It comes, it goes, and here it goes...

Where does my time go?????  I'll tell you where....this Christmas season we tried to pack it all in!  We tried something new this year and tried doing Christmas Bags for our countdown to Christmas.  There were recipes we tried, places we went, Christmas movies to watch, and services to perform.  Each morning, starting December 1st, one of the children would open a Christmas Bag and find out what we had to do for that day.  Things ranged from making a new recipe....Cole was quite the chef in the Santa hat singing the Chocolate' song from Dora....

 to making Frozen Hot Chocolate, Serendipity Style.....

 to writing letters to Grandparents, sending Hot Chocolate to our cousin Sam in the military, to watching Christmas movies, making cookies and delivering to neighbors, reading Christmas books, playing Christmas games, and taking a trips!

One thing we took advantage of this year, is that one of the companies in the area puts on a little Christmas "Santa's Playground" where you can go see Santa, ride some rides and see some live reindeer all for FREE!  We braved the crowds AND the cold and headed out one night.  The kids had a blast...despite Kate's face in this picture, and loved having a late night out!

 I made Jared ride this bear ride that spun you around and around and around.  I've had my fair share of turns on the tea cups.

 It was fun to get out for the night and be part of the festivities in the area.  The lights were fun to see, seeing how several houses around here don't put up lights because of the snow.  You see, if it snows at Christmas, the snow usually stays around here until April which makes it hard to take down lights in slick circumstances. 

One of the other surprises was that we got tickets to go tour inside the White House while it was all decked out for the Holidays!  It was so fun to walk inside and smell the smell of MANY fresh Christmas trees.  At least two in each room, if not more, and tour it at our own pace.  It was much smaller than I was thinking but fun to be where history has been made.

Outside the White House

 The First Tree that you come to....the Red, White and Blue Tree

The East Room where they have all the company come and parties

The Blue Room

Throughout the tour they had hidden ornaments for the children to find in each room, it was quite cute and I think they enjoyed the hunt and seeing the massive trees.  In the blue room, the tree was held up by ropes from the ceiling just to ensure it wouldn't fall on anyone.  They were gorgeous!  Mom, you would have loved this tour!

 

 There are so many more pictures, too many to post, Kate's favorite tree was the first lady's tree with ornaments with all the first lady's names on them,

and Lizzie loved them all....especially seeing the gingerbread house....

Hopefully this will be a Christmas for the kids to remember....I know I will! 

Since our tickets were for 7:30 A.M. we decided it would be beneficial to spend the day in D.C. and get a little more sight seeing done.  We got to see the National Archives, where they have the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  The kids watched National Treasure on the way down and thought that was pretty cool to see it in person!

We walked the streets and the kids thought these giant Nutcrackers were too cool!

 

We toured Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot,

 

then walked across the street the the Peterson house where Lincoln died.  I was amazed at how little the bed was and knowing how tall Lincoln was, Cole made the correlation that he probably wasn't that comfortable in that bed.

 

 Then we walked up the street to the Capital Building.  The FBI agent said it was like a 10 minute walk....more like a 10 mile walk!  I can't believe how long it took us, but the kids were troopers and made it the whole way!  There we had to scarf down our lunch...no food or beverage was allowed in, and then headed in to see where history was made.  Very cool to see the first supreme court and where some of our fore fathers would have put their desks and made laws for our country.  Very humbling experience and it made me very grateful that we had people that were willing to serve our country in that respect.

 

 

 We wanted to tour the Library of Congress and Supreme Court but the kids were done being quite and it was time to get out and let them run!

Down the hill we headed to the Botannical Gardens, Kate sat in the stroller making Cole let her run down the hill behind her (he would let he go and then catch up to her and stop her from crashing into something....he is a good brother) and Lizzie would run alongside them.  I just prayed we wouldn't have any headers!  We made it to the bottom of the hill, unwounded and headed into the Gardens where they had some awesome displays of the monuments and memorials, a fun train track around the room and fairy houses throughout.  The kids had fun going through and seeing all the displays!

 The Botanical Gardens building

 The Train

 The Supreme Court Building

 The Capital Building

 The Washington Monument

 One of the Smithsonians

 And our little trooper, Max.  Only 10 months old and such a good baby to go with the flow, sleep when and where he can, and is content as can be.  I was surprised he didn't fight more to get down and crawl, seeing how he's crawling like crazy, but was happy to be carried around in the Bjorn and pushed in a stroller.

We are lucky enough that Christian and Emily extended their stay in D.C. for another year and we got to stay with them and have the traditional Friday night Pizza night with them.  The kids were MORE than happy to play and be with their cousins and make more memories.

The next day was too gorgeous to take them touring the town and so we stayed home, let them rake leaves in the backyard and play kickball with the daddys.  It was nice to be able to be outside and not bundled up, too much, and freezing.

That night they had their Christmas party that we joined in on and guess who was the surprise visitor!!!!SANTA!!!

Cole asked for the 3rd Harry Potter book

 Kate asked for some American Girl doll stuff

 and Lizzie asked for a diary, just like Kate has.

 Max.....he just wants world peace

 After a short two days in D.C., we headed home through Pennsylvania and made a little pit stop at a place called Independence Hall...ever heard of it????

Way cool to see where they deliberated and finally signed the Declaration of Independence.  It was raining and cold but the kids stuck it out and listened well, and were pretty amazed at the bell itself.

Hard to believe that it hung up in the tower in the back of the tower so many years ago, I believe they said it weighed 200 pounds, including the yoke!

And that only started our Christmas season!  We had many more fun filled, packed days of memories, but our last two big highlights was an afternoon at Disney on Ice...yes, Cole liked it.  Don't read too much on his face.  He thought maybe someday he'd be strong enough to throw the girls in the air too.  And Kate wanted to be just like Meridah, from Brave....I think she's got the sassy part down....

Lizzie, just loved everything.  So easy to please. 

And last, but not least, our Christmas Eve party.  We had the Jacobsen and Schneider Families down for food, food, and more food, and games, and of course, the nativity.  Lizzie and her little friend, Ethan were the perfect Mary and Joseph, Cole and his buds were the three wise cracks....men, and Kate played an angel....

After the party died down, it was off to see where Santa was on the Norditraker, throw reindeer food on the lawn....it was freezing cold....put out cookies, write the letter, and pray for a white Christmas!

We tucked their little heads in bed and settled down....to do the dishes....

The next morning started early, Cole was up at 6 checking out his stocking, Kate soon to follow, and then the rest of us up at 7 to begin the festivities.

We read the letter, ate a cinnamon roll and dove in!  There was paper flying everywhere, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria....no really, it was great.  Not too many pictures taken, but lots of video or their expressions, but it was a great Christmas for all!

 

Lizzie got her diary and pet shops

Kate got several American Girl doll things, Tag reading books, and a trip to NYC to the American Girl doll store (Post to follow)

Max was happy with anything...paper, boxes, chocolate, promises you never intend to keep

but he loved his play table and riding horse

And Cole did get his Harry Potter book and is already almost half way through!

The best part was being able to spend the day playing with them, not cooking or cleaning, just enjoying the day with my four sweet children and loving husband.  It's days like these that I will cherish for all time and hope that my children will always want to come home for Christmas.  The toys will come and go but the memories and the love will always remain.  Thanks to good parents and in-laws that have helped instill those values in our home.  Because when it comes down to it....all you have is family.