Christmas and Festivities

There's nothing quite like Christmas with kids. We had a blast this year. Here are some Christmas themed photos from a mommy group play date I went to with Patrick and Eleanor while Bradley was at preschool. I love people with nice cameras and a photography hobby. At least one of these would have made the Christmas card if I had them in time.

This seemed to be the favorite picture of the bunch. I was told it was the "rule the world" photo. Rule with love and rolls!

I think this was my favorite though.

I could have had similarly beautiful pictures of Eleanor but the little girl was far more interested in eating cookies and playing with all of the amazing toys in the basement. 

The kids had been hearing a bit both at home and at church about Jesus' birthday leading up to Christmas, which led to this heretical discussion of pears at lunch one day.

These are the parenting moments you just don't know how to prep for. Is God fat? Ummmm ...

We had ridiculously nice weather leading up to Christmas so I took the kids out to the park at every opportunity. Patrick has officially graduated from the baby carrier to the wagon full time! Bradley and Eleanor beg for it to be their turn to sit next to Patrick and feed him goldfish crackers.

Wagons are really cozy and one can get tired out with so much going on around a little guy. 

I love how much my children love being around each other.

Here are Bradley and Eleanor at one of their favorite "jumping spots."

Singing and jumping. We sing everywhere we go now, going to Costco as a family is indeed a spectacle.

And this is how we do slides ...

But then it got cold and my kids were wild so I sent them out to the back deck for what I called a "yelling break." They may have loved it too much.

So much yelling.

My mom sent Eleanor a Christmas skirt which was hugely popular with our little fashionista.

I later tried to take a picture of her with a bow to complete the outfit. So I told her to go down a slide while we were at church, foolishly forgetting how the little sister has been trained to go down a slide. 

My mom also brought some vintage outfits worn by me and my older brother when we were kids and it's a bit surreal to see them on my own children. Surreal yet adorable!

Eleanor has been begging to wear her "fancy" dresses around the house where one does totally reasonable things like stand on a toy bus so you can play on the back of the couch.

All three kids playing together. I love it so much.

Nathan joined us for Bradley's preschool Christmas program which was remarkable for several reasons: 1) First child's Christmas program! 2) Bradley was the child in his class designated to be next to the teacher. 3) Bradley was perhaps the most excited child on stage but his participation in the actual program was minimal. 4) Eleanor was trying to do somersaults from my lap onto the floor (unprecedented and unexpected) the ENTIRE time Nathan was trying to film the program. And I was also holding baby Patrick at the same time.

The video of our giddy little boy who looks very excited and does not sing.

Posing with his sister after the program. He took a three hour nap after we got home. 

Christmas festivities are fun for grownups too. Here are Nathan and I at his company Christmas party. It's a lot of fun to dress up when Eleanor is around to appreciate your efforts. I was trying on the dress for the party and as Eleanor walked up the stairs and caught a glimpse of me she said "Mommy, I love your bootiful dress!" She also stared at my heels as soon as she spotted them and said "I need some of those. Little ones." And she repeated the bit about heels about five times in a row. Oh my.

We had a lovely time at the party, especially a little later in the evening when the engineers went a little crazy and a festive name tag exchange took place, which is why Nathan is wearing two name tags.

And here are a couple of pictures of the two of us from our annual ugly sweater party. Incidentally, Bradley did NOT like my fancy clothes from the week before and stated his preference for my Meowy Christmas sweatshirt with a festive skirt for the ugly sweater party (although Eleanor did mention she needed a skirt too as soon as she saw the ugly sweater party skirt).  

Nathan won a selfie stick that we used for the party, things were off the chain (pretty sure that's cool talk).

Bradley had his first dentist appointment two days before Christmas and was a rock star. I think he was especially excited to go when Eleanor cried because she didn't get to go to the dentist too.

Ready for his first xray that turned out blurry because the crazy people who worked there thought a three year old would stay still for an xray.

Too cool while watching Paw Patrol and waiting for his dental exam.

We went to see Santa and we *might* have built it up a bit too much for our tenderhearted Bradley boy.

There's Santa! Look!

In line, pointing at Santa.

Noooooooooooo Santa

Death grip on Daddy

The end result. Eleanor is covering her ears because of the loud bell they're ringing to get the kids' attention.

We mellowed out a bit after the Santa encounter and enjoyed ourselves at the Bass Pro Shop where the free Santa pictures took place. 

Except for Patrick who wanted to know what this stroller NONSENSE was about. 

He literally spends almost no time in a stroller. Apparently the child is not a fan. 

The Christmas Eve service at our church was very nice and I only had about a thousand heart attacks when Nathan decided it would be a perfectly reasonable plan for our two and three year olds to hold their candles independently. 

Happily, all went well and the children were beyond delighted that they were permitted to hold the candles.

Best try at a family Christmas Eve picture. Thanks Eleanor ...

When we got home Bradley asked if we were going to leave cookies out for Santa which was entirely his idea, neither Nathan or I had suggested it. And lucky Santa, not only did Bradley and Eleanor pick out cookies to leave by the fireplace for him, they also sampled a couple to make sure we had picked out the good stuff!

Nathan read the big kids a bedtime story and you can see the cookies and milk for Santa on the little chest to the right. 

After Nathan finished putting the kids in bed, Bradley waited about ten minutes and then left his room to try to go downstairs and see if Santa had eaten the cookies yet. He was just a little excited. It was also Bradley's first question on Christmas morning. Not if Santa had brought him presents, but if he had eaten the cookies that were left out. There was great joy when it was discovered that the cookies had indeed been eaten.

Christmas morning video:

 And Santa did bring presents. Hurray!

I know my nutella french toast breakfast was enjoyed because Eleanor wore it all over her face.

And family presents were exciting too. Again, kids on Christmas morning. It's pretty perfect. 

Eleanor was pleased by her new princess castle that took Nathan approximately five hours to assemble (no joke).

And the kids were very happy to have Grandma Colleen and Kerry join us that afternoon!

Being around grandkids is tiring work. 

We took the grandparents out to Paint, Glaze, & Fire, a little ceramic shop, and the kids had a fun time decorating soap dispensers as gifts for the grandparents. 

Patrick got his handprint done, super adorable. 

We also played Pie Face for the first time with Colleen and Kerry. Bradley has a new favorite game.

Grandma Colleen was an great sport and joined in on the fun.

 And it WAS fun. Quite the game!

Eleanor wanted to play but was a little nervous about being hit in the face with whipped cream so we had her play with a tiger beach ball toy.

It was a very nice grandparent visit! Lots of love and cuddles.

These kids. They all love each other but Bradley and Patrick's bond is pretty ridiculously sweet.

Apparently I say Patrick is so cute I can't stand it on a fairly regular basis.

 Patrick's turning into a "real" person and is into EVERYTHING. It could tire a guy out to be so busy.

 Helping me unload the dishwasher is a new favorite pastime.

He's even started climbing the stairs ... he's really bad at it so far. Keeping him from falling on his head is a real issue.

Here he is with a fun cord he found to play with ...

The rest of the gang.

 Group baths are pretty festive these days.

These pictures perfectly caputure 2.5 year old Eleanor's spirit. 

As does this video.

Dreams are coming true for me, Bradley and I played our first real game of Candyland a couple weeks ago. He understands the rules and we laughed, cried, tried to cheat a bit, and had a victory dance. Perfection!

Taunting Mommy who was not winning.

 Bradley and Eleanor are inseparable.

Even in the bathroom ... here is Eleanor telling Bradley a story while he makes a pee. I need to cut back on this, sometimes he refuses to go to the bathroom when he's going to have to be alone in there.

Group play dough.

Did you know that it's always more fun to play in someone else's space?

And Patrick and Eleanor are great buds too! Bradley is certainly #1 in Patrick's book but going on a "boat ride" with big sister Eleanor is certainly a delight. Also - fun fact: Eleanor and Patrick have been in the same size of diaper for about a month now and he weights maybe 8 lbs less than her at 8 months old to her 2.5 years.

The first snow of the season has arrived and the kids are in heaven.

Well, Patrick may be less than impressed.

A favorite activity for the past couple days has been eating an early dinner so Bradley and Eleanor can run outside with Daddy as soon as he gets home from work and have a snowball fight. I don't know who enjoys it the most.

And we will end on one of my all time favorite family videos so far. Eleanor singing cute Frosty the Snowman in her princess dress until Bradley comes along ...