Christmas at Home

We prefer a small Christmas celebration with just the immediate family. We spend the day together having fun.

Christmas Eve Daddy went to the store for milk. He came home with an electric crane (and milk). Someone is an impulse shopper!

He got Lego Minecraft and she got a suitcase.

This was the ONLY thing on his wish list. He wanted a typewriter so desperately.

She wanted everything. She loves her Ender Dragon.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I hope your day was peaceful and fun.

Christmas with Family

We went to Oklahoma to celebrate with my family. This involves multiple locations and many different groups of people. We went to my mom's church for their cantata, out to eat, visiting homes, and nursing homes.

Papa T and Oma got new bikes and the kids approve.

Part of the family out to lunch after church

It was seriously cold. Not that cold, but it made for some good jokes about things freezing over...

(click on the photo to see it larger)

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy's Office Fun

First, did you see the cool characters I posted about yesterday? Here are some of the activities the kids did at Daddy's office.

They made hats (money is always the appropriate accessory)

Train rides

Art projects (cards and snowflakes) before traveling to the moon

Daddy's Work Characters

I work for a school, yet Daddy's office is the one with tons of cool kids activities.

Charlie Brown

Alice in Wonderland

Frosty and Rudolph

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Decorations

Santa Picture!

Every year we take the kids to Bass Pro for the free picture with Santa.

Digging with the backhoes

They are getting so big!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning with just the four of us! I love having a small family Christmas. Yes, the big celebrations with family out of town is exciting, but this helps us focus on each other and the things that are important. We don't give many gifts, but we really try to find things we will all love.

They each started with their biggest boxes, of course.

She got a doll that can walk. He finally got the accordion he had been asking for since our trip to Poland over the summer. Within just a couple of hours he was playing songs for extended family over Skype.

She had asked for a garden to grow food and help people. We went with this herb kit that works in the window. It is still there, though everything has been dead for a long time!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve they both opened one gift. It was a kit to build a metal helicopter.

Step 1: Dump out all pieces

Working together to build

Finished!

(We tried many photos, he couldn't stand still.)

Christmas Card Photo

Like many families, every year we do a Christmas card photo.

Official photo for the 2015 Christmas Card

*Remember the blog is a year behind

Happy Holidays everyone!

We didn't pick this one, but it was tempting...

Christmas Characters

Wonderful Husband's work offered a chance to take photos with various characters. Then line for Santa was hours long, so we skipped that one, but here are the others.

Elsa and Olaf were both real and talked and walked, etc. They were having camera problems so we had plenty of time to pick out the perfect props - Wonderful Husband and I went with hats while both kids picked a penguin.

The Grinch! The kids picked out their own hats here.

A gingerbread man!

SNOW!

Another fun activity in our town square is the snow! Every weekend they have snow machines that go on at the top and bottom of the hour. They play Christmas music from speakers you can hear throughout the area. The lights are also synchronized to the music.

In case the attire of the people confuses you, it is about 60F or 15C outside.

Snow is always exciting. Especially when it doesn't cause any safety or traffic issues!

Christmas with Family

We tried getting photos of everyone together and failed repeatedly. We will keep trying!

 Pictured: Me, Sweet Son, Sweet Daughter, Uncle B., Uncle B's friend, Dancing Great Grandma, Oma, and Papa T. 

Missing: Wonderful Husband, Oma's kids and their spouses

Pictured:Grandma, Sweet Daughter, Gentle Great Grandma, Sweet Son, Great Uncle R, Great Aunt K, Me

Missing: Wonderful Husband, Uncle B

Christmas with Grandma

Another day, another Christmas celebration!

Opening presents at Grandma's house

Visiting Great Grandma

All 3 (great-grandma and great-grand kids) were given the same stuffed bear, haha!

Christmas with Papa T.

We always love getting to celebrate Christmas over many days. Here is just one day of the celebration. We were with Papa T's side of the family.

They have this thing about stealing hats...

Opening gifts

We go around the room opening one gift at a time. She is waiting patiently in her new chair.

He got a Lego set!

More Fire Station Christmas

These are more photos from the Christmas celebration at the local fire station.

Walking home they decided to hold hands. Every time they do this I take a photo. I know one day it will stop and I will miss it.

Emailing Santa. They neither one asked for anything, haha.

Cool light fixtures

In front of a firetruck

Christmas at the Fire Station

Our local fire station does a Christmas event every year and this is the first time we have been able to go. It was awesome!

Sitting in a firetruck

Decorations

They were trying to pretend it is cold.

More fun backdrops to pose with

Parachuting Santa!

Every year our town hosts Santa and an elf as they parachute into the town square. This is the story of 2015 or How Inconsiderate People Ruin Everything. (*Note, this is a dramatic title. It wasn't ruined, but it could have been better.)

Here he comes!

The Elf lands first

You can see the crowds surrounding the landing field. We were held back by ropes and a sense of community - at least in theory.

 The elf lands!

Shortly after this, people rushed the field. I'm not kidding. It was no longer safe for Santa to land here. Santa ended up landing in another field, out of our sight, where he wouldn't hurt anyone. It was a great decision based on the safety of everyone, but needless to say we were less than thrilled that we didn't get to see Santa land.

There he goes