Christmas is for Kids

Ok so my last Christmas post was a little negative so I have come to redeem my Grinch attitude with some Christmas cheer. 

Christmas is all about the kids. The faces. The screams and squeals of joy coming from the around the Christmas tree. The pure excitement and anticipation as dad very slowly but carefully pries every toy from its box. The begging that ensues as they ask to go from one toy to the next without any care to clean up the first toy. Kids love Christmas. 

And I guess I do too. I mean look at the faces. 

It is hard to hate something that makes your children so happy. 

We had such a great day too. Family came over during the day and helped manage some of the chaos which really just ended up in a solid two hours of opening gifts. By the end, Nicky was just bringing me his gifts so I could open them for him. It was wonderful. They were so happy and grateful for everything - Nicky and I were too. Our babies are so loved and it makes our hearts happy. Unfortunately I had to work Christmas night so while Nick went to his families side, I took a nap and went to work. Not exactly the Christmas ending I had dreamed of but nurses don't exactly get Christmas breaks. 

I posted a video to YouTube but here are some pictures from the day. And the next day, which was when Isaac joined us for second Christmas. It has been a nonstop party for days. 

Now to get cleaning and organizing! I might need some extra hours in the day to get it all done. As soon as I pack up one toy, they kids open another one. This might be a task to do during nap time... 

Merry Christmas to all! And a Happy New Year!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I hate Christmas. 

I figured I would lead with that. It is just not my holiday. I do not like winter. It's cold. And usually wet which means the roads are horrible. I am a terrible gift buyer. I hate giving gifts. I hate receiving gifts. If everyone could just make a 'Christmas Registry' like they do for babies and weddings, that would be great. Or just buy yourself a gift and open it in front of me. I do not like peppermint. Get those candy canes away from me. Unless I am really hungry and candy is my only option - which is more often than I want to admit. I love food and there is so much food. Winter weight is really people. Don't even get me started on Santa. Who is this guy? No Santa did not get you that bike for Christmas, you're mother did. That night that I had vomit on my shoes and blood on my pants. Yes, a horrible twelve hour night shift bought you that bike - not Santa. I could go on but I am even making myself depressed at this point. 

Everyone said that thing would change once I had children. 

Damn, I hate when people are right.

I still do not like Christmas but let me tell you a little about having children during Christmas. 

Marlee's eyes light up when she sees all the decorations as we drive down the street. They sparkle with excitement and joy. She begs to see more every time we pass one well lit house and are waiting for another. 

Nicky shouts "Ho! Ho! Ho!" every time he sees a Santa. It could be a picture of Santa, a toy Santa, or a Santa figurine. Nicky does not say much but he knows what Santa brings to the table and it's a lot of "Ho! Ho! Ho!'s". 

Isaac happily turns into dads little helper when its time to put up decorations. They put the lights up outside and come up with a plan together to make the lights shine just right. He is looking forward to cutting down the tree tomorrow which is our yearly tradition. Tree cutting and hot chocolate drinking at Pine Tree Barn. 

This will be our first Christmas in our new house. I already have a place picked out for the tree and while I am still a Christmas hater, I am a little excited to get the tree decorated and see the kids faces on Christmas morning. Just a little! 

It is still early so maybe a little more holiday cheer will come my way. 

We will have to wait and see. 

Christmas Adventures

Merry Christmas

Christmas adventures this year started with finding the perfect Christmas tree!

Keeping up with tradition, we ventured out to Pine Tree Barn on Sunday and found the one. This is Nicky's first Christmas and Marlee's third (third? Is that even possible?) adventure cutting down a tree. With our ever growing family, we had the pickle of figuring out how to transport all the kiddos to the tree and back - with the tree. We backpacked Nicky and Marlee half walked, half was carried. Isaac was a huge help as usual with pulling the tree. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed every minute of finding the tree, cutting it down, hauling it back, and then, of course, having hot chocolate at the end.

Marlee was a bit of a grump (how dare we make her walk! worse parents ever!) but was all smiles once she got her hot chocolate. Now I know to get hot chocolate first...

After Pine Tree Barn, we put the tree up and decorated the house. After a bit of a Christmas stand debacle (bigger tree = bigger tree stand), we got the tree up and put on the decorations. Marlee loved helping with the lights and wanted more, more, more ornaments. My mother gave me the Disney ornaments that I remember so fondly from my childhood and I was able to put those up with Marlee too. I even ordered Minnie from the collection off Ebay because you can't have Mickey without Minnie! Nicky surprisingly did really good with the tree too. He grabs at the ornaments but then quickly moves on to the next ornament without taking any down. It really made me smile to see the tree bring my kiddos so much joy. Might have even filled me with Christmas spirit.

Maybe. 

Presents are almost wrapped and stocking are hung! Now we are just counting down till Christmas.

Don't tell but I am pretty excited for Christmas morning. The kids are going to love it. 

8 more days!

Merry Christmas from Marlee and Me

Let's start this post by being positive since if you know anything about my feelings toward Christmas, it is a rare occurrence to be positive about it. With that being said, Christmas was really nice this year. 

Weather was beautiful. No snow = no dangerous driving around with my family in the car. No snow = no cold, wet feet after walking in and out of the various errands a mother must run. No snow = no shoveling or salt tossing in order to get up my drive way. I could seriously do this weather all winter long. 

Family was obviously the best part of holidays. Everyone was getting along. Everyone came over to the house on Christmas morning to celebrate, eat breakfast, and open gifts. It was really nice and hopefully a tradition we can keep. Being able to see everyone open gifts with such excitement and joy was a wonderful way to start the day. 

This post could easily turn into a novel with all the fun things we did to get ready for Christmas day. We did the usual traditions of visiting Santa, making cookies, and cutting down our tree. Marlee was not sold on any of our traditions. She did not like Santa (takes after her momma), was not so sure about what was going on at the tree farm, and thought icing cookies was some kind of awful torture that she wanted no part of. The pictures though make it all worth it. Sometimes you just have to laugh when those kodak moments you imagine go differently as planned. 

First up is Light Up Downtown Canton where we went to meet Mr. and Mrs. Claus. 

Waiting in line was a breeze. Marlee was a in a great mood and looking so cute in her Christmas hat. 

It went downhill really fast.

Nailed it.

Isaac is a natural. He asked for candy... candy. 

Ok lets try adding Marlee back in...

Nope.

Ok enough torture - cookie time.

Cookies and hot chocolate! Our favorite. 

Next up was cutting down the Christmas tree at Pine Tree Barn in Wooster. Poor Marlee was very confused with the whole trip and her face definitely showed it. I could not get a smile out of her the whole trip. It probably did not help that her coat was a little big and she kept falling down in the mud. 

Her face says it all - "What the heck are we doing?"

I tried so hard to get a smile out of her.

Finally found our tree and Marlee still was not impressed.

We were able to get it home and it looked great in the living room. Marlee surprisingly did not pay any attention to the tree. She did not go near it at all. Like having a giant, shiny tree in the house was normal to her. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining but I was honestly surprised. 

Last but not least was the cookie decorating. I was not even going to do cut outs this year but Nick reallllly wanted them so I gave it. It literally took me weeks to complete since batch one 'chilled' in the refrigerator a bit too long and I had to make another batch. 

Needless to say, Marlee liked being around the icing of the cookies but did not want anything to do with the actually icing. Keep in mind, she hates getting her hands dirty. She was 100% content on her one little pile of icing on the table and I was of course 100% content on her contentment. 

Her faces though are seriously hilarious. She is not shy on letting her face speak for itself. 

Family pictures!

Marlee and her pile of icing. No cookies. No sprinkles. Just a little bit of icing. 

Nick tried to spice it up a bit and give her sprinkles. She did not approve. 

Seriously so distraught over this process.

I did get one smile out of her. Love that hair Marlee!

There is no way that I can look at these pictures and not laugh. She really did not want the green icing. 

Overall, it was a great Christmas. It is nice to enjoy it with family and remember what the holidays are really about. The toys and clothes and cookies and trees will all fade but the memories truly last forever. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and Merry Christmas! 

Till next year, 

xoxo

Marlee and Me