Merry Christmas!

I Spy

Ryan decided to decorate the Christmas Tree with his own "ornaments". I SPY are Ryan's favorite books to read.

This picture reminds me of I Spy.

What do you spy in the tree?

Holiday Review ~ part four

DRUM ROLL...please!

Yes, only 2 months late but "better late than never"....my favorite quote.

Lots of pictures...ENJOY!

{Christmas Day}

Our traditions have not changed much in the eight years that Chris and I have been together. There is a lot of traveling on Christmas Day but we always make sure Christmas morning is spent together. It was special when it was just the two of us those first four years, but now we know just how magical this day can be with the addition of Ryan and Kara to our family.

This year was the first year that Ryan was excited about Santa Claus. He finally understood who he was and that if he was a good boy, then Santa would leave him something under the Christmas tree. Seeing his excitement build each day with anticipation made us excited too. We completely understand this expression "seeing and experiencing everything all over again through the eyes of your children" now.

Chris and I were up late wrapping gifts, baking cookies and packing suitcases on Christmas Eve. So we were happy when the children slept in and I still can't believe we had to wake Ryan up that morning! It didn't take him long to realize that the day had finally arrived and he jumped out of bed asking over and over if Santa came to our house.

We started a tradition of video taping Ryan coming down the steps at Ryan's first Christmas in 2005. Of course the first few years he was carried downstairs by Daddy.

This year he practically ran downstairs!

Being camera shy!

The first gift Ryan saw was this....

Grandma High and I got it when we went outlet shopping on Black Friday. Can you guess which store it came from? We didn't know just how big this playhouse really was until Chris put it together Christmas Eve! I am still debating if I should allow Ryan to color on it...don't want to confuse him with the whole color on the walls with crayons again.

Ryan then saw all the gifts that Santa left him under the tree and he went to town opening them all in lightening speed!

I guess he was a good boy this year!

Then it was Kara's turn!

Santa knew she would love Taggies. Kara can't get enough of playing with tags....she is able to find them on everything. Ryan did not have the same obsession as a baby.

She loved her Taggies but thought the wrapping paper was even better. YUM.

I love this picture because it shows them enjoying a few of their favorite gifts.

Peek-A-Boo....I see YOU!

Can I eat it?

Chris spoiled me with Snowmen this year. The kids really loved this snowman snow globe. It pushes the snow around without having to shake it. Pretty neat! Oh how I love Hallmark!!

We ate a quick breakfast after all the gifts were opened, cleaned up and got ready start the day of travel! First stop: Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom Delps (Bobbi's side of the family) for Christmas lunch. We always enjoy a yummy meal of Turkey and all the fixings!

After our tummies were full, it was time to open more gifts! Due to my large family, we started a new tradition a few years back, where we have the kiddies pick each other to exchange gifts (we put their names in a hat in November). This year Uncle Richie and Aunt Jonna had Ryan. My brother plays the drums for a local band and we had a suspicion that Ryan might get a drum for Christmas. We were right but we didn't know that they would also get him an assortment of musical instruments as well! He loved them!

Ryan playing his new drum. I have to admit, he is pretty good at it but I am still not a fan of drums! Oh the noise!

As I was looking through my Christmas photos to put this post together, I realized that we must have been having so much fun spending time with our families that we didn't take a lot of pictures this Christmas. We were able to get a few pictures at my parents house but we didn't take any at Paul and Adrienne's house for Christmas dinner! I hope we are able to document our 2009 Christmas a little better this year.

What I did notice while going through the photos was that we got a picture of Kara with her Pop-Pops! So here she is with her two favorite guys (Daddy will always be #1 though).

Pop-Pop Delp and Kara

Pop-Pop High and Kara

Around 3:30, we said our good-byes and packed everyone up once again for a trip up North to visit with Chris' family for the rest of the weekend. We always eat Christmas dinner at uncle Paul and aunt Adrienne's house. Paul makes the most delicious Prime Rib with au jour, baked potatoes, cheddar biscuits and green beans! Just typing that makes me want to celebrate the dinner all over again...it truly is divine! Sadly, we didn't take any pictures but the kiddies were once again spoiled with tons of gifts and even more with tons of love from Chris' side of the family. One of Ryan's favorite gifts would be the cool air hockey game you put on a tabletop. He wants to play this every night with Chris and I have to say he is getting pretty good at it too! Thanks Paul and Adrienne!

It is always late when we finally get to Pop-Pop and Grandma High's house. But it doesn't stop us from wanting to open our gifts from them too. Santa knew Ryan and Kara were coming by so he left a few (or shall we say a lot) gifts for them there. Ahhhh so many toys, so little space to store them!

This picture doesn't show all the gifts but it does show the cool basketball net that Uncle Mike got for Ryan and if you look really close, you will see one of the many "Handy Dandy" notebooks that Ryan asked for this year as well. a clue...a clue!

Favorite Christmas Memories from 2009:

• Seeing Ryan's expression when he saw all the gifts under the tree!
• Ryan "playing Santa" and saying Merry Christmas as he handed out the presents.
• Kara's 1st Christmas
• Watching Ryan with his cousins playing the musical instruments and marching around the living room.
• Ryan and uncle Paul playing with Paul's railroad set (it's huge!).
• Yummy Food
• Getting the best gift from uncle Mike- a year subscription to Netflix...it's the gift that just keeps giving! Thanks Mikey!
• Watching the children enjoy spending time with their grandparents
• Grateful that we are able to share the holidays with our loved ones.
  
  So that's it. Another Christmas filled with fun, family and food! Sure traveling can be a pain but I wouldn't trade the memories for anything!
  

Holiday Review ~ part three

{Christmas Eve}

This year I decided (last minute) to make sugar cookies with Ryan in addition to our tradition of making Chocolate Chip Cookies that we give to family and friends for the holidays.

Ryan had a lot of fun decorating the cut out cookies but he did have a little trouble with "dumping" the sugar crystals on top! We had to keep reminding him to just shake or tap the bottles a little bit onto each cookie. There were a few cookies that probably could cause a major "sugar high", but I thought he did really well for being his first time decorating cookies.

This was my first attempt at making sugar cookies. I found a simple recipe online and couldn't wait to try it out. While the cookies turned out quite tasty, the preparation was another story. Did you know that the dough needs to stay cold so you can cut those adorable shapes out? I didn't think it mattered. I was wrong. So next year I will make sure the dough is prepared early and chilled for a few hours before we roll it out. It was such a pain in the tushy to have to put the cookie dough back in the fridge after cutting out a few shapes each time. It took twice as long to cut and decorate all the cookies.

I will also make sure we bake the cookies earlier next year. We waited until late afternoon and after our last batch was baked, we rushed to get ready for church. I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked because of all the rushing around. In the end, it turned out to be a fun family activity and I look forward to continuing the tradition next year. It should be interesting adding Kara to the mix and to actually see how much dough gets eaten instead of baked!

Our cookie shapes included Stars, Trees, Gingerbread Boys & Girls and Snowmen. I hope everyone (who received the cookies) enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed creating them for you all! :)

{One Last Party}

(Kianah, Evelyn, Ava and Ryan playing and watching Christmas movies!)

We received an invite for a small party on Christmas Eve at the Reidinger household. After our church service, we stopped by to visit with Keith, Heather (Chris' co-worker) and their adorable little girl, Ella. Thanks again for inviting us Keith and Heather!

Our plans were to visit for about an hour and head home to get the kids to bed before Santa came down the chimney! We were having so much fun (one reason I only got this ONE photo from this party!) that we didn't notice how late it was getting until I saw that it was after 10pm. We said our good byes and hurried home. Due to our haste, we completely forgot to put cookies and milk out for Santa. Ooops! Turns out Santa didn't mind and still delivered a fair amount of goodies under the tree for everyone to find the next morning!

Final Holiday Review...coming soon!

~ Dear Ryan.... ~

Today Ryan received a letter in the mail. Can you guess who sent it?

Here are a few clues...

We waited until Grandma and Pop-Pop High arrived to open it and see what was inside!

Ooooo....what does the letter say and who is it from?

Look Grandma! It's a tree with presents!!!!!

Oh WOW! It's a letter from SANTA!

Ryan must have been a very good boy to receive a letter from Santa Claus!

Ryan and Kara both wore their Christmas jammies to bed tonight. Why? Well they are being festive because we are heading out to the tree farm early tomorrow morning to cut down our Christmas Tree. It's a FUN family tradition! Then we will be decorating all weekend. Good thing too....because Santa told Ryan to make sure his stocking was hung because he was going to bring him a special gift. Maybe it will be that "handy dandy notebook" he's been wishing for??

We shall see in a few weeks...the countdown continues...only 20 days until Christmas!

Pssst Parents....wanna know how to get a SANTA LETTER for your little ones? Just click on this LiNk and you will be able to create a memorable letter as well. OH and did I tell you it's FREE?! Many thanks to my good friend Christy D. for giving me the heads up about this very cool site! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Did you say...FREE?

That's right folks! While blog hopping the other day, I came across this wonderful offer. Suzy from Jack and Jill Photography is offering FREE digital Christmas Card Designs to anyone and everyone who is interested (she will create a free custom made digital file and email it to you...after you receive the file, you can have your cards printed out anywhere you little heart desires...pretty cool, huh?).

Only catch...you must have a BLOG and of course you must post a little snippet about Suzy and her wonderful offer for others to see!

Please visit her blog HERE to get all the great details!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

(uh...a little early!)