We set the kids’ phones outside their rooms so they will stay up there until we get up at 7. 🙂 Then they come in and cuddle for a few minutes while mommy wakes up (daddy has already been up for at least an hour). Then it’s downstairs to check out what Santa left… I didn’t take many pictures this year.
A tiara from Grannie and Papa.
A Lego train for under the Christmas tree from Grannie and Papa (complete with all the electronics to make it run!).
Princess shoes from Santa!
Charlie right in the middle of things!
Owen in his MSU hat from Grannie and Papa—we all got one! (It was a very MSU Christmas, which we all loved!)
Katie’s Elsa cape (from Santa!) and wearing her princess shoes!
Trying to get them to sit still with their new hats from Grannie and Papa:
I’ve been wanting to do this…so since this is our last winter here it was now or never! ICE!® featuring Christmas Around the World — We told Katie we were going to see an ice castle so she was totally on board. 🙂
Experience the magic of more than TWO MILLION pounds of hand-carved ice sculptures and slide down two-story ice slides. All kept at a chilly 9 degrees! Delight in the celebration of cultures through holiday scenes and travel to the North Pole to see Santa and his elves.
They give you parkas to wear OVER your own coats.
Now, I grew up in Michigan. I know 9° weather. I’ve lived in 9° weather. And let me just say my body no longer likes 9° weather. EGADS was that cold. I’m very glad they gave us the extra parkas…
Waiting for the ice slide!
The ice slide!
And this is where my phone died from being too cold. It had only been out 12 minutes! Thankfully Tom’s had been under all his coats so he got his out and his worked better in the cold.
The kids liked it but it was really quite cold. I have to be honest and say I rushed through a bit faster than I’d planned because I was FROZEN. OF course after you exit, the outside 34° felt like a sauna! Then it was back inside the resort where they had lots of things set up to siphon away your money like photos, hot chocolate, mini carnival rides, Build-A-Bear, cookies with Mrs. Claus, etc… Katie really wanted to ride the tea cups and since I’m all about either of them learning to like rides, we spent the $5. She enjoyed it.
Then since it was lunch time and we were close to a yummy restaurant…we went to Succotash (it’s where we ate lunch before the USMC ball). The kids had a bit of hat head. 🙂
And then after we left we drove around National Harbor Pokemoning for about a half hour!!
Overall I’m glad we went…but it was a big chunk of money for what it was.
Our friends invited us to the Fort Belvoir Officer’s Club for Brunch with Santa! It was a bit of a disorganized hot mess in my opinion, but the kids got to see Santa and the food was pretty good. The best part was the company!
I missed out on art night since I was in Michigan, so Tom had photo duty!! I had been looking forward to more ceramic ornaments, but this year they decided to do paintings!
They were busy busy busy in the basement this afternoon and they finally told us they were putting on a gymnastics show. So we went down before dinner. This is what we saw…
At the top of the stairs:
Gymnastics show 6:00–6:30pm
Gymnastics show 6:00–6:30pm or 6:30–7:00
At the bottom of the stairs—see it?
Directional arrow!! 🙂
Another arrow!
The stage…
…and labeled audience seating area.
Afterwards we went to look at the label on the bounce house:
And then we noticed this afterwards (not sure how we missed it):
We went to the craft show again this year…and had cookies and crafts with Santa. Friends of ours were there so they did candy cane crafts together (that’s Keegan next to Owen, his younger brother Garrett and younger sister Shiela on either side of Katie).
Owen was okay with seeing Santa and talking to him…but he did NOT want to sit on his lap.
Katie was fine with Santa.
They were taking pictures, too…but none turned out that great.
The only picture where Owen was looking our way.
Katie: Mom, Owen answered the bonus question!
Me: Bonus question? What was it?
Owen: Santa asked what daddy wanted for Christmas.
Me: What did you tell him?
Owen: For Michigan State to be better!
Santa is texting the kids this year and they think it’s super cool. Owen texted back…and Santa replied!! (I had to tell him that he couldn’t expect Santa to write him back every time he texted and he said he knew—he was very busy.)
Owen was very concerned when Santa asked if he’d been a good boy: That’s a tough question. How do I answer Santa? Was I good this year? Mom, I feel like Santa is important to me.
Awwwww.
He didn’t write back for probably a half hour and it was after we’d discussed if he was god or bad. 🙂 I told him that all kids make bad decisions at times and might do some bad things, but overall he’s an amazing kid and I don’t think Santa would think he was ever a bad kid.
So I was cooking in the kitchen and the kids are playing when I hear “Go tell my mom I’m dead.” 😂
Tom was playing with Katie and throwing her around. When he put her down, she screeched: Daddy! I just drooled on your pants!
An Amazon package arrived and I took a peek. It was something for me from Santa.
Katie: I want to see.
Me: Sorry, you can’t.
Katie: I want to see what’s in the box.
Me: Maybe it’s a Christmas present for you.
Katie: I won’t look. Open the box.
Me: No. Stop asking. I’m not opening it.
Katie: PLEASE?!
Me: No.
Katie: I promise I won’t look!
Me: I am not opening the box.
Katie: I want to see it.
Me: I AM NOT SHOWING YOU WHATS IN THE BOX. PLEASE STOP ASKING.
Katie: I promise I’ll be good.
Me: Being good doesn’t matter. I’m not opening the box.
Katie: Please I want to see it.
Me: NO!
Katie: Mom please?!
Me: No. If you ask me one more time you get a time out for not listening.
Katie: I want to see in the box.
Me: TIME OUT.
And even that wasn’t the end of it. It ended with much more asking, whining, and her being sent to her room. Happy holidays?!
Katie was playing and she came over and said: Mom, I’m moving into a new place. I packed all my toys and dolls.And all my winter stuff. My Christmas stuff. And my stuffed animals and my costumes. And my phone to play Pokemon. We’re going to live with Grandma Jean. And my kids and my dogs.
Katie: I know what toenails are. They’re at the end of your feet.
I may have to try again because I am just not feeling these pictures. But if I don’t get around to it, at least I have these. And I took them way back on 11/20 but forgot to post them because I used my real camera!
Me, in probably about 1974 or 1975 at either 1y3m or 2y3m and Katie this year at 4y5m.
We have a variety of fruit and snacks and treats and he usually takes a sandwich…but tonight Owen ended up with an orange on orange on orange on orange lunch…in his orange lunchbox!
I volunteered at the school’s book fair today and it happened to be the day Owen’s class got to make their wishlists. Can you find him? 🙂
Since I was there all afternoon, I went to pick Katie up from her classroom. Class wasn’t quite over so I got to watch circle time for a bit. She didn’t participate much because she was more concerned with turning back to look at me.
The amount of toys they have that they don’t play with is insane. I dumped out all the bins from the shelving unit and I’m making them pick out their favorite things and the rest is going away. (And this is just upstairs. Ugh.) Happy Thanksgiving?!
Owen trims and checks expiration dates, Katie glues, and mom supervises. (Daddy was cleaning and organizing the media cabinet to try and fit the Wii in.)
