And Santa came...

Santa was so good to us this year.  And while we weren't up at 4am like in 2014, the kids were still up by 5.  Sillies...  I held them off for a little while with pictures, but soon Daddy was up and it was time to open. 

Phoebe LOVED her new bed, and still does.  

We opened gifts, which included new board games, a salon/cafe for Riley, Legos for Gavin, new science kits, drawing books, and new flannel sheets for the beds. So much goodness!! We had a great morning.

Our cinnamon rolls turned out awesome.  It's my new favorite recipe (though I'll use a different icing next year).  We packaged some up and dropped them off at a new fire station bright and early.  We usually wait until our way to our annual Christmas Day movie, but we wanted them to get there earlier.  The firefighters gave us a tour of the station and even let the kids get in a truck.  It was pretty cool! 

We had some time to relax before the movie started and the kids thoroughly enjoyed their new iPads.  We let them have pretty much as much time as they wanted with them over Christmas break, and they really loved it.  Especially the YouTube Kids app.  Riley is obsessed with it.

Next up, movie time!  I'm so glad we started this tradition a few years back.  I really look forward to many years of family movies.  We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks: Roadchip this year, which was really cute, and Riley made it through the whole movie this year! ;)

Since the weather was so usually warm for Christmas, we ended our Christmas Day with a nighttime walk around the square and on the Crystal Bridges trail, and I got this cool panoramic pic of the museum all lit up at night. 

Finally!  Christmas pics are all uploaded to the blog.  I'm going to do one last December 'dump' to post the rest of our pics but I'm almost caught up.  Feels great to say that.

Christmas Eve Shenanigans

We started off our unseasonably warm Christmas Eve with a surprise FaceTime call with our favorite little baby, Connor!  How cute is he?!

And then, it was time to introduce the kids to some classic Christmas music...NKOTB!  We rocked out while decorating cookies, which the kids loved despite our cookies turning out oddly shaped and completely flat.  I am NOT a baker...let's just get that straight.

Phoebe really wanted to try a cookie, too.  Sorry, Phoebes.

Time for some posed pics by the tree!  Our lighting is never great in the living room, but I still love these.  Once again, they just look so grown up!

I snapped this little picture as we ate our Christmas Eve dinner and loved it because you can see all our family and friends behind us.  I first started hanging our Christmas cards in the window several years ago and needed one ribbon.  In 2014, I had to add a second ribbon.  This past year, the third ribbon was hung up.  It just keeps growing!  It's one of my favorite parts of our Christmas decor - I love seeing our favorite family and friends with us every day during the Christmas season.

And one more posed picture. :)  We tried to get Phoebe in it, too, but that was near impossible.  I can't believe how thin Jarrod's face looks these days.  This crazy race training has really helped him lose some pounds!

 Next up...presents!  We open our presents from one another on Christmas Eve night. This was a good year.  I really tied to encourage the kids to think about what Jarrod would want and what they wanted to give one another.  They did great!  Gavin picked out a foam roller for Jarrod and some Legos for Riley.  Riley really wanted to give her Daddy a 'blankie.'  I thought that was adorable, so we went and picked out fabric together and sewed him a blankie to sleep with.  So special!  And, she picked out a tabletop foosball game for Gavin since he fell in love with foosball on vacation this past summer.  Of course, the BIG gift for them this year was that they got their own iPads.  That was a HUGE step for me to agree to, but they've really been wonderful.

The kid played while we made cinnamon rolls for the next morning (which turned out fabulous!  Definitely worth trying the Alton Brown recipe).

And then, it was time for 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and the sibling sleepover!

Of course, I'll always think about what the family is doing on Christmas Eve in Cincinnati and have wonderful memories of our traditions there growing up.  But, I sure do love our quiet, low key Christmas Eve here in Bentonville.  I'm so proud of the memories we make with the kids each year. :)

School Parties!

Of course, you can't have the holidays without school parties!  Once again, I'm co-homeroom mom for Gavin's class...I just LOVE getting to be involved in his classroom, even if it does mean lots of extra work.  Thankfully, this year the kids had parties on different days, which is always helpful.  First up...Gavin!

Unfortunately, I was busy busy busy at his party, pouring hot cocoa at the hot chocolate bar, helping kids glue eyeballs to their ornaments, hanging wet ornaments to dry, checking on other groups, etc....so that means three pictures total.  Oh well...so fun.

Riley was such a trooper and so well behaved.  Love that she's been so welcomed by Gavin's teachers at ETE the last few years.  It's been very helpful and I'm so grateful.  Can't believe she'll be in elementary school next year. :(

And this is evidence that he's getting older - I can't take a selfie with him in his classroom without being photobombed or given bunny ears. ;)

Next up...Riley's turn!  Riley's Christmas program included a little program before playing some games, singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, doing secret gift exchange, and then doing the piñata!

Last year, Riley was Mary in the Christmas program; this year, she was an angel and was very much in love with her costume.  And as you can see, she was quite dramatic when I tried taking her picture.

She looked so adorable.  You can watch the clips from the program on our YouTube page.

www.youtube.com/mrspate22

We've had some issues this year we're continuing to work through socially, but she sure did have fun at her party! :)

Hadley, Riley, and Kennedy....Riley and Jack

What an exhausting couple of days, but so worth it all!  I love seeing their smiles.  Can't believe how big they're both getting.

Our month of traditions....

Traditions are so important to me.  This year, I learned how important they are to Jarrod, too, which made my heart happy.  And, I'm realizing that the kids are also loving traditions - Riley recently had her third Jitterbugs performance, and we had to do everything exactly like the last ones, right down to the restaurant we headed to for dinner.  I love that traditions are valued around here.  

One thing we love to do in December is explore the lights on our square.  This year, we actually had two special nights.  One on our square, and then one in Fayetteville.  We've gone on a carriage ride the last two years and were sad to learn that our square wouldn't be offering them this past Christmas so we had to head down south for our chance to take a ride.  Here are some pictures from our Bentonville trip...

Being silly at the Walmart 5 and 10.  

Mailing our letters to Santa

And then, we ended up with gorgeous weather right before Christmas to explore the Fayetteville square.  We went down for dinner, got Bliss cupcakes, saw the lights and had our carriage ride before stopping off at an amazing display of lights at someone's property.

 

Our carriage ride reminded us of Cinderella, and we all thought it was hilarious how the horse sped up every time he saw the camels.

 We drove over to this home we had heard about after leaving the square and were completely blown away.  You actually parked and walked around the property, which was filled with over 200 inflatables, a fake snow machine, Christmas Vacation being projected on their garage door, and Santa ready to talk to the kids.  We even rode a 'train roller coaster' for free!  It was amazing!

Slowly but surely, I'm getting there...maybe I'll have Christmas caught up before Valentine's Day!  Fingers crossed.