Later that night...

Let's keep that Christmas whirlwind coming!!!

After we celebrated with my family, we drove over to Sean's parents' to celebrate with them. Th evening consisted of snacking around on some yummy snacks, kicking back a few cocktails, and some dancing to Drew's Kinect. Ava also got to try out the new Kinectimals game Santa brought for the kids for our Kinect.

Memaw and Pepaw brought this old horsey down from the attic for the kids to play with. I just thought Aidan looked so cute rockin' his new Woody pajamas on the rocking horse:
Cute kids in cute new jammies ready for bed:

Oh yah...we were there too:

Christmas Afternoon

After our family of four celebrated our Christmas together in the morning, we headed up to my parents' to celebrate with them in the afternoon.

It was yet another round of opening presents for all, and then a nice meal I prepared that consisted of: roast filet, from-scratch au gratin potatoes, haricot verts (that's the fancy word they use on the Food Network all the time for 'green beans'), corn, rolls, and assorted sweet treats. Hey, I had to highlight my skills! My dad seemed shocked that I could make something so good and fancy :)

Another nice part of the visit was getting to spend time with Paula, Samantha, and their brother Michael.

Ava and that darn Moon Dough. This stuff is SOOOOO messy - BEWARE! So if you do purchase it, play with it outside:

Yep, Aidan got some too:

Ava trying out her new pillow and blanket Santa dropped off for her at Gram and Dzia's:

Checking out Paula's bling. This girl is really into shiny things these days:

And probably my favorite moment of the afternoon. Aidan demanded we open up his new Superman puzzle, and Dzia was happy to help him:

Merry Christmas Morning

When Christmas morning came, it wasn't the kids waking us up - we had to wake them up! Those kids must have been zonked from Christmas Eve, because they slept in and still had to be woken up. As soon as they opened their eyes, the first thing both of them said was, "Did Santa come?!?"

After a nice relaxing morning and breakfast at home, we trekked up to my parents' house to celebrate with them...more on that later.

Aidan and his "Super Why" friend - I love when my little guy is smiley!
Santa brought the kids some of their very own rolling carry-on luggage for our up-coming Disney/Florida vacation...wasn't that thoughtful of him?

One of his current obsessions..."Toy Story":

Ava in pure elation over her Disney Princess-Barbie collection:

Sean bought Aidan the cutest little "North Face" hat...looks like such a big man:

And he also bought Mommy and Ava matching "North Face" hats:

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Christmas Eve-ning we went to Grape-Grandma's to celebrate. We ate lots of food and got some good visiting time in.

Here is Aidan "walking" Grandma's dog Heidi:
Sweet Ava and Uncle Ross:

Each year, Ava gets a new Boyd's Bear from Grape-Grandma, and Aidan gets some kind of good boy toy or books. We also started a tradition last year of bringing one of our gifts for them to open - and it's always their new Christmas jammies. We changed them before we headed home so when we got home, we didn't have to mess with it:

Back at our place, we got Santa's milk and cookies and the reindeer's carrots, apples, and water ready. I found this special cookie plate that comes with a non-toxic marker to write a little message to Santa:

Cute kiddos in tight Christmas jammies:

As is always tradition, after the kids go to bed, Mommy and Daddy play Santa and Mrs. Claus, and then exchange gifts from one another. This way, we can have our own special time without stealing the kids' spotlight Christmas morning. Here is Sean showing off the new iPod Nano I got him:

And here is a very unflattering picture of me and my reaction to the Burberry scarf he got me:

'Twas the Two Nights Before Christmas...

Two nights before Christmas, we celebrated with David and Jenny and family and exchanged our gifts. We got Logan and Ian some pretty cool Nerf guns to attack each other with, and Katie got a "Ni-Hao, Kai Lan" treehouse. Ava snagged some pretty girly nail polishes and lotion/body wash/purse, while Aidan got a "Cars" memory game.

But, quite possibly, the funniest moment of the night came when Jenny opened our card to find a Cheesecake Factory gift card right before I opened their card containing the exact same gift card! Looks like we'll have a Cheesecake Factory double date in our future :)

Logan and Katie:

Aidan, Self Portrait.

I had set our camera out to pack for our weekend out, and look who found it. We heard a mischievous laugh and some clicking, and found Aidan taking some self portraits.

Here he is concentrating very hard to make sure he gets the right angle:
CHEEEESE!

You're right - this is a way better angle:

Sean's Big Birthday Weekend

Poor Sean's birthday is December 21, and has always kind of felt like his day is so easily forgotten. Turning 21 was kind of a drag because his birthday fell over Winter Vacation in college, so none of his friends were around to help celebrate. Last year when he turned 30, it would have been nice to have a group of friends go out to celebrate him, but we got our group of friends together two months before for Jenny's and my 30th.

This year, I was determined to make his day a very special one. We started our afternoon going shopping to spend his birthday money. When we finished that, I surprised him with a trip to a local brewery he has been longing to visit. One of the nice things about this brewery is that it's right next door to a winery where we stopped next for some tastings and picked up a bottle to drink in our hotel before going to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse with our besties David and Jenny. And we finally capped off the night with a stop to one of our favorite sports bars.

Sean proudly displaying his prizes:

At the winery:

Taking in the view from the 15th floor. This pimped-out room is compliments of Brad and Jenna, who sold us their voucher for the hotel room at a hugely reduced rate:

Me and Jenny at dinner (looking hot):

I must explain the frilly pina colada that Sean is drinking. You rarely see a drink like this in his hands. A few months ago at homecoming after a few beverages had been consumed, Sean said if he was on a beach, he'd like to be drinking a pina colada. This caused all sorts of teasing, as you can imagine, and has continued months later as David surprised Sean by ordering him one from the bar:

When I made the dinner reservation, I told them we were celebrating my husband's birthday, and they came out with some turtle cheesecake and a "Happy Birthday" chorus:

Me and my birthday man! I LOOOOOOVE you the most, and hope you had a great weekend!

Our Christmas Angel

Two days after Aidan's Christmas spectacular, we all got to go and see Ava perform in hers. This girl has a serious case of stage fright! At home, she'll sing and dance as if she's the only person in the world. When it comes to do the same in front of a crowd of people, she looks like a deer in headlights.

Other than the mild case of stage fright, she did a wonderful job! She got to hold the letter "A" in the Christmas sign, and even got to tell Rudolph, "You have a funny nose!" Lately I have noticed just how old she's getting...definitely not a baby anymore :(

The cutest reindeer up there, if you ask me:

The group shot:

Afterward, our little star posed with Gram and Dzia who were able to make it:

Live footage:

Our Little Snowflake

This year was Aidan's first Christmas program. This was especially a big deal for all of us because he's just wrapping up his first month at his new daycare/preschool, so it was the first time to watch him interact with classmates outside of the school.

It worked out perfectly because Ava's school had their program scheduled the exact day and time, and we thought we'd have to split up. As luck would have it, Ava's school closed due to the snow, and the program got rescheduled!! Stay tuned for Ava's program post...

His class sang two snowflake-themed songs and were asked to wear blue or white so they could be transformed into little snowflakes. It was so stinkin' cute, I can't even talk about it! He did such a great job standing where he was asked to and even belted out a few words and mixed in some of the dance moves. We were so proud of him!

Here is little man getting ready to start:
This was the last number where all the classes came out to sing, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I love his little grin! The little boy next to him was one of his first friends at his new school:

At this point, these three boys thought it would be a good idea to grab the live mic and sing into it:

Live footage - enjoy!

He Puts His Pants on One Leg at a Time...

...just like everyone else? That's the questionable part of that phrase.

Sunday morning when Sean and I were making breakfast, Aidan decided he wanted to wear his big boy underwear, and decided he wasn't going to let a pesky thing like pants get in his way.

When he got them on he kept saying, "What's wrong with my underpants?" Couldn't quite put his finger on it...

Kids' Cookie Party

We were very lucky to be able to attend a kids Christmas/cookie party hosted by our friends Parker and Kate (Brad and Jenna may have had something to do with it too).

With roughly a dozen kids - not including babies - under one roof, you might think there would be a good amount of chaos. Much to all the mommies' and daddies' surprise, the kids were so good and played so well with each other!

The kids were broken into groups and got to visit two different stations: 1) a cookie decorating station and 2) an ornament making station. After rotating through both stations, all the kids headed to the basement for Reindeer Games. It was all so cute and we had so much fun - thanks for the good time guys...we patiently await next year's invitation ;)

I got them both to pose and look at the camera!!!!:
Ava showing Kate (or maybe Kate is showing Ava) how to color:

Ava's dexterous hands:

And Aidan's. I love this shot because his hands still look like chubby baby hands here (holding on to that last ounce of my little man's baby-ishness):

Cookie decoratin':

Aidan was being surprisingly neat with his icing application:

The sprinkles? Not so much...

The Reindeer Games consisted of lots of parachute games, freeze dancing, and then just some free-for-all dancing and playing:

Parker just can't get enough of his older woman. The height difference reminds me of my middle school dances: