It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Part 2

Part 2 to lots more Christmas fun!
Eating a Gingerbread House...yum:

I mentioned A Meaningful Christmas in my last post. This is my MOST favorite Christmas activity we are doing this year, and I'm so excited it will now be a tradition. My incredibly talented, creative friend and sorority sister from Baylor, Brittany Poe, (and her friend, Carrie Rogers) created this daily devotional to do with your kids every day in December leading up to Christmas. It's great because it's geared toward preschool-aged children. I feel that Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree is awesome but some of her concepts can be slightly abstract for little ones. Caroline has learned so much about Jesus and the REAL meaning of Christmas this year. She has really grasped the concepts in A Meaningful Christmas and looks forward to her "devotional" every night (we do it at night so Matt can be included then do the daily activity the next day).

We bought her a purple tree (of course) to keep in her room and hang the ornaments on. Here she is hanging Day One's ornament...The Alpha and Omega:

So excited and proud!

I need to digress a minute...do you notice Caroline is in her pajamas in almost every picture (at least every picture taken at home)? The girl is going through a crazy obsession with pjs at the moment. If she is at home, she HAS to be wearing them. Nothing else will do. And getting her dressed to go somewhere...unfortunately that usually turns into quite the battle! I'll be honest, I'm a pj loving girl, but I do hope this phase passes quickly!
 

Matt & I have made time for a few special date nights...oh, how I need these!

We went with our community group (minus the Matthews...missed you guys!) to a tree farm for our annual tree cutting extravaganza. Unfortunately, since we aren't living in our own house at the moment, we don't get to do "our" tree this year (sad) so we went to the farm mainly to hang out with our friends :-) We went to the same farm as last year and the kiddos had fun feeding the chickens, playing on the swing set, running through the trees (very slim pickings this year), drinking hot apple cider, and riding the little train.

Wendy, Brendan, Cole, Riley, Kate, Caroline, Matthew & Matt

Matthew wasn't thrilled about the train...

...see? not too thrilled :-) Poor boy.

This one on the other hand? Pumped for the train ride!

Caroline's FIRST Preschool Christmas performance was last week. Her 3 year old class performed a few songs with the 4 year old class. They sang "I'm a Nut", "Jingle Bells", "Go Tell It On the Mountain", & "Somebody's Knocking".

Caroline sang most of her songs but wasn't too big on the hand motions. She was more interested in wiping her runny nose with her hand during most of the songs. Lovely. Really though, it was a precious performance, and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face while watching the kiddos perform.

Our last end-of-the-year Christmas performance was Caroline's ballet Parent Presentation. Another fun thing to watch! Caroline loves ballet and looks forward to it every week. Now I know exactly why!

Caroline's class with Ms Janie...about to do the Jingle Bell dance:

So serious about getting her "ballet hands" just perfect:

Caroline had to be RIGHT next to one of her besties, Lucy, the whole time:

Showing us their backbends:

We're now on Christmas break. No preschool, BSF, or ballet!  I'm trying to soak up this extra time with my kiddos, focusing on trying to teach them why this holiday is so special. It's very hard because I'm also running around like a mad woman doing last minute shopping, wrapping, planning, etc... Does anyone else feel like Christmas kind of snuck up on them this year? It's a crazy, fun, exhausting, wonderful and overwhelming time. Can't wait for next weekend! 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Part 1

Christmastime is here, and I love it! The weekend after Thanksgiving kicks off a month full of traditions...most of which include lots of fun, family and friends! We have been going to see the Santa at McShan's florist since the year Caroline was born (you can see here, here & here). This year was extra exciting because our friends, the Woodards, joined us!

Caroline & Eleanor waiting in line

Can't stop hugging...even those big bows don't stop them :-)

Posing with Eleanor's little sis, Amelia. We didn't want to put Matthew down and make him upset before his big meeting with Santa:

It only took FOUR years (and Eleanor sitting next to her!) for Caroline not to cry in Santa's lap! She did it! All smiles (although somewhat forced) & she told him exactly what she wanted.

Love how Eleanor is all cuddled up to Santa and Caroline is sitting so straight and still with a frozen smile on her face:

The beautiful Woodard girls:

Caroline and Matthew's turn. Matthew didn't cry at all...what?!? Our little guy is SO different from his big sis. We were so surprised!

Time to sit on Bruce McShan's horse:

Again, for the first time EVER, Caroline sat on a horse!!! All it took was watching Eleanor do it first. I don't know if I should be happy Caroline conquered her fears or a little worried at how much peer pressure affects her. Hmmmmm. Going to try not to worry about that now. Anyway, we were so proud of her:

After seeing Santa and Bruce's horse we made our way into the beautiful shop to attempt some festive pics with the kiddos. My expectations were low. I've learned what to expect when photographing a 3 & 1 year old.

This pic should be titled "Distraction and a Mouthful of Candycane"

This pic should be titled (insert screaming sounds here) "Give Me That Candycane........Nooooo, You Can't Have It!!"

Good thing my expectations were low, ha.

 My sweet girl...my how she has grown!!

 Matt took the kids home from McShans while I headed to the arboretum to meet my family for our annual Christmas tea (another favorite tradition). Again, it was double the fun because my aunt and cousin were able to join us since they were visiting from AL.
Susan, Catherine and Nannie (who is trying not to let the wind blow her hair :-)

Posin' with my momma...isn't that tree gorgeous?!?

We ran into Frosty, Rudolph and an elf on our way to the tea:

Prancer also made an appearance:

 My mom, grandmother, two aunts and cousin (L to R): Jean, me, Catherine, mom, Nannie (who can't keep her eyes open in a pic) & Susan:

More Christmas fun to come in Part 2. Stay tuned! 

Thanksgiving 2011

I should have titled this post "Better Late Than Never", ha. This post is SO late but since it's better late than never, here is how we celebrated Thanksgiving 2011.
We woke up and had our traditional coffee cake and egg sausage casserole breakfast...wouldn't be a holiday without it. Matthew was excited to have cake for breakfast for the first time!

 Yummy

 All smiles when there is coffee cake for breakfast!

 The rest of the morning was spent reading books with Mimi and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade while Matthew took his morning nap.

Caroline was SO into the parade this year and watched every minute of the WHOLE thing. She loved the Disney floats and thought the Rockettes were amazing.

After Matthew's morning nap, we all got dressed and ready and headed over to my grandmother, Nannie's, house. This Thanksgiving was very special because my Aunt Susan, Uncle Ronnie and their three fabulous kiddos came from Mobile, AL to spend Thanksgiving with us. My aunt and mom are two of the greatest cooks I know, and we were fortunate enough to have them cook our Thanksgiving meal for us.
We ate ham, turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, herb butter muffins, cranberry bread, pumpkin bread, Commander's Palace Salad, Southern green beans, and more. For dessert we had pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate pie, cookies, petit fours and more. It was delicious!
I love taking pictures of my plate:

 The Valentine sisters: Jean, my mom and Susan. My mom and Susan are the master chefs while Jean is the master dish washer. They make a great team :-) Can you believe they are sisters? They look nothing alike!

 Some of the Krauss clan: Matt, Mimi and PopPop (we missed you, Marcus!)

3 of my favorite cousins: Will, Catherine and Trey

 After lunch, we played games, talked (and laughed a lot!), took pictures, and Catherine and Caroline played at the park across the street from Nannie's house for a looooong time.
"Noooooooooo, don't make me walk!!!"

 An attempt at a Thanksgiving sibling pic. I tried...
...1,

 2,

 3,

 4,

 5 times before completely giving up. Sigh.

Caroline helped my mom (who is a Senior English teacher) grade some papers:

This little guy loves to cruise...but don't dare and try to get him to walk :-)

Time to go home to bed!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families. It's times like these, when the whole Valentine clan is together, when I miss my Popo (who passed away in 2006) the most. He loved nothing more than when his whole family was together...especially when yummy food was involved...which it ALWAYS was if Popo had anything to say about it. I thought a lot this Thanksgiving about how thankful I am for my salvation and the hope I have because of the cross. I will get to spend eternity celebrating with sweet Popo because of Jesus' great sacrifice for us. I couldn't be more thankful for that gift! It trumps all!

"And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Colossians 3:17