Santa Baby

I took the kids to see Santa on Thursday, the 21st, right before the frigid cold front moved in on Friday.  They had their picture taken with him and this year was great because Brooks loved him... instead of screaming in his face. Brooks asked Santa for the Paw Patrol Tower and Reese has been all about the Calico Critters. She saw them at Dilly Dally's and has loved them ever since. She also wants headbands in her stockings. :)

This Santa is pure magic.  Reese had reindeer on her dress and he commented on how much he loved them and then pulled out a little photo album with pictures of all of his reindeer. He showed the kids each reindeer and they were in awe.  What a sweet man that blesses so many children this time of year.  

After visiting Santa, we ate pretzels outside and enjoyed some cookies. 

And of course no trip to the mall would be complete without a ride on the
"escavators."

It was a magical morning with the Big Guy!

December Magic

While we have so much fun through December with all things Christmas, we’ve also had birthdays to celebrate, neighbors to play with, date nights, and all sorts of great stuff.  Here is some more “magic” we’ve been loving. 

Pawpaw had his 61st birthday, so we took him out to celebrate! 

Rachel also celebrated a big milestone...turning 40!  A group of us girls got together at Tavola to celebrate our sweet friend.

Our sweet neighbors, the Readings moved to CO right before Christmas.  These kiddos love each other BIG and we are truly going to miss these wonderful people. 

Matt and I snuck out for a date night at Bonefish to celebrate the HOLIDAYS!

We had our first "dusting" of snow a few days before Christmas and the kids were LOVING it.  They played outside in it until it was all gone that afternoon.  This was Brooks' first time to see snow.

On the 23rd, we loaded up in the car in our pajamas after baths and brought our hot chocolate and hot apple cider and drove around to look at Christmas lights.

Reese and I went to get our nails painted for Christmas.  She was so excited!

These two were such helpers as I finished the last bit of Christmas shopping. Brooks is now OBSESSED with the "escavators" at Dillard's.  I bribed them both with riding it up and down if they could be helpers.  We rode that thing 6x. :)

We watched the Reindeer cam often to make sure that Santa's reindeer were going to be ready for Christmas Eve. 

The kids had their Christmas Program at His House on December 20.  It was just perfect.  Reese's class sang "Oh, Christmas Tree," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."  Brooks' class sang "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."  At the end, all of the classes sing "Happy Birthday Jesus."  It's my favorite and I always tear up listening to all of them sing so beautifully.  We are so very blessed by such a wonderful pre-school. 

It's been a beautiful month of blessings.

Season of Love, Laughter, and More Christmas Lights

We made our annual trip to Fayetteville on Sunday to eat at Catfish Hole and then head to the square to see all the Christmas lights.   We've been doing this for 4 years and I love this night! This was our first year to go on a Sunday and will probably be our last.  The ponies were gone, Santa's reindeer wasn't there, and there were no carriages to ride in. All we had were the camels....  It was a good night, but Reese was pretty bummed about a few of the things. We made the best of it and then came home for dessert.  I think we'll go back to coming on Saturday nights, you know...when everyone else and their dog comes. :/

It was a great night of Christmas fun!!

Silver Dollar City Christmas

We had so much fun on the Polar Express Friday, that I think we all slept until almost 8:00 on Saturday morning. (That’s BIG for us ;)) We had a late check out and just laid around and took our time getting cleaned up for the day.  Matt ran to get everyone some Chick-Fil-A for breakfast, and our morning was full of cartoons and relaxation. 

We went to Cantina Laredo for lunch (one of my personal favorites), and then off we went to Silver Dollar City.  YOU GUYS!!!  We arrived at SDC around 2:30 and the parking was so bad that we had to park out around Indian Point (way past SDC).  Thankfully they had a heated bus that picked us up right by the car and of course dropped us off outside the entrance.  So... I guess it was really better than the trams.

We had a wonderful afternoon letting the kids ride some little rollercoasters and eat junk. We rode the train, Brooks favorite part of the day, and of course the carousel is always a favorite!!  We were able to see Santa and meet Bumble too. (He’s the abominable snowman.). Reese and Brooks LOVED them both. We stayed for the tree lighting and walked around to look at lights for a little bit before driving back home.  Both kids fell asleep walking back to the car.  They. Were. Exhausted.  It was a fun couple of days and I couldn't be happier with all the fun we had. We may just have to make this an annual mini-getaway for our little crew.