Santa we put on our jammies and went to sprinkle our reindeer food on the front lawn so the reindeer would come.  Then Claire and Oliver headed to bed for a long winter's nap.

The next morning Claire woke up and couldn't wait to see if Santa came!  She loved that Santa came and ate all her cookies.  Also, she loved that the elves ate her candy and the reindeer loved their celery.

Here she is showing Oliver and explaining to him that Santa and the gang ate a our snack.

Then it was time for presents!!!!!!!!  

Notice she is still carrying her scarf around.

Oliver was amazed when he saw all the presents under the tree!!!

Here he is thinking about how they actually got there.

Claire loved her new purple silky from Santa.

Oliver loved opening his gifts too!  He didn't need any help ripping his gifts open this year!

The kids loved opening their gifts and playing with them together.

Our house pretty much looked like this for three days.  But the kids LOVED it!!

Claire's favorite gift this year was her pink Nintendo DS from Santa!

Oliver's favorite gift was his Chuck truck!  He has a touch of a love hate relationship with this truck.  He loves it because it talks, makes noises, and moves.  BUT Chuck drives away from him sometimes and that makes Oliver mad and then he chases him down!  It is hilarious!  He loves it though and can't get enough!

After a good nap we headed over to Nana and Papa's house for dinner and then to Grandma and Grandpa's for more presents!!!  Oliver got a firetruck and he was in heaven!

Uncle Tom and Grandpa had a great time putting together some toys.

Owen got a drumset for Christmas and the boys had a blast jamming away!!!  Oliver is finally old enough to play with Owen.  He is super excited to play with the big kids.  It is so fun to watch all the kids play together, they have so much fun together!

In a way I am sad that Christmas is over.  But it has been so nice to just relax for the last few days and enjoy all the great gifts that we were so blessed to receive.  Christmas is my favorite time of year and I am always sad to see it go but soon enough it will be this magical time again and we will build even more memories.  I already can't wait for next year!

Holiday Performances

This Holiday season my kids were involved in a few special performances.  What would Christmas be without a few events with lights, costumes, and Christmas music?!?

Our first performance was Claire's Christmas Show for dancing. 

 Claire loves dancing with her BFF Giada.  They have a blast together.  Even though sometimes they get separated because they get a little too chatty, they still have a blast.

 Claire, Giada, and Ava coloring some pictures before the big show.

Claire loves to be on stage.  She did a GREAT job!!

This year was the first year that the kids were kinda in sync.

When it was Claire's turn to "shuffle" across the stage she did it proudly!

Santa comes and watches the whole show and after each child "shuffles" across the stage he gives them each a candy cane.  This is Claire's favorite part.

 After Claire's show we came back to our house for some lunch.  

Even Pete got into the holiday spirit and dressed up.

 Then he was all partied out.

After Claire's Christmas Show for dancing the kids had their Holiday Sing A Long at school.  Oliver sported his reindeer antlers with pride.

Oliver's class did a great job, even though they didn't sing much they looked adorable!

Oliver did his best, he is the youngest in his room right now but he held his own!

Then he sat with his buddy Miss Cindy (who was Claire's teacher at one point too and we LOVE her) and watched the rest of the performance. 

 Then it was Claire's turn!!! Her class sang Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas song and Claire got to be one of the Alvins.

Claire did a great job!!!  The boys in her class were a little wild so their class had to go twice.

That's the cutest Alvin I know.

And of course she had to give us a pose.

I couldn't get out of work but did Daddy was able to sneak away to be there and take pictures!!  I did get to watch on the computer and Daddy gave me all the details later!!!  

Great job Claire and Oliver!!  You guys made us so proud!!!!

Sue's Shower

A week ago Friday we had a beautiful shower for my soon to be sister in law Sue.  It was a small gathering of friends and family and it was wonderful!  With a St. Patrick's Day wedding coming up we decided to have a Christmas shower. 

Sue and her twin sister Kim.  So not only am I getting a sister in law but I am also getting Kimmy who looks just like her :)

Even with a little remodeling going on we managed to decorate nicely and have a delicious dinner.

There was lots of laughter and fun while we ate.

It was so nice to get to know Sue's mom.

And her favorite Aunt!

Sue got a special mini wedding cake to cut.

Then it was time for PRESENTS!!!

Everyone enjoyed watching Sue open all of her new things. 

Sue and Greg got some great stuff to start their married life together.

Me and my sistas.

The Popp girls.

It was a lovely shower and I can't wait until the wedding!!!  I am thrilled to death that Sue is going to be an official part of our family (even though she has been a big part of our family for a long time)!!!