Christmas Eve 2013

This year we had yet another wonderful Christmas Eve!  The family came over to eat, drink, and be merry!  And we even had a visit from Santa!

Claire looked so beautiful in her Christmas dress.

And Oliver looked so handsome in his Christmas outfit.

Mark did a great job making dinner for everyone.

After a delicious dinner we had a special visitor.....SANTA!!

The kids were so excited that Santa stopped over before his big night.

Oliver couldn't wait to peek into Santa's bag.

They were even more thrilled when Santa gave them each a present that was on their list!

And we even got a nice family picture with Santa.

All the cousins enjoyed seeing Santa.

And the Grandmas.

And Uncle Greg and Aunt Sue.

After Santa left to get started on his big night, Oliver went upstairs and put on his Santa costume and took a seat in Santa's chair.

And made everyone sit on HIS lap.
Here are some pictures of everyone sitting on Santa's lap.

When Greg asked "Santa" if he was on the good list, "Santa" told him, "Hmmm I am gonna need to check it again."

But he told Aunt Susie, "You are on the nice list, I checked it twice."

Oliver told Nana all about how he was getting his reindeer ready for the big night.

Uncle Johnny asked for a raise but "Santa" wasn't really sure that was so he told Uncle Johnny, "Maybe next year."

After Santa had everyone from the party sit on his lap he decided to play with some of his toys, in his Santa suit of course.

After a great time spent with the family, it was time to get the cookies and veggies ready for Santa.

Once the house was cleaned up and the children were nestled all snug in their beds, Santa came :)
And he filled the stockings that were hung with care.

Daddy's stocking was a little light this year because Santa couldn't fit his equipment for the Ironman in there.  

Even Cozy left a few special presents for the kids.

It was another perfect Christmas Eve filled with family, friends, fun, and love.

The Grinch

We had a lot of fun this Christmas season doing all kinds of Christmas crafts and activities.  Claire was lucky enough to get a snow day but Mark and I had school, so I called in and had a wonderful snow day with my babies.

Seeing that it was a snow day we decided to make a gingerbread house.  The kids were so excited!

This was Claire's side.

And this was Oliver's.

And they worked together on the roof.

After a great snow day our days continued until Christmas and then it was time for our special girls day at the theater.  Here is my girl before the show.

Claire looked so grown up in her fancy clothes at Shea's.  

We all had a great time on our girls day!

I can't believe how big these ladies are getting!

The play was amazing!  I absolutely loved it!!  The girls loved it too but I am pretty sure their favorite part was our trip to The Chocolate Bar afterwards!!!

Festival Of Lights

I know, I am very behind on my posts.  But I decided to post a few fun things that we did during the holiday season before I post our Christmas celebrations!  So I will start with The Festival Of Lights.  This is one of my most favorite things to do around Christmas time!  And this year Grandma and Grandpa joined us, we had a blast!

After driving through the amazing light show we stopped to see Santa.  While we waited to see the big guy the kids got to write letters to Santa.

And then they dropped them off in Santa's special mailbox.  This year they even got a postcard back from Santa!

We even got a nice family picture while we waited in line.

Oliver got a little shy before we saw Santa but after a minute, he warmed right up!

Then a quick visit with Mrs. Frosty before we headed back outside!

The first thing we saw outside was this....well we weren't really sure what this was.  We were kind of thinking it was the Labatt Blue bear dressed up in a tutu and Santa hat.

Even Grandpa stopped in for a picture.

And of course, Mark had to get in there too.

Then we stopped over to see the reindeer.  They were so cute.

Oliver was totally amazed!

Then we headed to the Christmas Tree Forest.  This is one of my favorite things at the festival.  I absolutely love the lights on the Christmas trees, it is so magical.

To end the night a very nice man gave us all of his left over tickets so the kids went on a few rides.

Oliver loved "driving" all of the cars.

We had a wonderful time at the Festival Of Lights.  We were so glad that Grandma and Grandpa got to join us!  Oliver loved everything that he saw.  He is at such a great age for stuff like this!  Claire loved seeing the reindeer (she loves anything with animals) and I loved all of the LIGHTS!!!!!