Christmas-posted before February

On Christmas Eve we got together with some friends for dinner and a White Elephant gift exchange which the kids thought was so fun. We ate tons of appetizers and a delicious salmon dinner.
We came home and set up our tri-pod to get a family picture in front of our tree. Landon thought it was the funniest game to push the camera button then run and say CHHHEEEEESSSEEEE for a long time.

So we changed in our jammies and played the picture taking game again.

Getting goodies ready for Santa and reindeer.

Christmas morning!! Look what Santa brought.

Our Christmas breakfast...crunchy french toast with strawberries and cinnamon syrup.

Here is our traditional Christmas dinner. Pierois and cabbage rolls.

It was such a relaxing Christmas being on our own. We played with toys, watched our new movie "Up", cuddled, and drank hot chocolate.

Light Shows

A few days before Christmas Landon and I took a train down to the city and met up with Troy to go see some light shows. We first went to Macy's and saw this fun light show set to music. Then we walked over to the Comcast Center to see their Christmas Spectacular 3D on their big screen tv in the lobby.

Snowed In

So here I am again, trying to catch up with pictures almost a month old. The Saturday before Christmas we had a huge storm come through and we were snowed in. We actually loved playing in the snow, making cookies, watching movies, and playing games. It was nice to be together the weekend before Christmas instead of running all over town. This was the biggest storm we've seen Philadelphia have.

Advent Calendar

Since this is our first year on our own for Christmas we get to start a few of our own traditions. This advent calendar is one of them. I've heard of this idea a few years ago and thought it sounded fun so we gave it a try. It really has been so fun. Every night/day we do some type of activity together as a family. We have made cookies, played games, gone to see lights, made a gingerbread house, watched Christmas movies, and the list goes on. We have had such great quality time together as a family. Highly reccomended.

Landon and Santa

This is just a snapshot I hurried to take while the elf was taking the professional photo! The real photo turned out so cute, too. We went to the mall a few weeks ago so Landon could ask Santa for a train. That has been his phrase of the season-"ask Santa for a train". I didn't think he would really want to see Santa up close but he waited very patiently in line while we kept talking up how fun and nice Santa is. When it was his turn I was expecting to have us get a family photo with Santa, but he ran right up and jumped into Santa's lap and immediatley started asking for a train! He had such a cute quality conversation with Santa before the photo. He also was so excited that Santa gave him 3 candy canes.

He talked about Santa's lap for days. I finally took him back one morning before the line started and he did the same thing and was so excited. This time he was telling Santa all about church and his friends there so Santa called me over and gave me several handfuls of candy canes for all his friends at church!

Santa Clause is Commin' to Town.....on a Firetruck

Earlier this month our town had their tree lighting ceremony where Santa shows up on a Firetruck. Landon can't say the 'tr' sound in the middle of a word such as Firetruck. He replaced the 'tr' with an 'f' sound. All day long he would say "go see Santa on a firetruck". And he has said it for the last few weeks. It's quite funny. He was so excited to have Evan there with him, too.

It was too dark to see the firetruck but here's a great close up of Santa walking through the crowd.

What a perfect window level for the boys to see the fun train.

Getting the Tree setup

We did this Thanksgiving weekend. Landon has been our ornament re-arranger ever since.