Merry Christmas

 Christmas with the kids at four and one was perfectly magical, if I do say so myself.  That's not to say every moment was perfect, but all in all it was perfect with my family and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

 







 Run, run as fast as you can...you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man.  Trust me, that is so true with Canaan.  His Christmas outfit suited him perfectly!





I am thankful for the blessings of the past year and am looking forward to what 2014 has in store.  Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas at Nana and Poppy's

 

 The Sunday before Christmas took us to my parent's house for Christmas with my immediate family.  This is our second year for our "new" tradition and we loved it again.  We arrived at their house at lunchtime and it was around 9:00 before we left.  I love being able to spend so much time with family at such a busy time of the year.

It was so sweet seeing my sister's first Christmas with her new family.  That was extra-special for all of us.

Levi is such a perfect mixture of his mama and daddy, but reminds me so much of Bradley at that age.  Is his bow-tie not over the top adorable??



The kids were so excited to tear in to their presents, but not until we put first things first.  Singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus and blowing out the candles on the pecan pie.

Then Nana read the traditional books she and Daddy always read to us the night before Christmas.

Finally, it was time to open all the presents.  I still had to open Canaan's this year as he wandered around playing with wrapping paper and boxes.  Hadley, on the other hand, had no problem opening her presents.  I love getting to watch my nieces and nephew open their presents and seeing how excited they get.



We had such a wonderful Christmas at Nana and Poppy's house.  They always do way too much for our families, but I know they love every minute of it.  From the food to the fellowship, it was a Christmas to remember.



Breakfast with the Grinch

One of Kentucky's State Parks, Barren River, offers a fun Christmas activity:  Breakfast with the Grinch.  Although Justin had a basketball game later that day, we decided to fit in some family time that morning.  Justin doesn't turn down a good breakfast, no matter what.  Especially a buffet with all the fixin's. 

 

Of course green eggs and ham had to be on the menu, but fortunately there were regular yellow eggs for those of us a little skiddish of the green ones.  Hadley was a big fan of the green eggs, though.  During breakfast someone would take the microphone every few minutes and announce the Grinch's whereabouts.  "He's on the state park property and will be here any minute."  This just added to the anticipation for everyone in the room. 

When the Grinch did make his appearance, he made his rounds, table to table, in the big banquet hall.  We waited patiently for him to reach our table.  The entire time I wondered how both kids would respond to him.  After all, he was really big and really green.  You can imagine how surprised I was that Canaan didn't scream.  

I was really surprised when Hadley gave him a hug.  She was just in love with the big green guy.

 

A park employee read How the Grinch Stole Christmas to the kids and then we waited in line to actually sit in the Grinch's lap.  We got to make a Christmas craft and visit with Santa before we left, too.  We really enjoyed the tasty breakfast and another reason to get in the Holiday spirit.

Trimming the Tree

Decorating our Christmas tree is always a festive occasion for us.  I think it's mainly because we purchase live trees, which dry out somewhat quickly, so we wait a little longer to purchase them.  Therefore, we are super excited when we finally get to decorate our tree.  Stringing lights on a tree and hanging ornaments is way more exciting when you're playing defense with a 15 month old. 

Hadley is so proud of her tree; this was the first year I actually let her hang her own ornaments.  Look at that serious look on her face.  Those hooks had to be just so so for this little girl.

Oh my...she's about to be as tall as her tree.  That's gonna really make me sad when she surpasses her tree in size. We love the glow that the pink lights make against her lavender walls.  She doesn't even need us to leave the bathroom hall light on during the month of December.

Amy Grant's Christmas CD blared as we gave our home its finishing seasonal decorations.  The tree really is the icing on the cake, isn't it?

Hadley is loving opening a new Christmas book each night, for her bedtime story. 

I am really enjoying displaying our family Christmas cards, from one year to the next.  Watching our family grow and change is such a blessing.  I keep meaning to find one when it was just the two of us....before kiddos. 

I decided that a sweet treat was definitely in order on this festive night.  Who am I kidding...I look for any excuse for sweet treats!  Chocolate oatmeal cookies are always a hit with our family.  Our little baker helped me every inch of the way...especially when it came time to lick the spoon.

It doesn't get much better than this. Loving this Christmas season!  Merry Christmas!

Deck the Halls of Highland

My school's annual Christmas event/social is called "Deck the Halls."  A few weeks prior to the event, all the teachers stayed after school one afternoon and really did deck the halls.  We hung garland from every nook and cranny of the building, strung lights on numerous Christmas trees, and jammed to Christmas music over the all-call speaker.  My fourth grade team and I decided that our games, at Deck the Halls, would be making reindeer food and reindeer face painting.  We had lines of kiddos waiting the entire time of the event; it was a huge hit.  I did get to sneak away to eat pancakes and sausage for just a bit, though.

Justin brought the kids by school to take part in the activities; Hadley was more than ready to play the fun games.  She made two batches of reindeer food (one each for she and Canaan) to sprinkle on the lawn on Christmas Eve.

This little guy seriously kept us on our toes, though.  He is so busy, and I love every minute of it.  This little boy melts my mama heart.  It's ridiculous. 

I can't believe Hadley will begin preschool this coming August.  She enjoyed catching a few glimpses of the preschool rooms while she got her fingernails painted.  We are working hard at home on her "homework" in the afternoons, so that she won't be behind when she starts preschool.  Now that she's not at a public daycare anymore, and staying with a private sitter, I am having to be much more intentional (at home) in our name writing practice, letter recognition practice, and so forth. Hopefully it will help with her preparation, though.  Highland's Deck the Halls was a huge hit this year, and I'm so thankful that we were able to make it a family affair.  Enjoying every second of this wonderful season!

All Aboard the Polar Express

 The Warren County Public Libarary offers a special (and free) Christmas activity, Polar Express, at the Historic Railroad and Train Museum in Bowling Green.  These tickets are reserved within hours when they become available to the public, so we were super excited to get ours.  Plus, anytime we can carve family time into a weeknight once basketball season has started, is so excting.  Cookies and hot chocolate were available to snack on while we waited for our train conductor to make the "All Aboard" announcement.  We oohed and ahhed over the historic decor in the lobby of the train station.  I love imagining what life would have been like when trains were really the mode of transportation.

Cousin Levi happened to be on the train right before us, so we got to visit with him when he came out.  He loves trains, so he was super excited.

Our conductor came around and punched our tickets before boarding time.  When we walked out of the station to board the train, there was even a snow machine giving us that authentic Polar Express feel.  I found myself as giddy as Hadley was.

This very historic train smelled, well, historic.  We also commented how people in the early 1900's must have been much smaller than we are today.  The hallways in the train were super skinny.  Justin and I carrying two little ones wasn't the easiest feat.  We got to look in the bedrooms and bathrooms that were considered first class 100 years ago.  Not quite so swanky in today's terms.  A very lively professor from Western Kentucky University (who Justin swore reeked of alcohol) read The Polar Express while we listened intently.

I wrestled Canaan during the reading and watched Hadley hang on the reader's every word; she was enthralled.

The professor even played with her a little bit, at this point, and she got so tickled.  It was quite the magical experience.

As we exited the train, who was in the first-class cart, but Ole' Saint Nick himself.  What a fun surprise that was!  He handed out bells to the kids and, much to my surprise (if you're familiar with the Polar Express story), Justin and I did indeed hear the sound of the bell all the way home.  Ha!  We had such a fun time at the Polar Express and were definitely filled with the magic of the season.

North Pole Breakfast

December 1, we officially kicked off the Christmas season with our North Pole Breakfast.  Luckily, I was able to reuse most everything from our breakfast last year, which made throwing it together super easy.  Hadley has been asking about her elf, Rudolph, for several days now.  I was like a kid in a candy store when I went in her room to wake her up.  I couldn't wait to tell her that a special visitor had been at our house and prepared her and her brother a treat. 

 Both kids got a letter from Rudolph, which talked about some personal things, such as Hadley's responsibility chart and Canaan's new activity, dumpster diving.  Hadley couldn't believe that Rudolph new some of those things about her. ;) 

 

 One of our family's favorite breakfast meals is monkey bread.  I usually just use one can of biscuits and make a smaller batch of monkey bread, but I thought this breakfast was a special occasion.  So I made the entire recipe, which calls for three cans of biscuits.  Needless to say, we had leftovers.

 

 

 Bed head and all, her first glimpse at Rudolph's magic.  She waved at him and said hi.

 

 Her eyes stayed on Rudoloph the entire breakfast; she just couldn't look away.  It was as if she was watching to see if he made a move or something. 

 Canaan loved the ooey goodness of the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, as well.  

 

 Oh, I am so excited about this Christmas season. Rudolph's magic is already working like a charm around the Stinson house.  Welcome back, little elf!

 

Happy Thanksgiving



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever!  I am so thankful that His mercies are new every.single.morning.