Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve is always a special night for the family. We put the kids in their holiday finest & head over to Nana's for some holiday fun. Including a surprise visit from Santa. On his very busy night he makes time for Cooper, Mason & Fiona's last Christmas wishes.

Fiona's new "high fashion" pose....

Mason wasn't keen on getting near Santa but certainly loved the early gift he brought....remote controlled Escalade! Santa is all business...

Fiona was a little more gracious with Santa & even thanked him on his way out.

She was even polite enough to show off her cool new alphabet keyboard to Cooper, Uncle Steve & Kerri....for a minute at least.

Of course I had to bring out the holiday crackers that I have always loved....

And more goodies to open. These kids made out well and we hadn't even hit the big day yet!

 The visit is never complete without some rough housing from one of the Bergmans...You know who you are;)

And off to bed for the big day ahead....though Mason did get 2 Santa visits he asked on each occasion why he didn't hear the reindeer on the roof?....love the magic of Christmas.

Finally....A Start to the Many Christmas Celebrations!

We don't mess around with Christmas here. The kids were able to celebrate the holiday at several events. The anticipation was a bit much by the actual date but the kids both fared well & enjoyed all of the holiday spirit....
We had our 3rd annual playgroup Santa party to get everyone in the spirit...Santa was a brave soul to enter the room with all of the kids hyped up on sugar & treats;)

Mason was thrilled upon Santa's arrival and promptly parked himself front & center....so we waited for him to get up and take a turn each time a new child had a chance....and waited.

After some prompting & lack of anyone else left to have a turn...our boy was itching for a gift from Santa's bag. He had to step out of his comfort zone in order to score his gift & sat on Santa's lap....

Wouldn't say he talked Santa's ear off but his dear friends Laurel & Matthew saw what was happening & stepped up and spoke on his behalf. They didn't want Santa to miss his name or his Christmas wishes, Laurel just let Santa know that "Mason was a little shy but that's okay."

.....so through all of the crazy sales, shopping & excess of the Christmas season this was a nice reminder of what the holidays are about....

LaSallette Lights

Merry Christmas!!

Sending wishes of a very Merry Christmas to all of our family & friends!!

Making of the Christmas Photo

I decided that it was a one shot deal with getting the Christmas card photo of the kids this year. So I armed myself with candy corn & somehow got the kids dressed and outside on a beautiful day....though didn't get to actually comb Fiona's hair, we did get a headband on.....every accomplishment counts! The kids actually did pretty well (candy helped greatly)....but here are a few from the "shoot"....

 

starting to lose them....

And as Fiona would put it......we were DONE......

Holiday Sweets

Due to my limited culinary skills or patience, or for that matter time ;).....I try to keep holiday sweets pretty simple. Chocolate covered pretzels are a hit and half fat-free right?

The kids wanted a chance to decorate a tray of their own pretzels. Anticipating the whole bottle of sprinkles being dumped out I thought to just pour some of the toppings in the little covers from the bottles.....fairly foolproof....? 

Not so much...
....while stirring the melting chocolate on the stovetop I looked away from the kids for 30 seconds. When I looked back they had each decided to "drink" their respective toppings out of the caps.

sugar haze

she keeps this up and her teeth will look like that!

Ugh....and I wonder why they have an unusual amount of energy these days.....'tis the season!