Christmas Eve!

It was another magical Christmas Eve.  We had a wonderful evening celebrating with our family!

Everyone came her and we spent the night talking, laughing, and watching the kids enjoy every second of this holiday!

After dinner Santa surprised us and stopped over!!  The kids were thrilled!

Claire was first to tell Santa that she wanted an MP3 player, Doc McStuffins, Easy Bake Oven, and Cabbage Patch Kid.

Oliver couldn't wait to get on Santa's lap to tell him that he wanted dinosaurs, Thomas, and a microphone.

My babies with Santa.

Then Santa passed out some presents.  Oliver was beyond thrilled when he got a big T Rex!

Claire was amazed when Santa gave her the Doc McStuffins doctor set that she just asked for!!

The Komos with Santa.

Then Santa hung out for a little while and played with the kids. Oliver was amazed!  He kept saying "You hang out at my house!!"

Then Oliver got out his other dinosaurs and showed them all to Santa.

And he loved hugging him up.

Claire had to get some hugs in there too.

The kids loved playing with Santa's bells!  They really enjoyed Santa.  He was wonderful and hung out with the kids for a while.  It was perfect!

After the kids getting 4,000 presents from the family it was time to get their Christmas jammies on and jump all over Uncle John.

Then they all chatted and caught up.

Goofballs.

 After things settled down, it was time to put out the milk and cookies for Santa with Uncle Greg.  Someone asked Claire if she put out milk and cookies for Santa and she was very quick to explain that she does this with Uncle Greg and Aunt Sue every year. 

The Popp family.

It was another great Christmas Eve.  Oliver was so into it this year and Claire was thrilled to have a partner in crime.  They both couldn't wait to see what Santa was going to bring!!!!

Christmas Fun!

We spent the last weekend doing all kinds of fun Christmasy stuff!

On Friday we went to the Festival Of Lights.  It was really amazing!  I have never been there so I thought it was just going to just be a light show.  Boy, was I wrong!  They had all kinds of activities!  Here is Jingles from the Magic Show.

The kids loved the show!

Oliver loved the indoor train.  And Claire loved the responsibility of taking him for the ride.

Then Oliver saw Mrs. Frosty.  He has been loving Frosty lately so when he saw Mrs. Frosty he ran right up to her!

He is my little Christmas buddy.  He insisted on wearing his Santa hat the whole time.

The kids loved seeing Santa again.  Claire was all business but Oliver wanted to just chat away.  Here he is asking who the stocking on the mantle belongs to.  He kept saying "Whose stockings?!  Day the elves?!"

But we did get him to focus for a picture.

Claire loved the 3D house (once we realized the her glasses were too big and had to be smushed to her face in order to work).

 Daddy thought it was pretty cool too.

 We loved strolling through the Christmas Tree Forest.  

Afterward we stopped to eat and the kids were beat!  Claire kept asking us how late it was.  We told her is was super late and was pumped.  She felt so cool staying up waayyy past her bedtime!

On Saturday we went to Aunt Diane's for Jenna's birthday.  The kids had a blast playing with dinosaurs and trains.

Then they heard some bells and rushed to the door to see if it was Santa.

The kids loved reading with Grandma!

And they all loved reading with Mark.

 On Sunday we went to Chestnut Ridge to enjoy the Christmas festivities.    The line to see Santa was ridiculously long and Claire said "We don't need to see Santa.  We already saw him twice.  Let's do the craft and get a snack."  She is so logical.  Here we are enjoying a lunch of pizza and hot chocolate.

The kids loved "decorating cookies".

They did a great job.

We even got a nice family picture.

I also got a chance to take a few pictures of my girl.  She looks so pretty in red.

Oliver was too busy to pose for me.  But he still looks handsome.

I tried to get my chickens together.  

Cheeseballs.

I love these faces so much!!!!

We are having so much fun doing all these Christmasy things.  I am already getting sad that Christmas is getting so close!!!  I don't want it to be over!!!!!

Christmas Cards

This year I had the pleasure of taking a ton of pictures for my friends for their Christmas cards.  I was so happy to get great pictures for everyone to use for their Christmas cards!  I had so much fun taking all of these pictures but I will say there were many photos that did not make the cut but I thought were fabulous!  A friend of mine (thanks Pat) just kept saying people should do their Christmas cards with their REAL pictures of their kids!  So while I strive to get the "perfect picture"  I do love the ones that didn't turn out quite so perfect.  Therefore, I am dedicating a whole post to all of "those pictures" that didn't make the cut.

Here is Baby Brendan!  He was an angel the whole time but here is one where he is just screaming "ENOUGH ALREADY!  I AM FREEZING!!!"

"Get him off of me!!"

"I DON'T WANNA SAY CHEESE!!"

 

"WHAT THE H&^% IS WITH THAT LIGHT"

 "So I says to the Elf, he fits down the chinmey?!?  No way!!!"

"Uggghhh, I am soooo full!"

"Just keep smiling and look at the camera Zuess!"

"What the F&^*?!  Turn down the flash!!"

"NO WAY!  THIS IS JUST TOO RIDICULOUS! NO ONE IS GOING TO BELIEVE I AM REINDEER!!"

 "No Oliver!  You have to look there!!"

Say cheese!

If you could hear me I am saying "Just a few more guys!  Look at Mommy!!!  Say CHEESE!!!  I swear to God just look over here!!!!!!! SANTA IS WATCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So overall, I got some great pictures!  But these are the true Christmas cards photos that no one ever sees!  And just felt that they should be seen!  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!