For Ashley

My sister Ashley couldn't join us for Christmas this year and she keeps asking me when I'm going to get my Christmas post up. Since I still haven't taken down a single Christmas decoration, I was inclined to forgo the Christmas post (doesn't the word "forgo" remind you of the Bachelor?--which starts Monday by the way--set the DVR!) But I'm going to do it for Ashley. Everyone else probably should bail now. This is pretty long and tedious!

We did a ton of Christmas stuff this season and unfortunately, I forgot to haul along my huge camera for most of it. Thanks Sam for my new tiny red camera that I will have in my purse at all times from now on.

We rode the Polar Express with my mom and Ashley and her kids over Thanksgiving. It was so fun and I definitely recommend it. My kids favorite part was receiving a bell from Santa that belonged to one of his reindeer. The elves would come around and listen to the bell and tell the kids which reindeer their bell came from. Pure magic for a 6 and 4 year old.

Not my kids (I pulled this pic off the net--but you get the idea!)

The kids wore their matching pjs on the train. Here are the pjs for this year. I could really embarrass myself by telling you how much I stressed over finding the right coordinating pjs for the kids but I will spare myself the ridicule.


We also did our annual trolley ride with our neighborhood friends at Thanksgiving Point. We ride the trolley through the lights and eat ice-cream in the soda shop afterwards. I thought I was being so frugal by having my older kids eat the 25 cent cones. Well, they finished those in about 2 minutes and insisted on getting shakes as well.


My kids were out of school the entire week of Christmas so I tried to do something fun with them each day, such as swimming or the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun to spend that time with my kids but it also completely wore me out. I feel guilty that I consider taking all three kids somewhere a major effort.


The reward for me is taking my kids out to lunch. I've gone on record in the past saying how much I love the fries at T-Point. Still do!


The night before Christmas Eve, I made cut-out cookies with the kids for Santa.




Christmas Eve day, I took Sammie to a matinee of the Nutcracker at Capital theatre. We had just as much fun getting ready i.e., getting all dolled up and curling Sammie's hair and putting on lipstick, as we did actually attending the ballet. I'm so excited to do this every year with her. Afterwards, she chose to go to Kneaders for lunch. She has good taste! As a funny side note, there was some dude in the audience yelling "Bravo" about every five minutes and cheering so loud. He was up on one of the little tiny balconies right over the stage. I was so embarrassed for him.


Christmas Eve was spent at my parents' house.


We had amazing food and the yummiest chips and guacamole. I definitely think the chips and guac should be a new tradition. The kids were so cute in their nativity costumes:


And of course, they loved opening gifts from grandpa and grandma:


Isn't it weird how old kids look in pictures? This little man is my baby:


This is the last Christmas we will spend in my mom's house because they are building a new home and will move in the spring. Here is my dad telling Luke that he just heard on the tv that Santa was spotted over Canada. Luke eats that stuff up:


Christmas morning was fun. Each child with their favorite gift:



Sammie and her perfume.


Even our unborn baby boy got his own little pile and did pretty well:



The kids holding some of the new baby's presents.

Christmas Day Sam and I have a policy of not leaving the house. We eat a huge breakfast, hang out in our pjs, nap, watch movies and basically do nothing productive. I love it.

The day after Christmas, Sam's parents treated the family to a great brunch at Little America. Of course, I don't have pictures, but it was delicious and so great to see his family again.

There you have it Ashley. We wish you could have been here!