Christmas 2017

Christmas Day 2017

  

After what can feel like the longest night of the year when you're little, we finally awoke to a little bit of snow, some flurries in the air and lots of gifts from Santa!  We started our morning, as has become tradition, with breakfast (eggnog coffee cake this year) followed by stockings!  Zoey got to open hers first.  Treats!!  Lots of treats!!  Happy kitty.

Next it was Emily's turn to open her stocking and she was thrilled with her treats as well.

   

Then it was time for the main event - presents for  everyone!!

   

              

Emily's big, most wished for gift, came from Santa - a Nintendo Switch.  It is a new video game console that can work hooked up to a tv or can also be disconnected to take on the go with a little iPad style screen.  She has been wanting some of the Super Mario games for months and Mario only comes on Nintendo systems.  So in addition to her Switch, she also got Mario Odyssey and  Mario Kart (a race game).  As you can see, she was very excited.

   

   

Grandma and  Grandpa gave Emily American Girl hair accessories and a camping set along with a beach house for her dolls.  We gave Emily front row seats to Disney on Ice (with a ticket for a friend), tickets to see Taylor Swift in Columbus this summer (and a ticket for a friend) and a few other smaller items too.  I would say she had a great Christmas - we all did!

Christmas Eve 2017

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Today was a pretty quiet, relaxing day.  Daniel was on call this year so we were hoping maybe it would be pretty quiet at the hospital and he'd get to spend most of the day (and night) at home.  And, as luck would have it, he did!  We put bows on packages, played games and just hung out around the house.

Then for dinner we made ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and crescent rolls with ice cream log for dessert!  Zoey even got her own special plate.  Yum!

   

Then after dinner, Emily made the reindeer food to sprinkle in the yard.  It's kind of an annual tradition.  Plus, we don't want Rudolph and his friends to get hungry or feel unappreciated.

With the reindeer fed, it was time for a family Christmas movie - Elf!  In the past we had watched Home Alone, but this year we tried a new one.  Everyone definitely liked it.

   

After the movie was over, Emily selected cookies for Santa and put them out with a packet of hot cocoa (it was  super cold on Christmas this year).  Definitely a great snack for the man in red!

   

 Then it was time for the annual reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - a favorite Daddy tradition going all the way back to when she was still a baby.  Compare below - Christmas when Em was 5 (2012) to Christmas this year.  :-)

   

Then, finally, it was time to head to bed and rest up for the exciting things to come in the morning!  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (and it really was because the pager never went off)!

Not a creature was stirring...

Not even a Christmas kitty.

Gingerbread Village

Saturday, December 23, 2017

We got home from Great Wolf about 3:00.  Grandma and Grandpa arrived about 4:30 and Kelsie was able to stay until later in the evening so we decided to build our tiny house gingerbread village after dinner.  Emily is obsessed with the tiny house movement and the show on HGTV so this tiny little village was the perfect pick this year.

   

   

Ta-dah! Emily's house is on the left, Daddy's in the center and Grandma made the A-frame.

Great Wolf Lodge

Friday, December 22, 2017

Today was our Great Wolf Lodge day and the girls definitely made the most of it. 

Birthday celebration at Great Wolf complete with a Kid Cabin for the girls!

   

We started the morning with donuts in the room followed by a trip to the arcade for video games, claw machines and bowling!  They had a blast playing games.

  

Finally, it was time for the water park to open.  The girls made a bee line to the water coaster in hopes that the line would be shorter than it might be later in the day.  Unfortunately it actually was the longest line of the day, but they got to ride and were very happy.  Then it was time for the lazy river.  They rode and rode and rode, around and around and around.  It actually was not as crowded as it has been on some of our trips so the rafts were actually able to float around.  It was nice.

   

Then the girls tried out the lily pads.  First, the ones that go across the pool and later the one just out in the middle of the pool.  And man they played and played on that one (pic on the right).

  

Then we took a brief break for some pizza for lunch.  Then it was right back to the slides and the pools.  They rode more slides, climbed on more lily pads, rode the lazy river and played in the wave pool too.

After a full day of water park fun, it was time for dinner - in the life sized gingerbread house! I couldn't believe we were able to get a reservation, but I checked into it in November and they still had openings.  The girls were super excited (and so was I)!

   

 
After dinner, we spent a little time being festive including pics with trees, pics with Santa and even a sleigh ride!

   

   

Then it was time for MagiQuest.  The kids were really, really looking forward to their quest.  I hung out in the lobby area and watched them run back and forth and up and down completing their quests.  And boy did they ever have a blast.  They didn't quite finish everything Friday night, but they did wrap up their adventure on Saturday morning before we hit the road for home.  GREAT birthday trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  So much fun!!

   

Wrapping up the night in matching pjs!