Christmas 2016

We had the most fun Christmas yet!  On Christmas Eve, the elf left us "Chwis-mas hats", as Xavier called them, and we made cinnamon swirl muffins for breakfast while wearing our hats.  Such a fun way to kick off all of the festivities!  We finished frosting some cookies for Santa and Xavier made reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn later that evening.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Xavier was excited the entire day long.  After his nap, we got him a quick bath so we could open all the presents under the tree.  I set my DSLR camera on the tripod and recorded the entire 20 minutes we opened gifts from each other and from relatives who sent gifts through the mail.  Xavier's favorites were his Paw Patrol games and doctor's kit (because he's obsessed with giving everyone a pretend shot).  He liked giving his Carebear Build-A-Bear a shot and then putting a plastic band aid on his arm.  He also loved his new monster trucks.

Every Christmas Eve, we drive around our neighborhood to look at lights.  We all piled into the car in our Christmas jammies, put some hot wassail (spiced apple cider I made in the crock pot) in to go cups, and headed out to see some lights.  Our favorite house was one in our neighborhood that had choreographed light displays that were in sync with songs on a particular radio station they had rented out.  When we pulled up, Xavier's got to see a show for his two favorite Christmas songs, Jingle Bells & Transiberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells.  We couldn't believe they played his favorites!  We went home and sprinkled reindeer food on the front steps, set out cookies and milk for Santa, and finished setting up all the presents for the next morning.  There is no sight quite like a lit tree with all of Santa's presents on Christmas Eve night!

Santa's Workshop

Xavier woke up bright and early the next morning.  We tried our hardest to keep him on the stairs while I set up my camera, but he was overwhelmed with excitement.  He exclaimed, "So many presents!  Let's open them!"  He tore through the presents and was happy he got everything that was on his list.  After he opened the last present, he opened the letter from Santa that directed him to his final present, which was hiding in the basement in his tent.  He was so excited when he saw it!!!

Opening the first present from Santa...

Finding the letter with clues to where Santa hid his final present...

He opened (dumped) his stocking and got right into the York peppermint patties and Santa nestle crunch.  After we had some breakfast, we headed out to see family and open more presents.  We spent the whole day with them and spent the next day with more family opening more presents.  We mostly enjoyed playing with the classic games, Don't Break the Ice, Lincoln Logs, and Let's Go Fishing.  These were our childhood favorites, which we haven't played in years!  And of course, we were loving the weather because it was 65 degrees!  Xavier got to ride his new Spiderman bike and other outdoor toys!

We are keeping our tree up a few more days to soak in every last minute of the season!

Our Elf on the Shelf

Meet "Reindeer" our Elf on the Shelf.  He arrived for the very first time to our home earlier this month!  Xavier thinks he's pretty cool.  We asked what he wanted to name him, and he said "Reindeer" right away!  He was super-excited about his North Pole breakfast, powdered sugar donuts, the candy canes, and most of all, the colored Christmas lights he can put in his room.

We read him the book and tried to explain how the elf works.  He is loving this thing!  He wakes up every morning, tip-toeing very slowly around the living room and kitchen, kinda hunched over & quietly, whispering "Where's the Elf?  Where'd he go?  Oooh, Cheez-Its (stops to consider opening the box, then proceeds on his hunt)....Where's he at?"

We explained to him that when he's bad, the elf won't move.  He was bad one morning, went downstairs to find him, and saw that he moved.  "Why did he move?  I was bad."  He was good at night, so we had to explain that he moved before the elf saw him act bad.  He keeps us on our toes!

Xavier always wakes up so excited to find out where the Elf moved.  Most times, he simply moves from one place to another (Xavier still gets such enjoyment from this!!), and sometimes, usually on the weekends when there's more time, he will roast marshmallows or have a snowball fight.  We even got in a good chandelier swing!  The best ones are where the elf plays with his toys.  Xavier thinks it's the funniest!!

The funniest thing happened last night when I was calling for Xavier to get in the bath:
Me:  Xavier?
*no response, he was one room over*
Me:  Xavier???!!!!!
*still no response*
Me:  Xaaaaaa-vieeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr?!

*he runs in*
X:  Owwww-iii-sssssoooonnnnnn!!!!! (Allison)

Christmas Traditions

Our town has so many Christmas events, it's hard to keep track!  We have a few traditions we inherited from each of our childhoods, and we added a few more this year.  The first weekend in December is always the biggest.  The tree lighting ceremony was a favorite, where we roasted marshmallows, made s'mores (Xavier only ate the chocolate), and took a horse-drawn carriage ride through a gorgeous part of our neighborhood.

Our town's most popular event, "Christmas in the Park", lets kids visit a Santa who knows every small detail about the kid, including best friends, favorite Christmas song, etc.  Xavier had a personalized visit with Santa and it was the greatest thing!  When he gets older, he'll enjoy it even more, and may even be shocked that Santa knows his Elf's name and Christmas traditions than only we know about.  After the visit, we took a warm bus ride (weather was too cold for the horse-drawn carriage ride through the park, fine by me!!) to the shelter house where Xavier played corn hole and made ornaments.

I feel like it's my job to make holidays as memorable as possible.  And not with presents or over the the top Pinterest projects, but to make every day things more exciting.  I can still remember making cutout sugar cookies every Christmas when I was a kid.  There's something great about having messy, flour covered counter tops, with Christmas music playing in the background.  I'm so impressed by Xavier's cookie making skills, so much improvement from last year!

We are spending lots of time in the snow, building a snowman (and throwing snowballs at and destroying with bats) and forts.  I'm already looking forward to the next snowfall.  I'm excited to make our traditional "snow cream", where the main ingredient is freshly, fallen snow.

Look at the determination!

Batting practice.

We are also planning to do "Elf Yourself", make reindeer food, and surprising Xavier with a day of ice skating (assuming he can stand up in the skates!) and hot chocolate.  I say it all the time, but seeing the holidays through the eyes of your kids is the most magical thing in the world!  It's so easy to incorporate these easy things into the day to make each day just a little more fun.


So make pancakes.  Make magic.  Make memories.

Xavier's Christmas List

On Black Friday, after Xavier scared all the girls on the mall playground with his zombie voice, we saw Santa (no line at all since everyone's scoring deals in the stores).  While we waited for our turn, I asked him what he was going to tell Santa he wanted.  He said, "a bie-sih-kle, tennis [racket], and monstohr truck".  We had been working on saying bicycle and was proud he said it right!  He asked me to listen to him a couple more times.  When it was his turn to walk up, he stood in front of Santa (didn't even site down on his lap) and said, "bicycle, tennis,...." then Santa picked him up.  After he finished, he got right off his lap and said, "Okaaaaay, bye!" and waved.  No picture, no nothin'.  And I'm making a mental note to always hit up Santa on Black Friday!

Every year, since he was a baby, we have been making a Christmas list for Xavier.  It's fun to look back on each year and see how it's changed.

While we were building our snowman, I thought it would be fun to ask more detailed questions about Christmas and save his sweet little answers for just about ever.

What is the best part about Christmas?

Pwesents!!

Where does Santa live?

In uh Chwistmas house.

What are the names of Santa's reindeer?

It's name is Elf.

What do you think Santa's favorite food is?

Cookies!!

What are you getting Daddy for Christmas?
A bicycle!! (I tell him he already has a bicycle.)  Hmm, no, I'll get him uh.... I'll get him...AIRPORT FIRETWUCK.  Yea!  I want dat!

What will Santa bring Daddy and Mommy for Christmas?
He's getting uh tie.

And what about mommy?

Uuhhh, oh shoot. It's weally cold outside.

Christmas Mini's

I've finally got Steve onboard with these mini sessions.  He used to dread them, but now that we've been doing them and looking back on them, we are all finding them necessary!  I usually do 2 mini sessions each year, in the fall and at Christmas, where the entire family participates.  This Christmas, we used the same photographer who did our pics last year and they turned out wonderful!

Here, he's trying to do a "Sssshhhh Santa's coming" pose, but I love his bare foot in the air!

Xavier's favorite things so far have been seeing colored lights on houses (he literally loses it and says Oooohh I want that!), Jingle Bells (which he refers to as Chwistmas Bells, but still sings the correct way), and the Trans Siberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells.  He loves the boom booms at the beginning.  There's so much excitement that I just want to bottle it up and keep it for ever!

Oh Christmas Tree

There is nothing better than kids experiencing the magic of Christmas right before your eyes!  Since Thanksgiving, our home has been filled with festive things, including Christmas music on repeat and the smell of my favorite pomegranate/orange scented candle.  Xavier was so excited to put up the tree this year, when we mentioned it, he screamed to Steve to, "get it! get it!".  Steve put the tree up while Xavier was in his bath.  Xavier then helped me put on the ornaments and hang the stockings.

I always did annual Christmas ornaments for my childhood tree, and I want to carry that tradition on to Xavier.  Eventually, we are going to get him his own tree that he can hang all of his yearly ornaments on.  Out of all the ones on display at our local Hallmark, he picked out the "motorcycle" (Harley Davidson)!  Just like Grandpa's!

Christmas can stay forever, we are loving it more than ever!  So much to be excited for this time of year!