Even Charlotte joined us in the kitchen for some cookie time!
I love that Harrison is just as excited about this as Madeleine. He doesn't last as long at making them as she does, but he works so hard at it.
Madeleine would have made cookies all day if she could have! She loves to help me in the kitchen and worked so hard on her cookies!
Of course, we had to spend some time tracking Santa that day on NORAD. This is always a favorite activity -- for all of us! I think the clicked on almost every place he'd landed and looked at either the picture or video of it.
After the cookies were cooled it was time to ice them! This is their favorite part. They iced the ones they'd made and I iced the rest. We always take cookies to our neighbors on Christmas Eve & I wanted those to be without the extra "licks" the kids often give theirs. :) Here are a few of the finished product. I'll admit that making/icing cookies is one of MY favorite parts of the holiday.
After a taco dinner, the kids were allowed to open one gift. It has to be the gift they've gotten for each other. I love this tradition because it teaches them the gift of giving -- they get so excited to see the other open their gift -- and receiving -- they learn to say "thank you" and show their excitement for what they're getting (especially since they're only opening that one gift).This year Madeleine spent a lot of time choosing just the right gift for Harrison. We must have put different things back at least 5 times because she kept changing her mind. She finally decided on a color change car and a new squishy shark. Harrison looooved them and ran to give her a huge hug just after opening them!
When I took Harrison to get Madeleine's gift he went right to the My Little Pony section. With some help he chose a pony that's hair can be changed/brushed. She loved her gift as well.
Next it was time to scatter our Magic Reindeer Food and get ready for Santa to come.
Then we read The Night Before Christmas -- I bought this book on Madeleine's first christmas and we've read it every Christmas Eve since. It's hard for me to believe that was 7 years ago and we've been reading if for 7 Christmases!
One last picture of our tree before Santa comes!
They picked out which cookies they wanted to leave him and decided on chocolate milk this year (Harrison insisted!).
Then it was off to bed! They had a hard time going to sleep even though we let them sleep in our bed so we wouldn't miss the big Santa reveal in the morning! 
This is what he left for Madeleine:
And, what he left for Harrison:
While they got most of what was on their list they also learned that Santa can't always bring everything because he has to give to other boys & girls. I love that they explained this in detail (I believe the word "greedy" was mentioned even though we've never actually said that) to my Dad later in the week. They also got a lot of things they didn't ask for but loved. It's funny, but Madeleine has several gift that are packed away in her closet -- the wrapping taken off, but they're still in the box. She fell in love with her Leapster Explorer and new doll and that pretty much was all she really needed. :) I guess she'll have some new stuff one of these days when she decides she's ready to play with it. And, Harrison was more than happy with his Thomas Misty Island and was so surprised at his Dragon Castle, but it was the hit of the day!
When I took Harrison to get Madeleine's gift he went right to the My Little Pony section. With some help he chose a pony that's hair can be changed/brushed. She loved her gift as well.
Next it was time to scatter our Magic Reindeer Food and get ready for Santa to come.
Then we read The Night Before Christmas -- I bought this book on Madeleine's first christmas and we've read it every Christmas Eve since. It's hard for me to believe that was 7 years ago and we've been reading if for 7 Christmases!
One last picture of our tree before Santa comes!
They picked out which cookies they wanted to leave him and decided on chocolate milk this year (Harrison insisted!).
Then it was off to bed! They had a hard time going to sleep even though we let them sleep in our bed so we wouldn't miss the big Santa reveal in the morning!Here's what Santa left for them to share:
This is what he left for Madeleine:
And, what he left for Harrison:
While they got most of what was on their list they also learned that Santa can't always bring everything because he has to give to other boys & girls. I love that they explained this in detail (I believe the word "greedy" was mentioned even though we've never actually said that) to my Dad later in the week. They also got a lot of things they didn't ask for but loved. It's funny, but Madeleine has several gift that are packed away in her closet -- the wrapping taken off, but they're still in the box. She fell in love with her Leapster Explorer and new doll and that pretty much was all she really needed. :) I guess she'll have some new stuff one of these days when she decides she's ready to play with it. And, Harrison was more than happy with his Thomas Misty Island and was so surprised at his Dragon Castle, but it was the hit of the day!One thing you won't see Christmas Eve is the picture of me and my very sick self! The stomach flu hit late late late Christmas Eve and I don't remember when I've ever been so sick! Matt was amazing and got all of Christmas put out and set up so all I had to do was make a few little adjustments. Then he stayed up with me until the worst was over before crawling into bed with the kids for the night. I was pretty disappointed to be so sick after so much planning and scheming, but we still had had a great day and I was so thankful that we didn't have any company coming for Christmas and we just had a lazy jammie day ahead!
1 comment:
how funny! we got Lily the Leapster Explorer too! We used all the money from the great-grandparents. Jamison got the Leapster 2 and he loves it.
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