Holiday Recap- Christmas Outings

We a bunch of fun holiday things this season.  Jacob is such a blast and enjoys everything!  The girls did pretty good for most of our trips.  First up was the Christmas parade down the street from me.  This is the second year we've gone to the parade and it is so much fun.  The water park has a float, which makes Jacob want to go back even thought it's FREEZING!  His favorite parts are the motorcycles and anyone who throws out candy.  The fire trucks at the end with Santa were a big hit, too!

 

The gang ready to watch the parade. 

Next up we visited a local high school's Festival of Trees with my sister.  There were so many cool trees to look at!  Here are my favs.:

 We also went to the boat light show in Annapolis but we didn't really plan it well and it kinda ended being a waste of time.  We saw some fun lit up boats, but there wasn't really a place to sit and the girls couldn't see so we ended up not staying long.  Instead we had frozen yogurt at Sweet Frogs with our friends!

There is a motorcycle shop down the street from us and the set up a huge toy train display.  They places for kids to climb up and stand on to see better and even peep holes to see secret trains underneath the table!  Jacob could have watched the trains for hours!

One night I took Jacob and our friends Tiffany and her daughter Mia to see the lights at Watkins Park.  They do such a great job with their lights!  We 'oohed' and 'ahhed' at everything!

Our last big Christmas activity was seeing Santa--twice!!  We visited him at the Annapolis Mall.  Jacob has a picture with him every year.  This year all 5 of us got in the picture because the girls were not feeling the man in red!  We also saw Santa at Greenstreet Gardens with friends.  My friend Missy got some amazing pictures of the kids!

 Mailing his letter to Santa!

Waiting on the man of the hour to arrive!

BAHAHAHAHA.  Some people did NOT like Santa.  Jacob is like 'typical'!

 Oh Santa, I have been good!

 Now let me think about what I reallllly want.

 Now they'll be cute!

We had so much fun this year!!  Already thinking about the fun things for next Christmas!

Holiday Recap- Elf on the Shelf

This year we got an Elf on the Shelf.  Santa dropped off the box, but our elf was already hiding on a shelf!  Jacob originally wanted to name our elf 'Pickle Head' but I gave him some different ideas.  He settled on the name Buddy!

I know there are tons and tons of silly ideas out there for your elf to do, but I alternated between simply placing him around the house and doing a few cute things.  Jacob loved finding Buddy the next day! 

One day Buddy put streamers on Jacob's door!

So cute perched on a shelf!

 Buddy left a very nice good bye note to the kids!

I am so glad we have started this tradition.  Christmastime is so magical and this adds another element of surprised and excitement that lasts so much longer than one day!  We can't wait for Buddy's return at the end of November next year!

Holiday Recap- Putting up the tree/decorations

What an amazing holiday season it was!  Sadly I had a stomach bug on Thanksgiving and didn't get to go Black Friday shopping, but the rest of the weekend was great!  All 3 kids loved putting up the tree and Christmas decorations this year.  We also got our very own Elf on the Shelf (more about Buddy in another post!)  Here are some photos of our decorating process!

The girls loved the lights!

Jacob inspecting the lights.

Special Christmas toys!

Tree with all our Christmas toys.  Getting to be quite the collection!