We had a wonderful holiday season here in Connecticut. We spent Thanksgiving with our friends, Jen and Eric, as we had done the previous year. As always we are very gracious for them having us over along with their parents, along with Jen's brother and his family. It was a great time had by all - - Alex had a ton of fun sitting in Eric's dad's lap before dinner, and crawled right up on Jen's dad after dinner! He just loves to cuddle! Olivia had lots of fun running around the house, and of course entertained everyone at dinner.....not much was eaten, but I thought at one point her mashed potatoes were going to end up in the curtains!
December was a busy month for us as we got ready for Christmas, attended a few holiday parties, got the house decorated, and prepared the house for family to visit for Christmas.
We went to 2 Christmas tree farms to look for Christmas trees this year, before picking one that was already cut down at the second Christmas tree farm. It was the biggest tree that we have ever had in this house and it was the perfect tree. I loved everything about it. It was so tall that Ben had to get the 8 ft step ladder to put the angel on, and if we would have turned on the fan, it probably would have decapitated the angel! It took us almost the entire month of December to decorate it (at least that is how it felt), and the kids were GREAT with all the ornaments, the hardly even touched them. I envisioned a nightmare with the kids and the tree which is probably why it took me so long to decorate it!
Even Dudley liked the Christmas decorations!!
Ben's parents made the trip to Connecticut for Christmas. They came out the weekend before and got to spend 3 whole days with the kids while Ben and I were at work. On Christmas eve, we all got dressed up and went to mass. We made sure to get their early this year to have a seat. I am always so proud to be Alex and Olivia's mom when out in public with them as they are always so well behaved, and Christmas eve mass was no exception.
We let the kids open one present on Christmas eve which were their Christmas pj's they would get to sleep in. They were quite excited about the presents that we could not even get them to focus for a good family picture!
Christmas was a blast - - They kids LOVED opening their presents this year. Olivia looked confused when she came out and saw all the presents.
I think she was trying to figure out how they all got under the tree when they weren't there when she went to bed. Alex enjoyed playing with his presents, while Olivia just loved opening all of them (she's definitely my daughter!). Some of the big hits were a fire truck and a school bus for Alex, an Elmo that says his "abc's" for Olivia.
They each got a chair that they now sit in every day reading books (or eating apples from the core for the first time as in this picture!) while Ben cooks dinner!
They also got a sit and spin from Grandma and Grandpa Krausman....it plays music that sounds like it is from a 70s disco night club, but they LOVE to dance to it!
There is nothing greater than experiencing Christmas through a child's eyes, and I am sure it is going to get even better each year as they get older.
