Hunt Family Connection

Christmas Day

Santa came!!

Santa ate most of his cookies, drank some of the water we left, AND he left a note! We also found that the reindeer ate the food we left on the roof.

Santa noticed that we didn't have a tree topper and left a beautiful, shiny star :) He brought me a sweater, Kenny got some cologne, and the kids got these....

Faith came over a little later and opened up new shoes (florescent green Vans!) from Santa...

We went to Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery's house for brunch and more present-opening...

 We had yummy egg bake and cinnamon rolls, then got to the presents.

 
Ellie got her wings :) And both kids got sweatshirts from the Sheriff's department to match Pa-Paw's - Ellie's is pink as you can see in the picture, and Graham's is black.

I got this fun phone handset for my iPhone - I called mom and dad to wish them Merry Christmas and test it out.

The kids stayed at Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery's house with Wil for nap time (I heard they were planning to watch the Polar Express) and then they went out to Aunt Sandy's house for more Christmas fun.

I went back to the house and celebrated more Christmas with Kenny and Faith - we watched movies and had a yummy steak dinner.

Loved sharing another Christmas with my kids - they really make it amazing and soooo much fun!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve Wil joined us for a dinner of munchies and Christmas cookies, then we exchanged family presents.

The kids enjoyed themselves and were very happy with their gifts which included....

Walkie-talkies

an art easel for daddy's house

a stroller for baby

and a Spider Man pinball machine

Another of my favorites....

a new hat for Kenny's visit to Wisconsin with us :)

Kenny helped set some reindeer food up on the roof for Santa's crew, and we left some cookies and a bottle of water for Santa by the fireplace. Graham was pretty excited and had a hard time going to sleep, but we let him know that if Santa was at our house and G was still awake, Santa would keep moving on to the next house without leaving presents - eeeek!

I may have forgotten to share.....

....I was mentioned in a New York Time article. Really!!

Awhile ago a writer from the NY Times left a message on one of my blog posts, asking me to contact her. So I did, and she explained that she was writing an article about Skype and how people are using it. She had run across my blog and our Skype Christmas from last year.....she wanted to know more.

I chatted with her on a couple different occasions, and I did make it into the article :) You can read the whole article HERE - it's interesting....and not just because I'm in it!

It actually fits in really well with the word I'm thinking of focusing on in 2012....but more on that another day :)

Catching up....

Have been busy enjoying the holiday and my time with family and friends. Also getting ready to celebrate more with my Wisconsin family, so thought I'd better try to catch up before there was too much to remember :)

While the kids were away I got the house cleaned up and finished buying and wrapping presents...

Ted came and cleaned up the yard - A LOT! There were many leaves on the ground and roof, but he got them all blown out into the street....for just a moment in time, my house/yard looked like this....

 And I got to go out for a night with the girls....

Good eats, drinks, and lots of laughing - was awesome to connect with some of my bestest friends :)

I also stopped by Miss Kara's house to deliver some girly goodies for Maya, including this walker-seat-thingy. Much to her mama's delight, she seemed to enjoy it!

As much as I miss the kids when they're away, I do appreciate having the time alone to get things done in and out of the house.

Blitzen and Josh

So actually we saw Blitzen and Dasher this past weekend, but when Graham told Kenny about our outing, he said that we saw Blitzen and Josh :)

A couple of Santa's reindeer were at Oakway Center, so we ventured out into the COLD with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery to see them. The kids enjoyed it, but it was pretty chilly, so we weren't outside for too long.

I love this shot of Pa-Paw and Graham looking at the reindeer - makes me smile...

Even though it was cold, there were a couple more things that caught their attention. This fun little sleigh.....

And a set of steps that they could hop down. I don't have a picture of the steps, but I do have video of them jumping HERE.

They also had some goodies at Starbucks with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery while I did a little shopping at Old Navy :)

I finished up my holiday baking this weekend with my yummy Amish Sugar Cookies....they melt in your mouth! I use red and green sugar to make them holidayish, but you can make them any time of the year with regular sugar....

The beginning of this week has been pretty uneventful. I love being off from work 'cause it gives me time to get everything ready for Christmas and catch up on house cleaning. I have a little bit of shopping left to do, lots of wrapping, and some fun and relaxing activities planned. The kids are away at the coast with Wil celebrating Christmas with Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop so I have a lot of time and space to get it all done.

Preschool Christmas Party

Graham's preschool Christmas party was on Friday and parents were welcome to attend. I got there just in time to see the tail end of his recess, and then they lined up and got their reindeer antlers on before going in to sing some songs for us.

They sang a few Christmas songs - I video-taped some of it and you can watch HERE if you'd like :)

After Christmas songs there were a few different activity tables

They got to decorate a cupcake with yummy little candies....and then ate them!

At the next station they decorated a Christmas stocking...

And the last station was making a bracelet with beads and jingle bells....

The party was capped off with a gift exchange - everyone brought a wrapped book for a classmate. Graham got a Lego City book and he LOVES it - he hid it in the couch at home so that Ellie wouldn't find it. I have a feeling he might end up forgetting where he put it.

We came home with reindeer food to put out on Christmas Eve, a really sweet gift that G made for us, and a gift for Graham from his teachers (a silver ornament with his name, school, and year written on it).

Everyday stuff

Wednesday night was bath night. This is how I found Eleanor when I walked in to check on her....

Thursday night the kids were with Wil, so Kenny and I had Chinese take-out....YUM!

One more day of work before the 2-week winter vacation - can't wait!

The Christmas Gospel.....

...According to St. Thomas Preschool

Last night was Graham's Christmas program at his school - sooo fun! It won't look like it in any of the pictures or video, but Graham was super excited about it and has been singing songs for practice for about a week or two now!

So here we are all dressed and ready to go to his school in his fancy new sweater vest from Nana :)

Once there, we dropped him off in his classroom and got our seats in the chapel. The program was the Christmas story, so we started with the story of Mary and Joseph finding their way to the stable...there were a few songs, and then it was time for the angels to meet up with the shepherds. As you can see....Graham was a shepherd :)

(if you watch the video you'll see G turn around and say hi to me while they are meeting the angels!)

After getting the message from the angels the shepherds went up and took their seat to sing along with everyone else.

They got to use several props/instruments for some of the songs....sticks for Tapping Tapping Little Elves and bells for Jingle Bells.

Graham started having a wardrobe malfunction early on, and it just got worse as the program went on. His little shepherd headgear came off and G tried to fix it himself, but ended up looking more like Rambo than a shepherd!

Luckily his teacher noticed and got it set on there straight again :)

When it was over we were all invited to come over to another room for cookies and punch. This is a shot of Graham standing up to tell everyone that he brought his own cookies (carrying them into the classroom makes them your very own!)

Graham was excited to hear that we thought he did a great job and he so obviously enjoyed himself - I loved it!

If you'd like to see the video you can click HERE - it picks up where the shepherds come onto the scene and lasts about 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Not bad for a Monday.....

Had lunch in the sun (SUN!) with a friend....

Happy to have the kids back home after a weekend away :) Got some holiday cups that they were excited to use. Ellie's first dinner with a big girl cup (before she spilled it in her lap!)

And sitting down to watch a little tv before bedtime - one episode of Dora and one episode of How It's Made. First we had to update Netflix, which took a little bit....fortunately they play a fun little Mario video to pass the time and apparently the kids thought it was pretty great. (It was Ellie's idea that they sit there on the chair under the blanket together!)

And if you'd like to actually hear and see what's going on here, then you can see a short video clip of them cheering HERE. I plan to look at it whenever I need my own personal cheering section...makes me laugh!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

It's been busy since I last posted...busy at work, and busy at life getting ready for Christmas and the holiday season.

On Thursday afternoon I got out of my meetings a little earlier than usual, so I took advantage of the extra time and went to the grocery store to load up on supplies for holiday baking...

I started baking on Friday night and worked on it all weekend long. I made some minty/chocolate cookies, silly bars, no-bake cookies, and a holiday favorite....

CHEX MIX :)

On Saturday morning I had an appointment for a cut and color - holiday hair! Here's a before (actually during I guess) and after shot....

Kenny and I attended a Christmas party with my co-workers Saturday night and had a great time :) We participated in a white elephant gift exchange - here we are holding the gift I opened...

I know it's hard to see, but it's a turtle wearing a bikini, and a frog doing some sort of hula dance. Unfortantely, that gift was "stolen" from me a few turns later...never to return again :(

On Sunday, for the first time EVER, I watched the movie "A Christmas Story" - Kenny was a bit shocked that I hadn't seen in and thought it was an important part of my education and development :)

I also got the tree decorated and enjoyed a nice fire while we watched another Christmas movie, Elf.

 

Sunday night we went out to look at Christmas lights - we found some really awesome displays, but this one took first prize for sure!

This is just one tiny section of their decorations - it stretched all the way around their house and lawns and it was just amazing! Do you see the size of that Santa there in the front?! I'm looking forward to taking the kids around to this neighborhood - soooo much to look at and very festive!

It was a great weekend - got lots of tasks done that are hard to do when the kids are there demanding attention and wanting to "help". It was nice to get together with work friends and celebrate the holiday season and it was nice to just have some quiet "down time" to recover and get ready for the weeks ahead. One more week at work, one week at home to enjoy Christmas, then we're off to Wisconsin to celebrate with family and friends there. So much to look forward to!