Christmas Morning 2013

"SANTA CAME, SANTA CAME, SANTA CAME!!!!!"  The kids were so excited/overwhelmed Christmas morning it was the best morning ever. Christmas has and always will be my favorite holiday ever and now it's even more special to see Reagan and Riley experience the joy and excitement of Christmas! The only two things that the girls really "asked" Santa for were a Sit and Spin and a Scooter ("a blue, princess scooter with sparkly wheels" according to Reagan) and you will NOT believe this...but Santa brought them BOTH of those things and so much more!!!! How does he do that!!!???!!! They were so excited by everything they opened...even the small things in their stockings like a pack of M and M's or a bouncy ball that it took about 5 hours to open all of the presents because they had to play with every single thing once it was opened! They loved their Doc McStuffins Doctor Kit and all of their dress up clothes from Aunt Laurlee. Reagan LOVED dressing up like the hairdresser and Riley loved being the waitress. (We're hoping they'll start dreaming a big bigger as they get older, but.....as long as they're happy?!??!). Here are some videos from Christmas morning! We missed all of our family and friends that weren't able to be with us but know that we had you in our hearts and I hope these videos make you smile like they made us smile too!

Getting ready for Santa!

Nana Mimi gave Cooper, Reagan and Riley all new Christmas PJs to wear and they loved them. They were all so excited for Santa to come I couldn't imagine that they'd ever get to sleep...but after we set out Santa's milk, cookies and carrots for the reindeer, and sprinkled the special reindeer food in the grass that the girls had made at school (a bag full of cheerios and glitter!) ...they were ready to say goodnight! They had a million questions before bed about what was going to happen and how we'd know if Santa came and what would happen if he was too full to eat their cookies, etc....but once they put their precious little heads on the pillows, they were OUT!

Christmas Eve Part One

Our Christmas Eve kicked off in Hilton Head with a trip to GiGi and Grandpa's house! We all met at Truffle's restaurant, where GiGi had planned a special lunch in a private room for everyone. It was absolutely perfect and she thought of everything! Everyone had a special little gift at their seat and the food was amazing. It was a great lunch and then we went back to their house and opened presents and had dessert! The girls were given such special and thoughtful gifts...music boxes with their names on them that play their favorite song (Twinkle,Twinkle), dollies with their names on them that look just like each girl! Ryan and Natasha even gave the girls the cutest Christmas doggies...they love to cuddle with them. And the best of all...Ohio State Cheerleader outfits from Ron and Conni! Matt was almost as excited as the girls were. They look adorable in them...will post a picture of them in them at another time as I haven't had a chance to capture it yet. They will DEFINITELY be sporting them on Friday night! Go Buckeyes!
It was such a special time, as the whole family was able to be together...GiGi and Grandpa, Ron, Conni, Ryan and Natasha, Laurie, Nathan and Cooper, Nana, BopBop, and our family too. It was so fun and the girls had a blast. We were all a little nervous about how the kids were going to behave because we knew how excited they were for Santa's big visit later that night...but they were awesome and did so well. It was such a special day and we have so many great memories that we made! Here are a few pictures from the day...the group pictures leave a bit to be desired but at least you can tell that we were all there!!!!

Only 2 more sleeps!

The girls have gotten to the point on our Advent calendar that they're marking the days until Santa's visit by the number of "sleeps" they have to get through before he arrives. They are TOO excited about it...it's so fun. I'm still not even that sure they understand what is about to happen. I can't wait until Christmas morning to see their faces!
We leave in the morning for Hilton Head and then Kiawah...and so the girls were able to open up some presents here today before we go! They got to open up presents from Auntie Ronna...some adorable new outfits and pajamas and the cutest little monkey stuffed animals you've ever seen. The girls are currently sleeping in their new pjs and hugging their monkeys. A BIG hit!!!! Cousin Scott sent the girls Old Navy gift cards which is HUGE and will be such a big help to me!!!! We love Old Navy! Aunt Kylie, Uncle Matt and Grace and Greta sent the girls some Princess Ballerina t-shirts which are so cute and gave them each a personalized book. They loved reading them before bed with Daddy and thought that it was awesome that their names were in the book! Then...they opened up their presents from Nana Susan! They got a Playmobil Zoo which they had so much fun putting together tonight and the best gift of all...an easel with all of the paint and paper and supplies that we will need to create many, many masterpieces! They were in heaven and didn't want to stop painting! It was another beautiful day and so we put the easel outside and let them go to town painting on the driveway. They had a ball.
The girls are SO blessed to be SO very, very loved by so many people! Thank you so much for picking out such thoughtful gifts for our girls! They were so happy today! Merry, Merry Christmas to everyone...will do a post when we return from Kiawah! And we can't forget...as Reagan and Riley keep saying "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!!!"!

Gingerbread Houses!

Our neighbors across the street, Beth and Dave McCarthy, are just about some of our favorite people. They have an amazing family and we are so lucky to live near them. They have 4 kids...ages 8, 10, 11 and 13.  Two boys and two girls and all of them are crazy about Reagan and Riley and the feeling is very mutual. (Reagan and Riley are in LOVE with Patrick and Danny). They help the girls all of the time and come over to play with them and just take such good care of them. We took the girls to see Cara and Patrick and Danny play in their basketball games at school and ever since they've wanted to play basketball! (which they now can thanks to Uncle Ron and Aunt Conni!!!) Today, Mary (the youngest) asked the girls to come over and make a gingerbread house with her. They had everything all set and Reagan and Riley had an absolute blast. They ate just about as much as they helped, but it was too cute and they loved every second of it. Having such great neighbors is such a blessing. Today was an awesome Christmas memory for me and definitely for the girls!

SANTA!!!!!!!!

The PGA Tour throws a huge party every Christmas for all employees and their families. They hold it at the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass. It's all decorated for Christmas and absolutely beautiful. They go ALL OUT. Fabulous food, tons of activities for the kids to do and of course, the main attraction...SANTA!!!! Now...just in case you have forgotten our previous experiences with Santa, let me remind you.....

YEAR ONE

YEAR TWO

Needless to say, our expectations were pretty low. We'd been prepping the girls for about 2 weeks. Seriously.While the bad mom in me was secretly hoping for another epic picture to add to the collection, the good mom in me didn't want my kids to have nightmares about their visit to Santa.  While waiting in line, I actually had butterflies in my stomach. Ha!!!! Last year the girls screamed so loud that the entire upstairs of the clubhouse (read...all of Matt's new colleagues) were hysterically laughing and staring at our girls. While it was pretty funny (for us, not them) I was praying for a good experience! And while both girls talked a BIG game all week...they sort of started to get nervous in line. But...once we made it to the BIG GUY, they were so excited to talk to him and tell them what they wanted for Christmas (both want a "blue scooter with sparkle wheels and princesses on it" and a camera) that they did AWESOME!!!!!!!!!  I got a little choked up realizing that my little babies are growing up! I don't have the professional pictures (yes, they take professional pictures) so I'll add it once I get that...but I did take a video....

The Tour had also set up an entire room dedicated to making gingerbread houses. The girls got really into it (really into eating the candy too) and Riley especially loved every single thing about it. We have them at the house now and I've had to move them around a few times because some of the candy and pretzels started "mysteriously" disappearing. 

So...while I don't have a picture of the actual visit to Santa, I did take one in front of our beautiful tree which the girls helped to decorate. (they really did!).

It was such a fun morning....they are so excited for Santa to come!!!! We're using our Advent calendar from Nana Mimi every morning to count down the days! Only 9 more days until Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas came early!

Grandpa David and Stephanie came this weekend to celebrate an early Christmas and we had such an awesome visit! They arrived on Friday night and brought the girls some things from their trip to Italy...including a Pinocchio ornament, the Pinocchio book and the movie! The girls loved it and we started to watch the movie but haven't gotten all the way through just yet. They've read the book about 943 times at this point. On Saturday we went to the PGA Tour Family Christmas party and the girls had a ball. (see previous post). We played outside, Stephanie brought some fancy Christmas nail polish and gave the girls manicures and we even introduced David and Stephanie to their favorite restaurant (besides Bob Evans), Bruccis! It was a BUSY, fun filled weekend! They brought the girls some absolutely perfect presents (which Grandpa David picked out by himself!!! so impressed!) and laughed a lot all weekend and the girls were thrilled when we told them we could all go to Bob Evans for breakfast this morning. (Grandpa David loved it too!). We had a fabulous visit and can't wait to see them again!!!!! What a great kickoff to Christmas!