Reese's Christmas Program

Reese's Christmas Program was the day after Huddoo's, and it was also the same day as Wyatt's class Christmas party.  I felt a little rushed that morning, but she was so excited and cute that I definitely felt less anxious!

Is this her last Christmas program?  Maybe?  I'm so, so, SO torn.  I would love for her to have the same Kindergarten experience as Wyatt (seriously, I can't say enough about how phenomenal their school and Kindergarten program is - I literally tell everyone I know to send their kids there.  And I send text messages out when it's application time - after I send mine in, of course!), but she's using up her tuition budget in Pre-K this year!  HA!

She LOVES her programs.  The singing and "the moves."  Obviously, this smiles proves it.

BFF'S.  I don't even have to ask Reese who she plays with at school.  The answer is always Emma and Griffin!  They're already making "Ring Dancing" plans for high school.

Ready to eat!  She ate less than I have ever seen her eat at a program - she didn't even ask for seconds!

This was Hudson's "December smile."  Seriously.  He spent our whole Disney vacation giving us real smiles, and apparently forgot to show his teeth at Christmas!

Presents from her teachers and goody bags, oh my!

Reesie and Daddy! He had vacation time to burn at the end of the year, so he basically had the last three weeks of December off of work.  His first day back at work in January was painful for the kids. 

(Okay, and me.  Because Finley stood at the front door screaming for him all day.  Before his vacation she only wanted me.  Bummer.)

Reesie and Mommy. Brian gets the "Most Improved for Taking Pictures of Mommy with the Kids" Award for 2013,

She wanted a picture with her class elf, Carlos.  Sadly, you can only see Carlos' hands at the top of the tree in the picture.  Oops - don't tell Reesie!

That box wrapped in princess paper had a puzzle in it - that she put together every. single. day. over break!  Teachers always know the best thing to get their students - and this was a home run.  At one point I walked in her room over Christmas to find the carpet replaced by puzzles - her puzzles, Wyatt's puzzles, Hudson's puzzles.  It was insanity!

Hudson's Christmas Program

Hudson's Christmas Program was so fun! This was actually only our second three year old performance - Wyatt's was cancelled because of snow when he was three.

Loved his little Santa hat.  And I can't believe he kept it on his head.  He is a notorious refuser of hats.

He also actually practiced the songs at home before the program.  When Wyatt was three (really, much closer to 4), he told me that he didn't remember the songs, they were supposed to be a surprise for us, and he wasn't going to sing them for me.  And then the program got cancelled.  So we got nothing.

Hudson was shouting "Feliz Navidad" from his bed at nap time every day.  

Kids, man. They're all so different!

I  kind of adore this picture of him.  I keep calling it his "Presidential wave."  I feel like I've seen every President give this same smile and wave while they're walking to their helicopter - maybe he's just practicing!  HEB 2048 - Ha!

After his "grand finale" we went back to his class room for a few minutes.  It's always fun for us to see him interact with his friends.  Especially when he comes home and spends his day telling us that "C is Colby, F is for Fletcher, and M is for Mason!  And H is MY letter!  H for Huddoo!"

Whew!  I'm glad I could get his Christmas Program posted before the Spring Program - Reese's will have to wait!

More...Christmas! (yay)

We spent most of Christmas Day hanging out around the house, eating breakfast (isn't that an all day thing?), and opening presents one by one.

We went over Brian's parents in the afternoon for dinner and cousin time and presents.

 Clearly excited about whatever this is.

 And Finley was over Reese's "help" with the present opening.

All of the girls are interested in the klippity klop horses.

 The boys...not so much.

 Brian's award winning Ugly Christmas Flannel matched the wrapping paper.  Ha!

 Speaking of wrapping paper...look where Hudson was.  Again.

Christmas Morning

The kids woke up ready to open presents on Christmas morning.

In fact, I think Wyatt and Reese had already ripped a package open before Brian and I got out of bed.  Last year they at least waited for their grandparents to get here...this year, not so much!

Finley was clearly more interested in eating.  It's one of her favorite things.

 These two were able to get along for MOST of the day.  A true Christmas miracle!

 Brian has a Yankees hat for almost every occasion.

 Reese noticed that this paper matched the paper in her Santa bag...and she figured out that this one was for her.  Little brothers, man.  Always trying to steal your stuff, and ruin your puzzles, and open your presents.

 Daddy and the girls!

 And the boys!

(Was I at Christmas?)

And these next three just show what I love about having a big family.

Hudson adores his big brother.
(We take them all shopping for presents for each other.  These are the pictures of the kids exchanging their gifts).

 And Finley loves her big sister.

 And the middles kind of adore each other, too!

They opened presents (and opened and opened and opened)...we do one. present. at. a. time.  Brian likes for Christmas to drag on to last for more than five minutes).  We stopped for some breakfast and then they opened their presents from us.

And yes, there is more Christmas to come...we still hadn't been to Mimi and Baba's!

More Christmas Eve

After we got back from my parents' house we had to partake in our traditional Christmas Eve activities

(Which I'm blogging about so that I will be able to remember what our traditional Christmas Eve activities are next Christmas.)

We started with one of those "let's see if we can all 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time in front of the Christmas tree" pictures.

 FYI - the answer is you can't when they're 6, 5, 3, and 1.  And my guess is you probably also can't when they're 16, 15, 13, and 11.  We'll just keep trying.

I read "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and the story of Jesus' birth,

and Daddy followed up with "The Polar Express."

 We watched "The Elf on the Shelf."

We set out cookies for Santa.

And left him a note.  How delicious do those cookies look?  They each decorated two.  Reese wrote the note so that Hudson would have something to leave out for Santa since he obviously can't hold "glass stuff."

 And we threw out some reindeer food and listened to Kringle Radio for updates on Santa's status.  We especially enjoyed the "East Coast Warning" for the kids to get in bed.

 And after all four kids were resting peacefully in their beds, Santa brought presents!

Rudolph and Clarice stayed out as lookouts.

We think he finally showed up around 4AM.

Lucky for Santa, he gets to sleep all day on Christmas.  Mommy and Daddy?  Not so much.

Christmas Eve

So I'm a little late posting our Christmas recap.  Or really, all of December.  I've been busy doing...well, nothing very interesting.  In December it was Christmas stuff.  Since then? Some cleaning.  Some reading.  And a lot of Downton Abbey binging (how did no one tell me about this amazing show before now?  I feel betrayed.)

So, anywho, I thought it would be beneficial to post about our Christmas, and then I'll perhaps go back and cover Hudson and Reese's Christmas programs.  And Wyatt's baseball camp.   You know, the usual.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family.  We had our traditional "Italian" meal, and then we all exchanged gifts.  This is what the tree and gifts looked like for about 30 seconds before the kids destroyed it all.

 Who was most excited to open presents?  The 5 year old or the 19 year old? 

Debatable.
I will give them both the award for most stylish at the Christmas gathering, though.

 This is the best picture I got of the cousins on Christmas Eve.

 For Christmas this year, my mom gifted the big kids with "experiences."  Reesie is taking art every Monday for the rest of the school year, and Wyatt is taking ice skating lessons for hockey.  But they couldn't just open that on Christmas Eve, could they?  So they each got one of these:

 And this Momma has spent the last three weeks figuring out new bracelet designs...Okay, so that's REALLY what I've been doing since Christmas.

"A Holiday Barbie?  For meeeeeeeee?"

 Star Wars Lego for this guy!

 And Hudson just enjoys throwing wrapping paper in the air!

 And I'm all about some Playroom Rules - Hobby Lobby for the win!  Seriously though, we don't have Hobby Lobby here, and I so wish we did.  My mom got me some super cute chevron throw pillows for the couch, too.  

Marc and April had to leave early so they could get back to Richmond before Santa came, and we always like to have some time at home before the kids head to bed on Christmas Eve. But that will all probably have to be a separate post!

But everyone can now breathe sigh of relief, I have blogged again.  Which means it will probably be less intimidating the next time I pick up the computer!

Merry Christmas!!!

Here is this year's Christmas card!  I love it!  It's always so fun for me to make them. I also LOVE to put our old cards in frames and put them up at Christmas time.  It's so fun to look at photos of previous years.  I also have a box where I save the cards people send, too.  

Previous Years:

2012

2011 and 2010

2008