We got these from Santa about a week or so ago. The kids were very excited to watch them! Do you think they both made the naughty or nice list? The kids LOVE these videos SO much and get SO excited about them it’s worth the $12 I pay to make them. 🙂
Owen – Secret Places
Katie – Tour the Post Office
And surprise! Tonight we got these two new videos! Uncle Rob and daddy were able to watch along with us!
Owen – Movie Star
Katie – Elf House
And of course Katie didn’t want to wear PJs on the one day she technically could…
Rolos were the key! And I added red sprinkles! Most of these are going to Owen’s teacher. 🙂
Finally! Owen has had his for years and once I had Katie I kept checking but Pottery Barn never had them again! Until this year!
I’ll get better (more seasonal) pics later. 🙂
I’m guessing you shouldn’t use old chocolate. (Of course, there were some new chocolates mixed in as well…but only two pieces melted correctly.)
I’ve since learned from others that Rolos work much better than Kisses.
Our community clubhouse had cookies and activities with Santa this morning, so we thought we’d try with the kids again—just in case we got a better picture (since I could dress the kids up).
But first, the at-home pictures:
And then while waiting for Santa, they did some crafts and coloring:
Katie wanted NOTHING to do with Santa, so it was just Owen!
But she did make more rings to put on the tree!
They were eating breakfast when this song came on and both of them had to get up and dance!
The local high school hosted a huge craft fair that I wanted to check out (we missed it last year) and they also had a “Cookies with Santa” portion that we wanted to take the kids to. We got to the North Pole shortly after it opened so we didn’t have to wait too long. While daddy held our place in line, the kids worked on bead candy canes:
Can you guess which was Owen’s and which was Katie’s? 🙂
Santa! (They had someone taking pictures, but it wasn’t anything really posed or official—she was just off to the side snapping so we had NO idea what we would get. I was taking pics the whole time.) Katie wasn’t eager to sit with Santa, but she didn’t turn away…and she talked to him but didn’t get excited about the hug.
Owen’s turn! He’s too big for Santa’s lap!
At the end we had Katie go back up. I snapped about six quick pics and this one actually turned out great!
This was one of the ones the student elf took—I was impressed that it turned out as well:
On the way out, Katie decided she wanted to make antlers:
When I came downstairs this morning, Katie excitedly told me that Charlie had been sleeping under the tree.
I saw a link on Facebook for VetTix so went to check it out—and ended up getting free tickets for the Nutcracker! (If you are Currently Serving or a Veteran use my link to sign up and earn 15 coins!)
I had never seen the Nutcracker before, so it was going to be a new experience for me, as well (Tom had seen it many, many years ago). Once we told the kids and told Katie she was going to see ballerinas, she was ALL IN. Of course, she wanted to wear a ballerina-esque dress. I didn’t bring out any of her actual ballerina outfits because I am 100% sure she would have chosen that. As it was, this was a brand new dress so she was VERY excited.
I’m thankful I read the synopsis beforehand because otherwise I would have been completely lost. As it was, I was still a little confused, and was surprised there wasn’t more actual ballet. Both kids did very, very well considering the first act was an hour long. After Katie took a bathroom break, she said she wanted to dance, so I told her to go right ahead…and then daddy and Owen came back from their bathroom break and she danced in the aisle!
The second half had MUCH more ballet than the first and was more impressive…and Katie was entranced, sitting on the edge of her seat for almost the whole thing. I, on the other hand, learned that ballet is really not my thing. But overall it was a nice afternoon out yet away from any hustle and bustle of Black Friday!
The kids were super excited about putting the tree up (since the bag had been sitting in the living room for a whole day)!
Owen was excited when I handed him two bags of Christmas Legos! He had forgotten about them!
Katie’s placement of her first three ornaments:
They were both really good helpers and I didn’t even have to help them much! Yay! And my OCD-tendencies don’t bother me at all—I don’t much care where the ornaments end up!
And I’ve really wanted trees like this so I finally found some for a decent price…but they looked a bit nicer in the pictures. Meh. I may end up hanging a few small ornaments on them to distract from the wildly random lights and gaping spaces. 🙂
So, while we were cleaning out Marsha’s apartment, I found two $50 QVC e-gift cards (from us and Tom’s brother, from maybe 2012 or so)—I took them with me to check if they’d been used. They hadn’t. So I had a $100 credit. The next day, I found a manila folder with three more QVC gift cards…dating back to—ARE YOU READY?!—2008!! I was sure they’d had to have been used because she LOVED the silver jewelry from QVC and had a lot of it…but grabbed them anyway just in case.
So fast forward to last night when I was putting away all the jewelry pieces of hers that I had chosen (for me and Katie) and I realized that my jewelry box just wasn’t big enough—I just didn’t have the space for mine plus hers (she had A LOT of jewelry and I had picked quite a bit, though it was still a fraction of what she actually had). I then realized that I have jewelry in a box, in a hanging case, in a drawer, and in random spots around the bedroom…and that that’s kinda silly and I’d actually get good use out of a standing armoire.
I ended up at QVC because I vaguely remembered wanting one from there years ago…and they had EXACTLY what I wanted…on clearance…with free shipping! It was more than I’d wanted to pay, but not bad considering what other ones cost and that it would last me the rest of my life. Tom agreed I could get it so I dug out the folder of QVC gift cards to check their balance. And none of the three had been used. NONE! So I had another $95 credit! So after almost $200 credit, I owed about $65.
So…Marsha unknowingly bought me the perfect Christmas gift—something I loved, wanted, and needed—that could house all the great jewelry I got from her…and I know she’d be thrilled.
The family came back for lunch today, and Timmy graced us with about 15 different varieties of brats from his store, Beson’s Market (Bay City). Talk about yum. 🙂
The leftovers after 15 people were in a meat coma:
Maggie getting some love from the cousins.
Gramma Jean got out the water balloons and BOY did the kids have fun!
Nick is 11 and Owen is 6—and Nick has maybe a half inch on Owen. This is what they did when we told them to stand next to each other. 🙂
This year the party was at my mom’s house! Katie “helped” with the party prep!
Katie loved her Anna dress from Grauntie Rose!
The cousins being silly!
If there’s water, the kids will come.
Bubble wands at the ready!
The annual by-age lineup: Katie (3), Owen (6), Aubrey (7), Gracie (9), and Nick (11). You’ll see a direct Owen/Nick comparison tomorrow. 🙂
Everyone always complains but I think they secretly enjoy the family photo! 🙂
Our little Santas.
Owen was GIDDY with the bazooka Grauntie Rose got him! It’s almost like she knows him exactly like I do. :p
Katie LOVES her Frozen magic music wand from Grauntie Marilyn.
No snow? Grass angels!
Ice cream face!
Overall it was a great day—the kids all had a blast together, the food was abundant and delicious, and everyone had fun relaxing and playing games. I think it was the right decision to move our Christmas to the middle of summer!
We were getting the house ready for our Len Christmas in July and got out this ceramic tree. It’s old—my mom made it for my Grandma Katie (Len) in the ’70s and I’ve always loved it. Katie was enthralled with it, too…and one of the first things she said was “There’s no star!” My mom said that Grandma Len had said the very same thing and even attached a fake star to it. I don’t think I ever really noticed that it didn’t have a star—or I did, but didn’t think it was any big deal. Amazing how the original Katie AND her namesake both had the same thought. 🙂
I had wanted to make this wreath last year but I ran out of red ornaments. I waited until this Christmas hoping to find the same or similar ornaments on clearance again at Target but I was not successful. So I had to make do with what I found on Clearance at Michael’s. It looks nice enough, but I see all the flaws that occurred while making it.
Santa brought Katie Dino PJs to match big brother!
Now we have two dinosaurs with cute little tails! (I tried to get them both to hold them for the picture but after eight shots I gave up.)
Santa brought both of them the same Lego Movie T-shirt!
Katie didn’t follow the rules earlier so she doesn’t get to play with the new toy. But she’s as close as she can legally get.
Working hard…
Ta da! An ornament!
Tom and I need practice melting the beads together…it sounds easy but isn’t. We pressed too hard and sealed the center circles which you’re not supposed to do. 🙂
He didn’t get them out until almost lunch!
The Mixel he asked Santa for!
Surprisingly he wanted to open the beads first instead of Legos!
Santa wasn’t going to get the cats anything because Charlie is the only one that eats treats and neither one really play with toys…but they had stockings hanging so I had to put something in them…so I got a bag of mice at the dollar store. Katie had to give the mice to Charlie right away—and Charlie actually played with it!
Throughout the day, Katie would randomly bring the mice to Charlie but of course Charlie was done. 🙂
The kids slept in until after 6:30 (normal).
He loved his new shoes—they have FLAMES on them! A size 3 if you can believe it!
Digging into her bag!
A Pirate Lego game!
The Frozen headband had to go on right away!
TUTU PANTS!
She got a Yoda ornament and put it right on the tree. She also got a fragile Princess Sofia ornament and of course wanted to play with that one!
She got her own old iPhone so there are no screaming fights about sharing Owen’s.
Owen was SUPER EXCITED about getting this dollar store skateboard! He had mentioned a skateboard a few times I didn’t pay any attention because I had already bought all his stuff—but I saw it at the dollar store Christmas Eve when I went to pick up a few stocking stuffers so had to get it.
From walking in to the last stocking present opened, it was just under 30 minutes! Phew!
I had bought the extra-large Santa gift bags from Pottery Barn Kids last year (on clearance!), thinking that it would limit me to that many gifts…except holy cow were the bags HUGE! Santa had about 10 gifts for each kid and barely filled the bottom of the sacks (though, granted, none of their gifts were that big)! At least we’ll get to use them for many years to come…
Their first set of matching PJs! Both kids LOVED them—they were both dancing and prancing around.
Now with Santa hats!
Then the playing!
“Where’s Katie?!”
“Here I am!”
