Christmas Day

After a few hours sleep, the kids woke up ready to go!

We found Nathan a great train table on Craig's List and he loved it immediately. It was hard to get him to want to open anything else.

One of Emie's favorites was her play gum ball machine. The girl loves balls, so we knew this would be a hit.

Later that day, my parents and sister came over for Christmas dinner and gift exchange. Grandma and Grandpa gave Emie a stroller and crib set for her baby doll which she also loves!

Daddy and Emie

Mommy and Emie

The kids have really started playing well together in the last few weeks. What a wonderful development!

As usual, Kelly's handmade gifts were the highlight. I'll do a separate post of those as they really were special this year. We will be treasuring them for years to come!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas celebration started with a midnight party with Gus' family. We put the kids down to bed at their normal bedtimes and then woke them up at 11:30 to head over to Gus' brother's house for a midnight feast and gift exchange.

There was quite a spread of food - a whole roast pig, wonton soup, seafood noodles, lumpia (filipino egg rolls), Ofelia's fruit salad and we brought a pecan pie. I think the funniest moment of the evening was when Nathan blurted out "Mommy, that looks like a doggy!" (referring to the roast pig) in the middle of the prayer. There were also tons of gifts. What a generous family! Nathan got quite a kick out of "Tita Ofelia Santa" passing out the gifts.

Despite the late/early hour, the kids had a great time. How could you not enjoy cookies at 2 in the morning?

What are YOU doing 2 days before Christmas?

Ah . . . two days 'till Christmas. Of course I've already purchased and carefully wrapped the perfect gift for each person on our list. Naturally, the meal plans are made and all of the ingredients purchased. Surely you know that I am fully prepared for the holiday ahead and am just spending the day relaxing with my children while I sip hot cocoa in my clean house.

Ha! Or maybe, just maybe, me and the kids ran around like crazy people today purchasing those last few gifts and the necessary groceries.

Okay, the latter is far more true. But we sure had fun!

First Snow

Last Saturday, we woke up to a beautiful first snow. We had a scrumptious breakfast of a spinach, tomato, onion and ham omelet and fruit, left the dishes on the table to be washed later and headed out to take in the fun.

Emie was not so sure about this cold, white stuff at first, but she warmed up quickly.

Then we put them to work!

Now you know the real reason we had kids - free labor!! Mwa ha ha!

Eat More Chikin'!

Wheaton has Chik-fil-a! And it is crazy crowded! The kids and I decided to check it out this past week after Music Together class.

Looks like they liked it! We also enjoyed their play area. Emie even managed to climb all the way up, through the tunnel and down the tube slide all by herself. I was glad I didn't have to do a rescue in that tube slide!