Christmas in the sunshine

We stayed home for Christmas again this year and lucky for us, our very good friends (from my high school, in fact) moved down the street. They have lived within ten minutes of us for a long time but they just recently moved to our neighborhood and we couldn't be happier. We celebrated Christmas Eve with them at their house, first going to Mass with all the kids... I think I remember singing Joy to the World and that's about it!....and then went to their house for dinner. We had a great dinner and the kids played very nicely including a game of stick the Rudolph nose that even the adults participated in. It is always hard to be away for the holidays but spending it with good friends made it that much easier!

Dancing on Ice

Caroline went ice skating for the first time in sunny southern California! We had to go indoors of course because no lake would be even close to frozen around here. She was very hesitant at first and then she started to get the hang of it. By the end, she was just holding my hand and trying to "glide". Mommy was thankful because my back was starting to ache from holding her up. She didn't want to leave which was a great sign. She seemed to really like it!

Stars on the water

There are definitely some bonuses to being in the warmer weather for Christmas and living close the water. We took a few harbor cruises as a family and with friends to see the lights on the water and the kids loved it. Some people truly deck out their houses with all of the lights, music, blow up Santas, you name it! And we also to the boat to the main channel to go the boat parade where 30 or so boats decorate with lights, music, etc. and do a parade circle around the harbor. Very fun and very festive!

Polar express

We were able to take a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express train. The kids got all dressed in their pajamas and boarded the train. They ate cookies and drank chocolate milk waiting to arrive. Andrew was the entertainment of the train! He loved it! The kids waited patiently for Santa to arrive and were so excited when he did. They were able to sit on his lap afterwards and tell them what they wanted. Hannah wants a mermaid costume and Caroline wants a suitcase, bathrobe and a fire truck. Andrew just cried but we got a picture anyway!

Hannah's first haircut!!

Following in her sister's footsteps, Hannah did not get her first haircut until she was 2 years and 8 months oldl and she didn't even really need it, she just wanted to do what her brother was doing. She sat there patiently while Aunt Laurie entertained her since Mommy was busy containing Andrew!! Her beautiful blond locks fell to the ground and she didn't even flinch. Andrew on the other hand.... this was his second haircut and he was already well aware of what was going to happen from his first haircut. Instead of having a repeat of the screaming, squirming, Mommy trying to hold him down while Hannah was spinning the chair episode, I used a little more Mother's sense and brought a DVD player. He was very happy to watch Mickey Mouse while he got his haircut.

Attempt at the "perfect" Christmas card

I have not ever been very successful and taking a good picture of the three kids where everyone is looking at me, smiling and not picking their nose, walking away, pulling their dress up, pulling each others hair and just making a weird face. This Christmas card was no different. These are some of the attempts I made at getting the "perfect" Christmas card. A lot different than the one you got in the mail! (And I even put them in their Christmas clothes on a random Tuesday morning!)

Trimming the tree!

We went ahead and got our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. We may as well enjoy it for as long as we can and Caroline was begging to do it! She LOVED decorating the tree and enjoyed putting up all of the ornaments, lights, etc and making sure that they were high enough that Andrew couldn't reach them at all. We love having the tree up and looking at the lights twinkle every night.