Christmas Fun in 2015

This past December has been FULL of Christmas fun.  It's been a blast to have little Evie be SO excited about everything Christmas.  She's been excited about everything from baby Jesus, to Santa, to singing Christmas songs (and having multiple dance parties to them), and much more.

So, here's our holiday wrap-up.

We kicked the holidays off by attending the extended Parker family Christmas party.  We had tons of fun with Grandpa George, Grandma Ellie & other family members.  Evie & Addie even got to sit on Santa's lap.  Evie asked for Christmas trees, while Addie actually sat still and didn't even cry.  I was shocked by that.

The girls with their Grandpa George & Grandma Ellie.

The very next day we were on our way to find and cut our Christmas tree in the woods.  This is a family-favorite tradition and we were all so excited to go.  It started so well.  The girls were thrilled with the snow and being outside in it.  By the time we found our "perfect" tree, the girls were cold and by the time we got them to the truck they were both in tears.  I jumped in the truck with the girls and turned on the heater while Beau went back to haul our tree off the mountain and into our truck.  Beau and I just had a good chuckle when it was all said and done.  This obviously documents our current stage of life very well.  :)

And, we had a lot of fun decorating the tree too.  The girls loved every part of it.  Oh, they are so darn adorable!

I go to the Festival of Trees every year with my mom.  This year my dad joined us since his office is so close to the Festival.  We love seeing all of the creative trees, quilts, gingerbread houses, and more.

There is a little kid area where the kids can do activities.  Evie is old enough to do them so she had fun. Santa is also there.  And, this encounter went down just as I had suspected.  Evie LOVED Santa.  She just sat and chatted with him as if they were best friends.  She told him all about her cute shirt and how it has a snowman and snowflakes on it.  She told him she wants Christmas trees and candy canes for Christmas.  Adeline broke out into tears the second she was placed on Santa's lap.  She was so terrified and upset to be given to such a strange looking man.  I only tortured her long enough to get a picture.

Beau and I attended an ugly sweater party.   Beau's sweater was to-die-for!  We borrowed it from a friend who had taken from her mother-in-law's closet when she passed away.  The sweater was totally legit . . . price tag was still on it and was priced at $118.  We were all amazed!

We attended our church Christmas party where they had a fun dress-up activity for the kids.  Evie LOVED this and dressed up as just about every character in the nativity story.  Adel got dressed up by default.  They are pretty darn cute if you ask me!

We go to the Voice Male concert every year.  They are totally family friendly and super entertaining.  It's become tradition and we didn't quit this year.  We took both girls and they both loved it.  They loved the lighting, the music, and the treats.  Evie danced in the isle, while Addie bounced in our arms.  It was fun.

We have an Elf on the Shelf.  Evie's birth grandma gave it to Evie for Christmas this year.  She gifted it early enough for us to enjoy it throughout the entire holiday season.  Evie LOVED it.  She named her Snowflake and loved looking for her every morning (Snowflake would watch her all day, go to the North Pole at night to report to Santa on Evie's good/bad behavior, and then come back to our house . . . usually finding a new place to sit).  One really fun event that happened with Snowflake had to do with new snow boots.  We had gotten a LOT of snow mid-December and Evie really needed new snow boots.  So, Evie told Snowflake and, amazingly, she told Santa and Santa sent Snowflake back to our house with new snow boots for Evie.  Evie was THRILLED!  It was a sad day when Snowflake went back to the North Pole with Santa for good.  She went back with him when Santa stopped at our house on Christmas Eve.

As usual, we enjoyed so much Christmas fun with family.  We went to our annual Christmas party with Beau's mom and step dad.  Everyone was able to attend and we had a ball.  We ate good food, opened lots of gifts, played games, played the chimes and Evie decorated a gingerbread house with her cousin HaLee and aunt Amber.  We all couldn't get enough of our newest member of the family, McKinlee.  However, Evie takes the cake on us all.  She is smitten with baby Kinlee and wants to hold, kiss, and admire her every second.

Christmas Eve was spent with our little family of four.  I made a BBQ ribs dinner, the girls opened their Christmas PJ's, we read the Christmas story of how baby Jesus came to Earth, decorated sugar cookies, and went to bed.  It was fun to have this special time together.

Christmas morning was a riot.  Evie was so dang excited.  She was beyond thrilled when she saw that Santa came and wanted to tear everything open immediately.  We calmed her down enough to open one present at a time and to take turns with Adel, mom & dad.  Highlights:  Evie's favorite gift was her scooter (with the monster slippers taking a close 2nd).  Adel's favorite gift was the yogurt bites (found in her stocking).  Mom also was gifted a scooter (so now Evie and I can ride scooters together).  Evie gave daddy a pair of pop guns so they can play guns together.

We took off to visit my family for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  We were spoiled again with gifts and good food.  We had fun visiting with family, playing games, and eating yummy treats. I was so happy my sister made it home for Christmas (in spite of the snowy weather).

And, Christmas night we headed off to visit Beau's dad and step mom.  We were again spoiled with gifts, good food, and fun.  Grandma Ellie had a fun puppet nativity for us to do.  Uncle Bronco read the Christmas story out of the scriptures, while the kids held up the puppets in front of a flashlight . . . where the images then showed up on the wall.  We read the story about four times, holding up the puppets when it was their turn in the story, because Evie and HaLee loved it so much.  They took turns with different puppets and then holding the flashlight.

Christmas was busy and fun.  We enjoyed spending so much time with family and soaking in the Christmas spirit.  The past couple of days we have just been trying to spend a little down-time together.

Because of all the snow we've received lately, Evie even got some sledding in.  Our piles of snow that have been created from the aftermath of shoveling our driveway are perfect toddler-size hills for sledding.  Evie was ALL smiles.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and we wish you the best that 2016 has to offer you!