Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas, the kids are really at the perfect age.  It was actually quite chaotic, but I guess that is to be expected.  Olivia got everything she wanted and then some, as did Jake.  Two days after and there is still fighting over toys.  Olivia seems to want Jake’s toys and Jake wants Olivia’s toys, until they notice each other playing with the other’s stuff, then there is arguing.

We started out opening Santa’s gifts in the morning.  Luckily there was no 4:00 wake up for us.  The kids both slept in and we were able to get them up at our leisure.

We took too long opening in the morning, so had to leave the non-Santa stuff for later as we had to get to Mima and Botow’s house.

We had a fun time opening at Mima and Botows and got to see Anutie Stephie and Uncle C. J. as well.  We had a small problem with Ruby, who had to take a trip to the animal emergency hospital on Christmas Day since she was pooping blood.  As of now, all seems to be good with her, she may have just eaten something wrong, as the tested for Parvo, worms and other stuff and all was negative.  She has a great appetite at least and is looking a lot better today.  It may have just run its course.

I’ll post videos and pictures from Mima and Botow’s house tomorrow.

 

 

Jake Singing

I had a great birthday Wednesday, and Jake topped it off with a great rendition of Happy Birthday.  I also caught him singing “Let It Go” today.  Maybe he will be a singer someday.

Tree and Elf

We got our Christmas tree Saturday.  We all know what comes with the tree, the Elf.  Kids were super excited that he was coming.  We set it up Saturday and put lights on it but left the decorating for the next morning.

Kids watched the Elf on the Shelf movie all snuggled up Saturday night in preparation for his arrival.

Elf appeared Sunday morning on the tree and brought new small Christmas Trees for each kid’s rooms as well as jammies for both of them. 

After that, Olivia and Jake sat down and wanted to write lists to Santa.  Lee wrote hers all on her own.

Decorating the tree came next.

Finally, that evening, they got to put on their jammies.  Getting these two to take a good picture together is near impossible.  They never smile or stand still at the same time.

Santa

We went and got our Christmas pictures and Santa pictures last week.  Olivia did good this time with Santa, but it was Jake that had a hard time.  I can only imagine that some day both kids will be excited to sit with Santa.

Parade

Sunday was the Simpsonville Christmas Parade.  This was the first year we went.  It was a nice day luckily, just a little cold.  Kids have a blast.  We were lined up at the end of the parade and stayed for the whole thing so we could wave to Santa.  After the parade, we went to see our friend who was on the Frozen float.  She is part of a new realty agency and they invited anyone to come over to their new location and get pictures with the Frozen princesses.  I think Livi hugged Else at least 4 different times.  Afterwards we went to Wendy’s and had dinner.  Olivia said on the way in that “This was the best day ever.”  Glad we did it.

 

First Dance

Friday night was Olivia’s school’s inaugural Snowball (Daddy – Daughter dance.)  We had a great time.  Lee danced the night away.  At first I was treated like her date, but after a while she loosened up and I was demoted to kind of a “home base” for when she needed a quick break.  I got to see a lot of her friends (mainly from aftercare, only one person from her actual class showed up from what she said.)  I thought I was treating her right until we saw a limo pull up with Frozen playing on their TV’s.  Maybe next year!!

At the beginning of the night she told me she was scared to go on the dance floor and wanted to just stay by the wall.

But about 1/2 hour in, she was all about that bass.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.  The neighborhood kids decided to stay around this year so we all went trick-or-treating together.  Livi is now a Halloween expert, running from house to house, peering in windows that have porch lights out and saying “I see people in there, why are they not answering.”  It was a little embarrassing.  Jake was great as well.  Always said “Happy Halloween” and “thank you” when getting candy.  They both made it through the entire night with out incident and were able to stay up late visiting houses.  They got a great bounty of candy.