Santa Came to Town!

Santa came to our house Saturday night after we all went to bed!

He even brought the four things on Olivia's list (and maybe a few extras).

1. A barbie

2. A robot

3. Cookies

4. A baby

For the past 2-3 weeks, this was her list....in this order...every day.

I didn't think Santa would bring a robot to a girl, but after she mentioned it every single day (and even suggested that I get one to match hers), I gave Santa a call and told him he better go ahead and bring her one.

She walked in the living room and immediately ran and grabbed the Barbie out of her stocking.

She was SO EXCITED about this $6 Barbie!

After she grabbed the Barbie, she started scanning everything and asked "Where's my robot?" Sure am glad Santa was able to get her one!

(love her face here....just pure joy)

Santa must have mistakenly given her a recorder. I bet it was meant for another house. It's currently hiding somewhere out of reach *wink*

Santa put a cookie in her stocking to fulfill her request.

Her stocking included a watch. For the record, if you ask what time it is, she will take a glance at her watch and say "Eighty-seven". It's always eighty-seven. Always. LOL

After going thru everything Santa brought, we just let her play for a couple of hours before getting ready and heading to my mom's house (5 hours away).

Christmas morning was so fun this year. Olivia was really into it and excited about everything. She has been looking for Elfie everyday. I keep having to remind her that Elfie won't come back until NEXT Christmas and that she's currently at the North Pole with Santa. Pretty sure she thinks I'm full of it.

Christmas Eve Pajamas

Growing up, we received new pajamas on Christmas Eve. It was the only gift we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve. As we got older, it became more of a "ohhh, wonder what's in this package???" as we knew for sure it was pajamas....just didn't necessarily know what mom had picked out for us.

This was a tradition I wanted to pass down to our immediate family, so for the past two years, Olivia has had new Christmas Eve pajamas....and this year was no different (well, except it was a Christmas Eve gown, not pajamas).

After we got home from my in-laws, Olivia rushed to the tree to get her present...didn't even take off her coat! She couldn't wait to open it.

Don't let this look of excitement fool you. When she saw it, she disappointedly said "oh daddy, it's for you". Jason had gotten a new pair of red plaid pajama pants the day before, and I guess she recognized the pattern and thought that it was his present. So observant!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning was spent cleaning house and doing crafts with Olivia. Then we went to Christmas Eve service at church (didn't get a pic of her in her dress...FAIL). Then we headed to my in-laws. Olivia couldn't wait to get over there to open presents. She helped play Santa and hand out the gifts. She would give the boys a present and tell them "don't open it. We aren't ready yet". So funny. Such a little mom.

Emily & Wayne

Mike & Elizabeth

Jason (think this was the only pic I got of him!)

We all had to wear these reindeer antlers that really didn't stand up too well. They were hard to wear. I'll volunteer mine up to someone else next year. Ha.

Wayne appears THRILLED to wear the antlers. Probably as thrilled as I was!

Another happy camper.

Olivia explaining to Griffin (or Gippin) to NOT open yet.

Emily (she may still be there opening...wink.wink.)

Deanna

Deanna and Olivia (oh, and Jason....see him?)

Christmas Cookies

Olivia and I made Christmas cookies on Sunday. She loves to help in the kitchen. All I hear is "I do it Mommy! I help!".

Stirring (in a tutu) is very serious business.

We made quite the mess!




After baking, she took a bath and then came back to help decorate.

Yummy.....pure sugar!

Cookie making last year.....she's grown so much!

Our Elf

Sad to say I've not taken many pictures of our friend Elfie.....also sad to say she hasn't gotten TOO creative....maybe next year! She tends to gravitate to our kitchen island...a lot! She's also been found in the bathroom brushing her teeth & flossing her teeth, neither of which Olivia was too pleased with....she doesn't want to share her things with Elfie. She's also been found hanging from our ceiling fans and getting into our candy jar, but there are definitely nights where she's been tired and has just rested on the mantel or sat on the Christmas tree!

Christmas Program

Olivia's school Christmas program was last Thursday night. Her classroom did "Little Drummer Boy". All the kids (except Olivia) had a drum. Olivia was the leader with a "baton" and lead the way for the class. Since the performance wasn't on stage and was in constant motion, I got terrible pictures, and the video we have isn't much better! This will just have to be a day committed to memory instead!

Marshmallow Reindeer

Olivia's school had their Christmas party on Friday. I saw these reindeer on Pinterest so I thought I'd give them a try. The ones on Pinterest were MUCH prettier than mine. I didn't have much time to make them and just threw them together fairly quickly. I wish I'd been able to take more time, but I still think they turned out fairly cute.....and let's be honest, the 3 year olds weren't going to be inspecting them for flaws!

Lunch with Santa

We had lunch with Santa at my in-laws country club on Sunday. Olivia had been so excited about seeing "Ho Ho", as she primarily calls him. When she FREAKED at the Easter bunny this year, they told us that it usualy works if you make a list and tell them that they have to give it to them, which forces them to be a big kid. I was VERY happy I remembered this tip! The second it was time for us to see Santa, Olivia immediately started "I don't want to Mamma". I quickly reminded her that she had to give him her list so he'd know what to bring her, and just like the man told me...she walked up to him and handed it over! Yay!

The List:

She lists these things every time...in this order. Such a mess.

1. a Barbie (no clue where she learned about Barbies.....but she tells me every day that Santa is going to bring her one)

2. a Robot (????? - Santa is probably out of those this year)

3. Cookies (cracks me up)

4. a baby (doll, not a real one!)

I just snapped these pics with my camera. We won't have the official one for a week or two :(

There were lots and lots of crafts.

Gets better every year!

ICE! - Shrek the Halls

Jason's work decided to go to ICE! at the Gaylord Texan for their Christmas outing. So Saturday, we headed that way. Take a look at their website....I was too busy chasing my almost 3 year old to get any decent pictures of the ice sculptures!

It's less than 10 degrees inside (website said 9 degrees....announcer said 3 degrees...so whatever....it was just COLD). They give you these coats to wear. You see Olivia's....didn't QUITE fit, but that was ok, as you aren't allowed to touch the ice anyway!

We were prepared with our hats, gloves, scarfs and parkas.

She thought it was all really neat. I was scared she'd be miserably cold, but she ran around super excited by it all.

The donkey. I don't even know his name. I'm sure this would all have been a lot neater if we actually had ever seen Shrek! Amazon has the entire box set for about $22. I don't know why, but I can't bring myself to order it! It just so doesn't look like a cartoon we would want to watch, but I could be totally wrong!

Olivia went down the ice slide. Such a big girl!

And of course Jason went down it too.

Are the 3 little pigs part of Shrek???? I thought they were cute anyway!

At the very end, the last sculpture was of the nativity scene. It was really pretty and peaceful. I loved that the Gaylord ended with this rather than Santa or something. Afterall, Jesus really is what it's all about guys!

Would I go again? Sure, but cosidering it's not super cheap, I'd probably wait until the theme was something we really cared about. Luckily, we only had to pay for one of us, so it was a fun, fairly inexpensive family day!