Christmas 2016

We kicked off our holiday festivities by getting our Christmas tree.  Every year, we say we will go back to cutting one down and just like the last few years, it did not happen.  This year the culprit was some illness.  Nothing major, but it just didn't seem reasonable to make kids with colds go trapsing around the woods to cut down a tree in 20 degree temps.  So, we went to the Victor Christmas Tree Farm to pick one out.

On a Friday evening, we took the kids to Eastview Mall to see Santa.  It went well with no tears!  Parker hopped right up on his lap and told him she wanted a Doc McStuffins toy.  Graham didn't sit on his lap but stood right next to Santa and asked him lots of questions about his clothes, belt, etc.  Graham told Santa he wanted trucks.

After Santa we had dinner at a restaurant attached to the mall and then drove around to look at Christmas lights.  The pictures below are from one house that was amazing!  The whole night went so well.  Everyone was happy!  Parker brought it up weeks later and asked if we could do the same exact thing next year.

We had our annul friends party in mid-December.  The pics below are of all the kids decorating cookies.  We always do a gift exhange for the kids and look forward to it every year!

Here are some videos of Parker singing Christmas carols in the car.  Jingle Bells was pretty solid, but Frosty has some pretty good twists in the lyrics.

On Christmas Eve, we had some fun playing in the snow during the day.  

We built a snow slide

Made snow angels

And walked up to the canal

That evening, we went to Greg's Uncle Al's house for the Goforth Christmas party.  Uncle Al has a great finished basement and is perfect for parties.  When we got home, we set up a table for Santa with some treats (we used rolo-pretzel-pecan treats, rather than cookies). 

We also got Graham to agree to leave his pacifiers (pacis) for Santa.  Other babies need them more than he does now.  He was all excited about it, as you will see in the video.  However, it did not last and he still is using a paci for bedtime.

In the morning, we had a boatload of gifts to open.  Here are some videos:

Otis opening his stocking

Lightsabers from Jack, Charlie, & Nora

Fire truck from Grandma & Grandpa

After the gifts were open, Papa G and Sandy came by on their way to Herkimer.  Then we just had a lazy day around the house. 

Here is a pic of some very proud kids after completing some Christmas puzzles: