Christmas #1

We have so far celebrated 4 different times this Christmas season.  We still have one more to go for this year.  So in order to remember all of them I am going to post them separately.  Because I am sure as time goes on I will forget the order of what we celebrated.

Our first Christmas celebration was on Saturday, December 15th with my mom's family.  It was in Illinois and we were originally going to stay the night, but with everything going on with my dad I didn't want to be away two days in a row.  So, we did a day trip.  We left the house around 10 am and spent 4 hours in the car to Montgomery, Illinois.  Then, we stayed until about 7:00 at night and made the return trip that day.  We got home around 12:30 in the morning and the kids were amazing.  Especially considering we made a stop into IKEA on the way home to buy a new desk we wanted for our living room.

I love our Christmas at my grandma's house (well technically now I guess it belongs to two of my aunts but I still call it my grandma's house).  Everyone gets together around 1:00 and the cousins all bring appetizers.  Then at 2:00 we eat the soup and main meal.  The little kids (Sam and Ally's generation) all get 1 gift to open together.  Then the adults (my generation and older) do a Christmas Gift Card exchange.  Everyone who wants to participate brings a $25 gift card and we do a drawing to see who picks first.  Then the person who goes next gets to steal a card that's been opened or elect to pick a new one.  It's a lot of fun.

Here are some photos of the day.  

 

Here are Emma and Sam waiting so very patiently to be given permission to open their presents.  Luke was at home with Jenn and Michael that weekend, so it was just Emma, Sam, and Ally.

Finally after all the kids had their gifts they got to open their first Christmas present of 2012.

Sam was really into opening presents this year.  Since his birthday was just the weekend before he knew what to do and knew that opening presents was going to give you a great new toy.  He was super excited and absolutely loved his gift.

Emma got a great little princess carriage that a horse pulls the princess.  Sam actually wanted one too!

Ally got a book and a little fisher-price doll set.  The doll is actually a lot of fun because it has snap on clothes and a crib that she can use safely at her age. Don't let her little pout fool you in the following photo.  She loves this thing and it is constantly played with in our house.

 

Sammy got a very cool Battat take-apart crane.  These cars are amazing.  They come with big drill parts and a working drill that they can build themselves.  Sam after seeing it done once can take it apart and put it back together with no problems.  Seriously... if you need a gift for a three year old boy I highly recommend this one!

Sam and Ally were so well behaved that day.  Ally took a two hour nap on the ride up from about 10 to 12.  Sam fell asleep 30 minutes from my aunt's house so he was going on very little sleep.  They were so tired by the time we left.  My aunts live about 15 minutes from an IKEA.  Paul and I have ordered a new imac computer (so excited for it to come!!!) and we need a place to put it.  IKEA had a great looking desk that we knew we wanted.  So.. with only being 15 minutes away we decided to go.  We were in and out in about 30 minutes (have never made it through an IKEA that fast!) and the kids were still great through the store.  We did let them pick one toy out each to play with until they fell asleep on the ride home.  Sam (of course) got a train and Ally picked up an owl hand puppet.  Once back in the car they were asleep in about 30 minutes and slept the entire way home.  It was a short trip, but was glad we were able to go see my family!

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

On my birthday this year I wanted to put up the Christmas Tree.  Thanksgiving was on the 22nd and my birthday was on the following Sunday.  So Paul and I pulled out the Christmas decorations and got the tree up.  It takes quiet a bit longer when you have two young kids trying to help put the tree together.  Sam loved it and actually did most of the work himself!

Ally wasn't so sure of what to think of the Christmas tree at first glance.

Sam did most of the sorting himself.  The tree has different color pieces on the end so he sorted them into piles based on the color of the branches.

 Ally liked to help to.  But her help was more from picking them up in the piles they were in to examine that Sam had correctly color coded them.

Then she would get distracted to watch the Colts play football.

Assisting with putting the base together for our tree.

She was very adamant that her way was the correct way to do the tree and upset when we tried to do it otherwise.  She is already pretty sure her way is best :)

 

Admiring his handy work on the tree stand:

Putting the branches on the tree.  Again, Sam did most of the work.  He carried them over one by one and put them in the correct spot.  Paul just had to push them down a bit more for him.

Ally had to supervise and make sure it looked okay:

Then a quick break for her to look cute.

Sam had to then try on the Christmas stockings to see if they fit:

And a short dance break to fun Christmas songs coming from a cute reindeer.  Next year we have to hide that thing it is so ridiculously loud!

And finally some finishing touches with Sam putting the tinsel on the tree.  Don't worry... we fixed it later!  This took us so long that we had to stop after putting on the tinsel.  The lights and ornaments were finished another day.

 I tried getting a photo with them in front of the tree before bed but they were too wired and didn't want to look at the camera.  At what age do they finally pause for 2 seconds to smile at the camera!! 

And a final shot of Ally being adorable!

Jolly Days 2012 at the Children's Museum

On Sam's birthday we joined my mom, sister, niece, and nephew at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  They were having their jolly days so we got to go check out the holiday exhibit.  I must say, the year pass we bought to the Children's Museum was one of the best things we spent our money on.  It is so nice to just go for an hour or two whenever we can make it and see one or two things and then leave.  It is just so expensive otherwise that you feel you have to stay most of the day. 

At the end of the trip we did get to see Santa.  I had to post this picture because Ally was terrified!  In fact.. we might have caused her to have a complex about all beards.  She sees one and she breaks out crying now.

We didn't get to the museum until about 2 hours until it closed, which is a nice time to arrive.  Parking spots were open right up front and it wasn't crowded at all.  We hit our favorite spots quickly before going to the Jolly Days exhibit.  So we made it to the dinosaurs and trains right off the bat.

 

Sam digging for dinosaur bones.

Looking for trains:

 Then off to jolly days.  Inside this exhibit it had a place to do a snowball fight, a castle to climb on, a place for sock ice skating.  There was a huge Mrs. Claus play kitchen that Sam and Ally loved.

And they had Santa Claus.  Because we were there so late in the day there was almost no one in line.  A friend went earlier in the day and said the line was like an hour wait.  We were through in about 8 minutes.  Santa Claus was great.  Sam had a great time.  Ally... not so much!

To finish the trip off we let Sam ride down a huge slide and ended up at the food court to let him pick out a birthday cookie.  It is typically the staircase but for Jolly Days they turn it into a slide.  He loved it and wanted to go down again, but the line for the slide was at least 15 minutes so once was enough!  All in all it was another great trip to the museum and I think Sam had a good time going on his birthday.