Christmas 2014

Thankfully, I was feeling better by Christmas Eve and we got the final touches of Christmas ready (food, cleaning, wrapping!)  The girls opened their Christmas Eve present during Luke's naptime.  He had been so good all month with not messing with the presents under the tree so I didn't want to chance it if we let him open ONE.  Kai had been begging for this Lalaloopsy baby for awhile and Grandma Pat secretly bought it for her when they were here for Thanksgiving.  She was so happy! 

Hailey opened a sleepover set for her dolls.  It's super cute with a smartphone, curling iron, among other cutesy stuff!   I left about 4pm that afternoon to drive to St. Louis to pick up my brother and Leevi took the kids to the Christmas Eve candlelight service. 

Christmas morning...Luke was awake, but not the sun!  He didn't know it was Christmas morning, so we just played in his room until everyone started to wake up.  I trapped the girls in the basement until Uncle Mike and Daddy were awake, but I think I only held them off until 7:15. 

 Uncle Mike made us breakfast!

We cleaned up the aftermath of Christmas morning and had Leevi's boss and family over for dinner.  They have 10yr old twins and a 4 yr old and also had grandparents in town from Italy.  Yummy food, great conversation, and lots of kid-fun!!!

 

The weather was great the day after Christmas...low 50's and sunny!!!!!

We went for a bike/scooter ride and played out back.  We came inside for a thrilling game of Sardines and had a popcorn/movie night and watched Maleficent (we all loved it...not really scary and such a great storyline!)

We are big popcorn eaters in this house and Santa bought us an old fashioned popcorn popper.  We have tried to steer clear of the microwave popcorn and all of the mystery ingredients and toxic bag vapors and love this plain popcorn with a spray of butter Pam and some salt!  We had been using a Pinterest recipe for homemade microwave popcorn that we enjoyed up until we got this. 

The girls received a Sew Cool Sewing Machine for Christmas and it is AMAZING!!!!!  It sews felt without using a bobbin or thread.  Your fingers are protected from the needles by fitted plastic and the machine stitches the fabric magically together using the fibers from the felt.  It's my kind of sewing!!!!  I got it on sale at Walmart for $30 and it might be my favorite present ever to them!  It came with patterned fabric and we also bought them each a refill kit.  When I drove my brother back to St. Louis, we stopped in at Hobby Lobby and I bought about 20 more pieces of felt...patterned for .50 and plain for .25

Leevi built the girls doll bunkbeds as one of their Christmas presents...

Kailee sewed pillows and blankets for the beds using the new machine! 

She's feeling a little under the weather!

Luke and his Lincoln Log masterpiece!

As I was taking down the tree on Jan. 2nd. Luke wanted to color-code all of the ornaments!

His new MegaBlok trucks he got from Santa

Mike headed back to LA on the 27th, so we had a quick photo in front of the tree before he and I left.

Some Christmas video snippets....

And lastly, Hailey got a REAL camera for Christmas!  She's been asking for one for awhile, but I know sadly from a past experience that digital cameras can break easily.  Hailey dropped my camera when she was three.  Of course it was my fault for letting a 3yr old hold a $400 camera but it was about 5 yrs old and I was ready for an upgrade.  And I should add that it's so crazy that the camera that Hailey broke cost so much a few years prior and it was a top of the line Point and Shoot with a whopping 7megapixels! :)  She doesn't know it, but I found her camera on Craigslist for $10, a Sony Cybershot (I wasn't ready to risk it getting broken or into the hands of LUKE and eating about $125!!)  Well, I'm glad I'm such a smart Momma because Luke dropped it and the EXACT same thing happened with the lens being out and getting jammed.  Hailey was hysterical, BUT thankfully, unlike with my old camera, I was able to fix it.  She learned her lesson and even if it means a meltdown, Luke isn't allowed to touch her camera.  :)

 

These are a few pictures from Hailey's camera...the one with Luke's eyes is really gross...he's such a comedian! :)