Better Late Than Never, Christmas Addition - Part 2

With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, our church held services as normal and did not offer a Christmas Eve Evening service which we traditionally go to. We did however, enjoy our second annual Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite pizza place, Little Italian.

When we got home, the girls excitedly put out milk and cookies for Santa! Oh, and carrots for the reindeer, too!

Santa came!

Christmas Day tends to be a little hectic for us! Nate had to work on Christmas Eve, so we waited for him to get home to open presents! Some highlights for Jade were a big Art Set, Scooter and the Shopkins Grand Mansion. Some highlights for Jemma were a Doc McStuffins Baby Cece doll, a Peppa Pig house, and a play camper for her L.O.L. dolls.

Afterward, daddy got some sleep and the girls and I headed out for our first celebration of the day! We had a great afternoon of food and fun with my parents, my sister and her family, my Aunt Marianne and my Grandpa!

Next we headed to Nate's Aunt and Uncle's house for more food and fun! Nate was able to meet up with us there, before working again that evening! This is the only picture I managed to take the whole time we were there. Jade and Jemma with Nate's little cousin Michael!

The next day we headed to my parents house to celebrate with my mom and dad and my sister's family! It was so fun having everyone together, especially seeing all the cousins have such a blast with each other.

Our last celebration was on the 27th with the Obermayer extended family!

Whew, only 2 months late! Here's to keeping better updates going forward! ;)

Better Late Than Never, Christmas Addition - Part 1

Part of the reason this post was delayed for so long, is I can't get any decent videos to load onto my blog anymore!

Jemma had her 1st Christmas Program this year through her Pre-School! The last few years we have gone to watch Jade, so she was pretty excited for her turn. Her class were the Shepherds. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to load videos again soon, but in the meantime here are a few mediocre pictures!

We had our annual drive to look at Christmas lights and get McDonalds chocolate shakes!

I got to help in Jade's classroom for their Winter Party! I was in charge of a bozo bucket game station. The kids also played pin the face/accessories on a gingerbread man and go to decorate gingerbread man cookies!

Our first Christmas Celebration came on 12/23. We had a wonderful Brunch at Honey Jam Cafe followed by gift opening and playing at our house with Nate's parents. Jade was a little under the weather that day, but she's a trooper and made the best of it!

A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for their very generous gifts for the girls. We had such a fun day, and even got Jade's entire Lego set constructed!

Stay tuned for Part 2! :)

Winter Wonderfest - Navy Pier

We continued our annual tradition by taking a trip to Navy Pier in Chicago for the Winter Wonderfest. Unfortunately, Grandpa (Nate's dad) was unable to join us this year. We had a blast, but definitely missed having him along! 

Highlights for the girls included the carousel, snowballs, bounce houses, train, cookie making and spending time with Grandma!

This year, you received a free pass to ride the big Ferris Wheel with your admission to the Winter Wonderfest! This was my first time ever riding it, we all loved it!

Thanks for a fun day, Grandma!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had our annual Christmas Tree putting up and decorating day! The girls were the most involved this year, which made it even more special!

Annual picture in the empty tree box!

Nate did a great job straightening branches, while Jade and Jemma played with the Nativity set and I prepared the snacks!

Our feast! The tradition has always been a grazing style meal. This was the first year that Jade participated in that way, and she loved it! This was always my favorite part about putting up the Christmas Tree up when I was a kid. 

The girls were very helpful with the ornament putting up this year, and did a great job with all the non-breakable ;) ones!

Putting the star on top with Daddy's help!

The finished tree!!