Christmas 2011

While I'm busy making dinner, here's the link to our Christmas photos so far! Enjoy! (I'll do a real post later!)

Christmas 2011

Our Elf on the Shelf

We adopted an elf this year! If you haven't heard about The Elf on the Shelf before click here for the story.

On Thanksgiving we read the book that came with our elf. At the end of the book we had to pick a name for our elf and decide if it was going to be a boy or a girl. We named our elf "Ernie" after the great Ernie Harwell! The morning after Thanksgiving, the kids woke up to a letter from Santa and the elf sitting on the potpourri in the living room.

Day 1

On day 2 Ernie was sitting on the window sill. After he flies to the North Pole every night to give Santa his report on Austin and Abigail he comes back and positions himself in a different spot.

Day 3, Ernie found his way onto the Christmas tree after returning from the North Pole.

And a bonus picture of the whole Christmas tree and stockings!

One of these days I'll get around to posting pictures of the whole house!

Santa 2009

Abigail said she was going to sit on Santa's lap all day before we actually went to see the big guy. It wasn't the same story when we actually got there, as evident in the picture above!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We've had a great Christmas so far and we hope you do too!

Thank you to everyone who sent a gift for the kids. We really appreciate it and they loved everything! We can't wait until Grandpa & Grandma Richards get here tomorrow!

Pre-K Christmas Program

Austin had his Christmas Program today at school. I also video taped this performance, I just need to figure out how to get it onto the computer!

All the Pre-K students

Can you spot him?

He was very animated during the entire performance. They even got to do it twice. I guess some parents walked in the door as it was ending the first time so the teachers decided to do it again.

After the program I headed back to work and Austin got ready to ride the bus to the CDC.

I'm so glad I only work a block from Austin's school and was able to attend the program.

He did such a great job. I'm so proud of him!

FRG Christmas Party

After Austin's daycare Christmas party, we left post to pick up Abigail. We dropped Daddy's car off at home and headed to our FRG Christmas party. We ate again, socialized and waited for Santa to make an appearance. Abigail happened to be sitting in Santa's chair when he arrived at the party. As he headed to his seat to sit down, Abigail screamed bloody murder and wouldn't go near the guy after that. Austin was all about sitting on Santa's lap so he could get a candy cane and a present from under the tree.

We're not sure what he was telling Santa, but he was telling him something!

Daycare Christmas Party

When Austin gets out of school, he rides a bus to one of the Child Development Centers (CDC) on post. Once I get out of work, I swing by and pick him up before leaving post to go get Abigail. Yesterday Michael and I attended his Christmas party at the CDC. They started the party by singing a handful of Christmas songs. They then received gifts from their teachers and got something to eat with everything the parents brought. Here are some pictures from the party.

I have a video of the singing, but I have to figure out how to get it off my camcorder.

{Anybody have any knowledge of this?}

A long day

Yesterday was a very long and busy day.

Michael and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I was pleasantly surprised when a dozen roses were delivered to my work. They're absolutely gorgeous.

At 4:15 we joined Austin at the daycare he attends after school for their Christmas party. They started the party by singing Christmas songs. It was so cute. We stayed long enough to eat and win a couple of door prizes. Also, Austin got a present, reindeer ears and a goody bag from his teachers.

After the party we headed to pick up Abigail. After getting Abigail we were off to Michael's Christmas party at work. We had a nice dinner and a visit from the big guy we all call Santa. Austin was the only one {between our two} to sit on his lap, Abigail wanted nothing to do with him. I really wanted to take the kids to the mall to see Santa, but Abigail will probably freak out like she did last night. I'll probably take them anyways, I can't miss a year!

I stayed up last night way longer than I should have getting packages around to put in the mail this morning. The news reported that the last day for shipping priority mail was December 20th so that it would arrive before Christmas. I'm doing pretty good, 2 days ahead of schedule!

I have yet to upload the pictures from yesterday. Austin has a Christmas program today at school, so I'll have pictures from that also. I video taped the performance yesterday and will be doing the same today. Of course if you were to watch the video, you'd here me sniffling as there's nothing like seeing your baby do something for the first time. He's growing so fast!

The out takes

I attempted to capture the kids picture the other night for our Christmas card. I think I ended up with more out takes than anything!

For example:

I made our card out of the semi-decent pictures! I'm so excited to get them back and send them out. Hopefully they'll be here by the end of the week!

Official Present Openers

Not the greatest pictures, but then again they didn't give me much to work with!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

The after shot of our living room!

All of our Christmas pictures can be seen in our Photo Album. To see the album, click HERE.

Christmas Eve

Get cookies ready for Santa: Check.

Make reindeer food for Santa's reindeer: Check.

Get the cameras ready for present opening: Check.

Open some presents: Check.

Sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn: Check.

Get into bed and go right to sleep so Santa can come: yeah right!

Austin was so excited last night after we opened a few presents that he didn't want to go to sleep when he got into bed. He eventually went to sleep and his reaction this morning was priceless!

Thank you to all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins who sent the kids presents. They opened them on Christmas Eve so they weren't overwhelmed today. They loved everything they received.