Christmas Day Part 1

Christmas day is magical when you have little ones. Its true--- Annabelle makes Christmas so much more fun. She is at an age where everything is so grand and exciting. I am not sure that she really understands the full Santa thing but she gets bits and pieces of it. I am 100% sure that she understands that she likes opening presents! And she had a lot of practice between all the gifts she received from Santa, Mimi and Gramps, and her uncles and aunts. It was so lovely and we enjoyed every second of our Christmas day. Here are pics of our morning opening presents at home then breakfast. I will add part 2 pics of our adventures at Mimi and Gramps house later.

Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho has been here!

Dad cooking breakfast

Mother Goose- one of A's favs from Kinsey and Gray

A's new scooter

Princess tent for our little princess

Breakfast consisted of chocolate chip pancakes, bananas and bacon. Yum

Daniel Tiger Trolley!! So happy!

O's treehouse! "Open it!"

Christmas Eve

I love being in town for the holidays. We really enjoyed going to Christmas Eve service at Wilshire with family and then heading over to Grimaldi's for dinner. Its our favorite -- with our favorite people. After dinner we headed home, put on pj's and watched Charlie Brown. A then headed off to bed and we waited for Santa. The perfect ending to a very perfect day.

Family fun

We are so glad to have Aunt Katie, Uncle Phil and Charlie here for Christmas! The first day that they arrived in Dallas we headed to Pappasitos to celebrate Phil's 30th birthday. It was a great time and a family favorite. Check out the token pic below. I also included some cute random pics from Mimi and Gramps house. We loved the colored lights on their tree!

The NorthPole Express

On Sunday we headed to the North Pole via the Polar Express. Annabelle was very excited to ride on the train and had a great time listening and singing carols throughout the trip. I don't think that she really understood the helper elves on the train or the little play that was after... but she smiled and happily took the souvenirs (silver bell and frosted chocolate milk drink) that they gave her on the train and at the end of the show.

The GVRR did a great job keeping the kids all interested and the train station area was decorated so nicely for Christmas. We all had such a great time and I really think that A would love to do this again next year.

Ready to ride the train

Mimi and Gramps came with us to the North Pole!

It is snowing!

Family pic in the snow

The whole crew

Treats and Sweets with Santa (AKA Ho Ho)

This weekend was full of holiday cheer. Saturday we had a great time visiting the Arboretum for their Treats and Sweets with Santa event. Annabelle got to chat with "Ho Ho", eat cookies and yummy snacks, construct fun crafts and even pet a reindeer. She had a lot of fun and so did we. I love that she still can still remember the details of the event and talk about her favorite parts. She is loving Christmas and all the festivities this year!

NorthPark Trains

The trains, the trains! This was our one trip out of the house this past weekend. We went to Northpark Mall to see the trains and let A run some of her energy out!

She loved it... especially the Thomas and Percy trains! Can't wait to ride on the GVRR Northpole Express next weekend!

Cookies and Aprons

It is cookie time again! Mimi, Mommy and Annabelle are already two cookie batches into our newest holiday tradition. We made the raspberry, almond thumb cookies first and the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies second. This year we are styling in the kitchen with new matching aprons- made specially by Mimi- and embroidered with our names! So cute! Check out the pics. Can't wait to make some more cookies but even more excited to EAT them on Christmas!

Icepocalypse 2013

What do you do when you are iced in for four days? Sleep, watch a lot of holiday shows and movies, make forts, make cookies, be silly and SLEEP more! We are going stir crazy but we have had a lot of great family time. Who hoo iceapocalypse 2013!

Decorating the House

"Mommy, can I help you?"

Annabelle has been so excited about helping me decorate the house. She loves the tree so I gave her full range to decorate the bottom with her own ornaments. She has been great! It seems like every little Christmas trinket I pull out gets a "wow" or a "it's so pretty" remark. I especially loved her excitement when the singing penguin made its return. We have heard, "its Christmas time again.... bells are ringing, children singing, magic fills the air...." over and over since it came out of the box! I will have to get a video or two before the thing gives out!

Here are some pics of the decorating fun. Enjoy!

Tree Hunting

We headed out to Van Alstyne to find the perfect Christmas tree this year. The Wintergreen Tree Farm came highly recommended by our neighbors who have been out to the farm for the last 10 + years. I went with high expectations and most were met. The actual farm was quaint and there were plenty of things to do: gift shop, playground, hot chocolate, hayrides and SANTA! Annabelle loved riding on the hayride and running around the trees. She even talked a big game wanting to see "Ho Ho." Turns out she was still scared of the big man and wouldn't even sit on his lap.... I think after seeing him a couple more times this month we will eventually get her to smile but no success on the first round. 

Unfortunately, the trees on the farm were on the smaller side due to lack of rain so we ended up buying one of their pre cut trees (from Virginia!). I felt bad at the time but it turns out that the chosen tree ended up being one of the best looking ones that we have ever had! Also, we still gave them a lot of business and will be back again next year.

Here are the pics.

It is a beautiful day to look for a Christmas tree!

Hayride time!

A wanted a Charlie Brown tree

Family pic time

So much fun riding the hayride

Visiting Ho Ho

A broke down and took the candy cane from Ho Ho!