Family Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Lilly woke up at 5am, so I put her back to bed.  Liam was in our room at 5:30am, so I sent him back to bed.  He came back in our room at 6:30am, so we turned on Disney channel and then finally started unwrapping presents at 7am.  Lilly joined us about an hour later.  After the chaos of opening presents, we ate a nice big brunch complete with organic sparkling apple juice served in plastic champaign glasses.  I think that was Lilly's favorite part of the day.  Then, we played with new toys, took turns taking naps, and snacked throughout the day.  We ended the evening with the family candlelight service at Emanuel.  Then, we loaded up the van and headed to Michigan, so we could wake up and do the whole thing again the next day.

Before opening gifts

Total Chaos

Liam's gifts

Lilly's gifts

December 23rd, 2014 - Our Christmas Eve

We are celebrating Christmas a day early as a family of four.  Because we are heading to Michigan for Christmas we decided to celebrate with our little family on Christmas Eve, so that makes the 23rd our Christmas Eve.  Growing up we always opened one gift on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas and a stuffed animal (to help us sleep).  We have continued the tradition with our kids.  This year instead of buying a stuffed animal for them to open we decided to take them to Build A Bear, so they could make their own.  Liam picked a Batman bear and Lilly picked a brown bear, which she decorated with a white dress and silver dress shoes.

After making our bears, the kids and I went to Warsaw to get together with my Aunt Gloria, Uncle David, my cousin Jillian, and her two girls Lorelei and Lucy.  Jillian and I have always been close and our kids get along so well.  We try to get together at least twice a year.  The weather was so warm, the kids actually played outside a lot.  It was so nice to get some fresh air.

Liam with Lucy

Lilly and Lorelei

After supper we let the kids open their pajamas and then take a bath.  Liam got dinosaur slippers, which Lilly wanted to try on.

Daisy tried to help Lilly open her present

Liam's PreK Christmas Party

I offered to help come up with the activities and games for Liam's Christmas party.  Lilly and I joined Liam for his pajama Christmas party.  We started the morning with story time.  I read Little Star by Anthony DeStafano.  It is about the star of Bethlehem.  Then, the kids had to find baby Jesus hidden in the classroom.  Once he was found, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  After story time we did our art project, which were paper stockings.  They turned out really well. 

After our art project we had Christmas themed centers.  The groups of students switched centers every 5 minutes.  The centers included - play dough with Christmas cookie cutters, fishing with candy canes for ornaments, pin the nose on Olaf, dress up "photo booth" (Christmas dress-up clothes & pictures taken on the iPad), and ball toss.

pin the nose on Olaf

ornament fishing

ball toss

play dough

photo booth

After centers, the kids watched The Polar Express and had a snack and hot chocolate.

Liam was so excited to have Mom and Lilly with him for the day.  He looked out for Lilly and made sure she knew where to go and what to do.  Lilly enjoyed her day at Preschool too.  What a great way to kick-off Christmas break!