Getting Ready for Christmas

Today, we were very excited to start getting ready for xmas!  We put up the tree, decorated, had a visit from our Elf, and enjoyed little meat soup! :)

Setting out our Christmas list for the elves to bring to Santa!

The elves came... curious to see if they left any goodies...

They left a good boy chart to fill in for Santa on Christmas Eve.

 The elves also left a few goodies to play with until Christmas!

 A boy after my own heart, he loves my Grandma's little meat soup too!

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Still feels like Christmas

Although Christmas is over, Hayden still insists on wearing his Santa pj's and is enjoying playing with all of the goodies such as Police Man Potato Heads, Play-Doh and tons of building supplies!  He LOVES building with his straws/connectors... so neat!

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Lazy Day...

After so much Christmas celebrating the past few days, we decided to spend the day after having a lazy pajama day after taking Uncle Jon to the train station this morning.  Hayden enjoyed playing with some of his new toys, especially the Hot Wheels wall track... love 3M stickies!! :)  His other favorite toy, so far is the neat dominoes train/marble run!  I don't remember so many neat toys when I was little. :)

After he woke up this morning, he asked if he could drink some milk on his tractor before we put it in the garage... such a rough life he leads. :)

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Merry Christmas... Evening!

This year, Jake and I volunteered to host the Family Christmas Party!  We had so much fun!  Aside from sitting around talking and enjoying so much yummy food, we also played Christmas Carol Pictionary, which offered a lot of laughs, along with a picture "booth"/prop box which offered even more laughs.  The weather was even "nice enough" to let the little ones take Hayden's new tractor for a ride outside in the backyard. 

Aside from the annual gift exchange/white elephant, we also enjoyed watching a photo/video slide show I made with tons of pictures from the last 15-20 Christmases.  Although it was sad at times, especially seeing pictures of my dad and grandma, it was neat to see how much everyone has changed over the years!

Candids throughout the day

Gift Exchange/White Elephant... this year Jon was the lucky recipient of the White Elephant gift which was a pink seat cover/purple bath rug.  The gift that was exchanged the most was the Hot Dog Toaster :). Although, I think Cousin Chandler's construction hat was pretty popular with Uncle Corey, who entertained us with his YMCA dancing :).

Christmas Carol Pictionary

Christmas Booth/Prop Box

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Merry Christmas... morning!

(wake up sleepy head)

Today was a great family day!!  This morning, Hayden was super excited (I love this age, this is the most excited I have seen him yet about the holidays.)  We spent the early morning opening presents, going through stockings, reading the letter from Santa, and having our traditional breakfast pizza.  

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Bondwave's Annual Christmas Party

Tonight, we went to Jake's work party.  They always have such a nice Christmas celebration, especially for the kids.  There were Elves who made Candy Cane Balloons, Toy Soldiers and Chimney Sweepers who were also jugglers & magicians, as well as a fun visit with Santa before a yummy dinner!  One thing that does make me sad about Jake switching jobs, is that this will be our last Bondwave Christmas celebration.

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Museum of Science and Industry Visit

(Hayden was fascinated with the human body exhibit.) 

We took Hayden to the museum for their Christmas Around the world exhibit, which was neat to see all the different trees decorated for each different country!  Of course, Hayden's favorite part was the gigantic train display... shocking! :)  My favorite was either the funny mirrors in the circus exhibit or the robot display.  We payed $5, for Hayden to watch an assembly line of robots make a cool toy for him... very neat to see!!  

Great trip!

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Holiday Trolley Ride in Chicago

Tonight we went to Chicago, to do some fun Christmas activities with Aunt Nikki, Uncle Corey, & Cousin Chandler.  We went on a trolley ride that took us to Lincoln Park Zoo to see the lights, then we went to the Christkindlmarket, and enjoyed yummy crepes and warm wine cider, then topped the night off with some hot chocolate at the Hershey Store.  We had so much fun, great way to get in the holiday spirit!!

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Santa Pics

I can't believe how fast time goes until I put all of these pictures together!  This is the first year, that he actually sat on Santa's lap without being bribed. :)  Santa gave out suggestions this year... he recommended a helicopter even though we weren't planning on that!  After telling Santa what his Christmas wishes were, he even gave Santa a hug... super cute!

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Decorating a Christmas Tree

Today for our Christmas ABC book, we did the letter D for Decorating a Christmas Tree!  We actually decorated Christmas Tree Waffles in the morning, which Hayden really enjoyed... they turned out super tasty using fruit for ornaments/lights, bacon for the trunk, and yogurt for snow! :)

We also had fun decorating a Gingerbread Tree... hopefully Tanner won't eat this one like he did our Halloween Haunted House!

 Can't decorate a tree, with out a cool Christmas Tree hat! :)

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Candy Cane Day

(Magical Candy Cane Sprinkles... love Target's Dollar Section :)

Tonight, we tried our luck at growing Candy Canes before going to bed! 

 

 Planting our Candy Cane "seeds" into our Candy Cane tin!  Then we used our magic candy cane wand(pen)... let's see if anything will grow in the morning!

 With some of Charlie's magic, it worked!! Hayden was very excited to see that the 

seeds/sprinkles "grew" into a huge candy cane!

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