Merry Christmas!

As a side note, Kyson brought this cute ornament home for Christmas.  I must say, I've been super impressed with all their little crafts they've done this year in kindergarten.  I love the Santa hand!  It's a keeper.  Now back to Christmas Eve.....

We spent Christmas Eve in Angels Camp this year.  The kids planned a whole evening for everyone.  We started with invitations to a Christmas Concert.  Lexi and I played a duet of Jingle Bells with the violin and piano.  After that, we had a couple of Christmas primary songs.  Kyson even had his first solo! He wanted a special part, so he got it. I have no pictures as proof because I was busy playing the piano and I guess no one else thought of snapping a shot.....

After the concert, we read the Christmas story in Luke while the kids acted it out.  It was sweet and fun and everyone loved it.

We rounded out the night by heading over to the neighbors house.  They had a special project for Kyson again.  It was his duty to put baby Jesus in the manger.  This will be Kyson's last year because next year the duty gets moved to Shayli!

Kyson took his job very seriously.  Then it was off to Gamie's house for our special Christmas Eve hot chocolate and then to bed!

We stayed over night and had Christmas morning in Angels Camp.  The kids woke up bright and early!  In fact, Kyson was up at 3:30 ready to go eat breakfast.  I told him no.  He was asking again at 4:30.  And again at 5:15.  At 6:00, I finally went downstairs and grabbed him a banana.  And then it was dozing until 7:00 when we told the kids they could finally get up.  Talk about a sleepless night!

Ryan was able to catch up on his sleep......
Although I'm not sure he even knew Kyson was awake so many times.

The kids had fun opening their presents.

One of Kendri's favorite gifts.....her own pack of double-stuffed Oreo's!

And of course, Kyson tormented everyone with yet another nerf gun.

After presents, we waited for the cousins to show up for the afternoon.  We had a great time! Merry Christmas!

Tis The Season

We spent the holiday season partying and having fun! Here's a few things we did.....

Ryan changed jobs in November.  We went to his new company's  (Suffolk) work party in December.  It was in San Francisco at a ritzy hotel that I can't remember the name of.  Anyway, we were on one of the top floors where we mingled with cheese and hors d'oeuvres.  (ps I had to look that one up. )

After the mingling, we were treated to a nice meal and dessert.  It was nice to get out on the town for a night and see some of the Christmas cheer in the city.  

Lexi and Kendri were invited to watch their friends put on a nativity play at their church.  They went and supported the shepherds.  (As a fun fact, Olivia is the tall girl standing next to Lexi.  She's only a year older than Lexi.  Whaaaaaa????  Her dad is a high school basketball coach and is tall.   But still.)

 And of course we couldn't let Christmas come without making our traditional sugar cookies!  They take a lot of work and time, but they are so delicious we just can't help ourselves.

When all was said and done, I think I decorated over 50 cookies while the rest of the slackers pulled in at a measley 10-14.  But to be fair, I think I ate more than everyone too :).

And Lexi had her first violin concert.  We went and supported her and the rest of the "orchestra".  There's not much to say about it except Lexi starts real lessons today.  The school isn't really capable of teaching all their students in the amount of time that is allotted for music.  We're hoping maybe this will speed up the learning process!

And the cousins were able to see the Nutcracker again this year.  I guess they enjoy having a special night in the city just as much as the rest of us!

We did our annual nativity video.  This year the location was new and everyone involved loved the green hills!  It was so pretty and we had a beautiful sunny day to work with.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Lexi got to be the Angel of the Lord this time around.  She took her responsibility very seriously.  Kendri was also an angel.

Kyson was a wise man after turning down the role of Joseph.  Luckily, his cousin Carson was able to fill in for him.

Nothing better than angels watching over you.......

Shayli and Anna were the other two wise men.  Unfortunately, Shayli was being very difficult about her costume and in the end looked more like Karate Kid than a wise man.

She wanted nothing to do with anything on her head.  Just the bandanna.  She pulled this brown thing off as soon as it was put on her.  No wheedling from me could change her mind.  In the end, I decided it didn't matter anyway because baby Jesus came either way!

Polar Express!

This year we were lucky enough to get tickets for the Polar Express.  This is a very coveted event.  One that sales out within hours of tickets going on sale.  In fact, I've missed out on it for years due to amateur mistakes.  

But no more, people.  No more.  

The general rule is, you can only buy 8 tickets at a time.  So if you have a group, you'd better figure out a way to have everyone buying at the same time.  Our group was 20 family members.  Also, there are no guarantees that there will even be tickets available after "members" get first dibs at it.  So, after taking all this into consideration, we decided to pull every move in the book and keep our fingers crossed. And now I have to say it.........put  me in the "expert" category, because we did the impossible and rented out an entire car to ourselves!!  Woot!Woot!

And not just any car.  The Parlour Car.  (Just let me spell it the old-fashioned way without judging. The Polar Express deserves every magical touch there is......)  Chances are, you won't have any idea what that means. I didn't.  And then I went on the train and I saw.  Let me just say this , the Parlour Car is the way to go.  The End.

Anyhoo, back to our big night.  We were worried that our evening might get cancelled due to heavy rains, flooding and "hurricane winds".  (Which never happened by the way.  The winds that is.)  There was plenty of rain and minor flooding  going on, but overall it just added to the ambience of the night.  We started the night off with a quick dinner in the quaint section of Old Town Sacramento.  It is really a cute little area with a lot of old town charm.   

I must say, the pizza was mediocre at best.  But they served us quick and the place was empty when we first arrived.  

All the cousins joined us soon after we ordered and we had quite the party.  I think they were happy to get rid of all the pajama clad kids.  We were all running with high energy!

We had about 20 minutes before we had to board the train so we decided to stroll down the covered sidewalks check out some stores.  

Of course the candy store had to be investigated!

The atmosphere was really fun and magical......the homemade candy was not.  Again, the food left something to be desired.  It certainly wasn't See's candy!

When we got to the Train Station, our line was completely empty and we just headed straight for the front of the line.  One of the perks of the Parlour Car.  Actually a perk of having the entire car to ourselves!

The golden tickets that got us on the train!  They punched a "PE" on it when we boarded.

Here we are heading to our train car. There were lots of conductors and train people all dressed up and waving to everyone.  They helped us on the train and held umbrellas for us.  Everyone was very helpful and cheerful. 

The first order of business was the serving of hot chocolate and cookies.  They got to the good stuff right away!  It was all you can drink hot chocolate and they came around a couple of times with extra cookies.

I think the kids all had their fair share of hot chocolate.  In fact, I cut my kids off after 2 helpings.  There were no bathrooms aboard the train.  Not even the Parlour Car could help you out.

 While we were sipping our chocolate, we were entertained with tap dancers tapping to the "hot, hot, chocolate" song.  I know you don't want to hear it, but I'll say it anyway.  Only the Parlour Car got the show.

 And only the Parlour Car had the nice comfortable seating.  We walked through the other car to the Observation Deck, and let me tell you, there's no going back to regular tickets.  Uh-Uh. No way.
It was more like Grey Hound status versus Carnival.  I'll take Carnival please.

The train ride takes you down a few miles (going really quite slow so it takes about 30 minutes) and after all the hot chocolate and such, the train helpers hand out Polar express books to everyone and then they read it over the intercom and everyone follows along. (Unless you're in the Parlour Car.  Then you just party because you aren't disturbing anyone with all your walking around and chatting.)

After the books ended, we watched outside as we passed the North Pole.  It was cute.  We saw Santa's workshop and the elves all working.  Everyone waved and had a good time.  I couldn't get any pictures because the window was reflecting too much.  You stay on the train the whole time.  But after you pass the North Pole, a special visitor hops on board.......

And then it's visiting with Santa!  (Unless you're on the "loser car".  Then he just walks right past you and heads to the Parlour Car.)

Santa came on and handed out Believe Bells to everyone.  See how everyone is ringing their bell?  We all believe!

And remember the ghost hobo from the book?  The one on top of the train?  He came to visit too.  He came once in his hobo clothes and then again trying to get us to believe in his Santa get-up....we weren't fooled for a second!  We had a great time and everyone loved it!

                                                          Who wants to go next year??