Christmas Eve, or, Santa Baby

The tradition of doing Santa in on Christmas Eve extends far back to my childhood. I'm pretty sure my mom didn't have "doing Santa in" in mind when she crafted the first Santa pinata, but as kids, we took it and ran with it. I made my very first Santa pinata this year, and I thought it turned out pretty cute, and not too far off the original model. The kids had fun wildly swinging the bat around.

Keith has devised this off the balcony method of moving the pinata.

Sareny gives a cute smile before she gets her game face on.

 We had a fun time bashing the pinata. In the evening, we headed over to our friend's the Jankowski's house for food and fun. We were supposed to bring an appetizer and a dessert. We brought poppyseed bread and baklava for dessert. I'm not sure why, but I was craving some baklava, so I found a recipe online and tried it out. It was so scrumptious!

For our appetizer, we brought bacon-wrapped lil smokies with brown sugar and liquid smoke. So good! I felt a little strange bringing this dish to my vegetarian friend's house, and the pecan and pistachio filled baklava when her little girl is allergic to tree nuts...We didn't take home any lil smokies, but everyone took a ton of dessert home with them. Which is why I ended up eating most of the baklava by myself over the next couple of days, and why I must never make baklava again. :( So sad.

Here is our cute little Santa Baby all dressed up and ready to go to the Christmas party!

I bought this dress for Sareny when she was a baby at Mervyn's, which of course no longer exists. Keeley looks so adorable in it!

We had a lot of fun at the Christmas Eve party. There were some fun trivia games with a prize for the winner, lots of good food, and fun people to hang out with. We tied for first at the trivia game, but the next round involved some physical challenges, and somehow we didn't win! Oh well, it was a lot of fun trying.

We had such a fun Christmas with our little family!

melted snowmen

On Christmas Eve morning, we set to work making some masterpiece sugar cookies for Santa. I had seen the idea for melted snowmen cookies online and decided we would give it a try. The kids were excited to try something different.

I was a little concerned that this might be above their skill level and that we should have just stuck to the usual dumping sprinkles all over the cookies, but they had a good time and Sareny and Isaac made some really cute ones all by themselves. Finley required a bit of help.

Keeks was happy just to be included in the activity.

To make these cookies, we made cream cheese frosting (because it is delicious!) I heated a small bowl in the microwave for a few seconds to help it spread nice and smooth. The marshmallow heads were also heated in the microwave for a few seconds before we placed them on the cookies. Keith made this one. So cute!

Here are two that I made for Finley.

Sareny made Harry Potter.

And this one, that we named "Big Lips."

Isaac made these two--he said the one on the right was a zombie, and the one on the left was a monster.

And a parting shot of this cute guy. These were really fun! It just took a bit of prep coloring the frosting and loading it into bags, but I was surprised at how much the kids enjoyed it.

Trip to Spokane part 2

We got snow on  Christmas Eve, and the kids had a blast playing in the backyard. I wanted a group picture, but Isaac laid down to do a snow angel, and Finley followed suit. Sareny and Katlyn are "best cousins," and it is so fun! There are no girl cousins on my side, so I know Sareny really likes when we get to see Katlyn.

Isaac was some sort of abominable snow monster.






















All three cuties in their winter gear. Grandma was able to get most of this stuff at a local thrift store's 25 cent sale, and it was awesome! Isaac is wearing his cousin Jese's old coat.

















The backyard had a small hill that was actually a pretty good size for the kids to sled on. Not too big or steep for the climb back up.

The kids tried catching snowflakes on their tongues.

My cute little girl!

Love the look of pure joy on her face!

We were short one sled and the kids had to share, but Finley quickly caught on and wanted to go down like a biggie girl.

She was pretty proud of herself.

After getting thoroughly worn out, this is how they fell asleep that night:

That night we did some traditional Christmas Eve things, like a white elephant exchange, driving around looking at lights, and reading the Christmas Story. The next morning, we got up somewhat early to check out the loot before church. I was seriously wondering how Santa managed to squeeze so much stuff into those stockings. That takes some skill!

Isaac was so cute. He was so excited to get a full size kit kat in his stocking and immediately showed his sisters and asked if they wanted to share.

Last time we were in Spokane for Christmas, Isaac got one of these balloon cars in his stocking and I love the picture I have of him trying to blow it up, so I had him repeat the picture.

Finley opening some Smurf blocks.

Isaac loves his Angry Birds pillow.

Sareny got an ipod touch.

Most of the cousins that were there right after church...Tyler didn't want to be in the picture.

Our family on Christmas Day.

The whole group. I'm glad we got a group photo!

Later that week, Sareny and Katlyn made a snowman all by themselves.

It was Sareny's first snowman ever, and I was pretty proud of her.

We had so much fun! Wish we lived closer to grandma, Holly and Derek, Noel and Jewell, and Richard and Marla. We had a great time hanging out with everyone.