Christmasy Stuff!!!

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to blog more.  But the problem is that I am so behind on blogging that I have to catch up first! So I am going to do one but blog post to cover all the Christmasy stuff that we have been up to, then I will do a January catch up post and then it is on!

After the Festival of Lights, it was time for the TRAIN RIDE!  This takes the cake as my favorite Christmas tradition!

 Oliver waiting with his buddy Papa.

 The kids!  And Papa :)

 Finally on the train!

 Our girls, getting too old!

 My favorites!

 The crew.

 Oliver stopped me before we went in and said, "This is the one Mom, this guy is the LEGIT Santa!"

 Love!!!!

 Oliver was super into the reindeer this year and did not want to leave his side!

 Claire and her buddy Camden.

 Oliver making his reindeer food!

 The boys.

 And what would the train ride be without our annual stop at Theo's!!!

 :)

 The Komo girls!!!

So other than an amazing train ride, Cozy came back!

And introduced the kids to pop rocks!

It was hilarious!

Claire had her first violin concert at the middle school.

Papa photobomb

Ans Oliver got to hang with his buddies too!

Cozy brought some cozy slippers for the kids!

And toilet papered our tree.

Finally it was Christmas break and we started with a hockey tournament!  Oliver and Sam were back on the ice (but sadly not on the same team). 

 First hockey trophy

And what would a tournament be without a trip to 716! 

Then it was time to make some cookies with the Cappellis! 

 And I got this surprise on the Eve Of Christmas Eve!

 It was fun to meet up with some cousins for some open skate time with Santa!

 And color with the cousins.

Then it was time to put on our jammies and check out some Christmas lights! 

 I love that they still love this!

 And make me smile!

Finally it was CHRISTMAS EVE!  And it finally snowed while we made our gingerbread houses. 

 Then the Cappellis and Nowinskis came over for lunch!

 :)

Then Santa and Mrs. Clause came and read us a book and brought us some presents! 

 We missed Jessica though :(

My Christmas favorites. 

I love them. 

 Our annual selfie

 Putting out the reindeer food with Uncle Greg

Leaving out our cookies for Santa!

Santa came! 

After Christmas we had our annual dinner and a movie date with the kids!   

So fun at PF Changs and we went to see Mary Poppins returns. It was a perfect evening! 

We had a blast at our annual Christmas book club! 

Then another dinner out to the Olive Garden!

Festival Of Lights

Here we go!  This is my absolute most favorite season in the entire year!  I love all the traditions and fun Christmas stuff to do!

 We started on the day before Thanksgiving but putting up all of our decorations!

 The kids were so helpful this year!

Claire was super into it this year so it was nice to have a buddy help me set up our three trees!

 Then we headed out to see the new Grinch movie.

 We all loved it!  I was a little nervous because the original Grinch was my favorite but we all agreed it was awesome!

 Then it was time for letters to Santa!

 I love their letters!

 And of course Cozy is back!

 Last night we went to the Festival Of Lights!

 We always have so much fun and this year was no different!

 The kids humor me and "pretend" to play with all of the little kid toys but I know they still love it!

 Festival Of Lights family selfie!

 There was a little drama when I wanted Claire to take this picture but we worked it out and we were fine!

 No one fits on his lap anymore :(

 But at least we got a picture all together!  On another note, I really wish someone would talk to the festival director about the lighting situation above Santa but whatever!

 I love all of the lights and the music!!!

 And of course, the big tree!!!

The have to stop at the fire pit EVERY year, even if it is for like 2 minutes.  I love these guys!

Girls On The Run

This year Claire joined the "Girls On The Run" program.  It was after school and it was a program that trained the girls for a 5k while exploring their feelings and building confidence.  While the feelings part is not so much Claire's deal, she really loved the running!

 In November they wrapped up the program with Claire's first 5k!

 The girls had a blast!

 Claire and Kathleen loved being running buddies!

 The lacrosse girls loved being a part of this!

 They had all kinds of fun tents set up! Even one with pink hair spraying!

 Mark was Claire's running buddy!

 While we waited Oliver got to meet Sabertooth!

 My runners!!!

They made it!!! It was so fun to watch Claire complete her first 5k!  I am so proud of her!

After this Claire continued her running career by completing the Turkey Trot!

 Claire and her running buddy suited up on the FREEZING cold day and headed downtown!

 Oliver and I bundled up and went down there to support our runners!

 Here they are right before the finish line!  

 We were freezing but we all had fun!

I am so proud of my runners!!!

Halloween Recap

I am a little behind on my blogging and I hate when that happens!  So here is my Halloween recap!

We had a blast (as usual) trick or treating around our neighborhood!

The crew!

Oliver loved counting his loot.

Claire and Uncle Nick have their usual discussion about which candy is in fact the best.

The Cappelli girls sorting their candy!

Overall, it was another amazing Halloween!  This year the kids were all old enough that no one needed our help going to the door or carrying any of their candy.  While it was wonderful, it was still sad.  Our babies are getting so old!

Turkey Trot

We spent Thanksgiving morning downtown while Claire ran her first Turkey Trot with Mark! 

It was sooo cold (25 to be exact)! But Claire and Mark couldn’t be stopped!

 And Oliver and I were there to cheer them on!!!

 They made it!!!

So proud of my trotters!

Love my turkeys!!