Hector and Joey's Visit ~ Christmas 2014

I mentioned in an earlier post how Hector brought us another elf on Thanksgiving night, and that the boys named him Joey.  Well ... Joey is apparently a naughty elf whereas Hector has always been very well behaved.  The day after Thanksgiving we found them just hanging out in the boys basketball hoops in the playroom.

That's not too bad, but theeeennn ... one morning we woke up and found poor Hector inside a mason jar and Joey just chillin' right next to him!

Crazy!!  When we traveled to Williamsburg at the beginning of December our elves must have called in reinforcement because as soon as we got to the hotel, we discovered Tito (my parents' elf) had made the journey to come check on the boys.

Joey wasn't ALL bad, though.  He and Hector brought the boys a bag of "magic seeds" and a little note that went with them.  It told them to plant the seeds in sugar and then the next morning they'd have a treat.  They were so excited!

But then we found them doing some shenanigans again later on in the month.

Look, I realize the Elf on the Shelf is a "hokie" thing or some say he's creepy looking.  But guess what? It's a fun family tradition we started for our children that will hopefully be passed along to THEIR children one day.  That's the whole point behind the Elf on the Shelf (at least for us).  Not to make our children behave better (LOL!)  cause guess what?? They don't behave any better with Hector and Joey here as they do any other day of the year.  So to all the haters out there, maybe next year you just keep your Elf on the Shelf hating comments to yourself and keep on scrolling when you see pics of them on FB, mmmmmkay?  And, let the rest of us have a little fun with our children and build memories. :)

Jacob's Winter Party

The last day before Christmas break (or "Winter Break" as it is now referred to) was Jacob's Winter Party at school ... and they got out early that day, so it was basically a free day for them.  Lol

That morning I went in to school to help out with their party and I had so much fun, as I always do when I get to go in and hang out with his class.  :)

I ended up being in charge of the games that day, which was a lot of fun.  The kids had a fun math/snowman game they were doing on their own at their table, but then I also brought Snowman Smash (a bowling game) and a snowball toss.  They had so much fun with the games!  I wish I had snapped more pictures, but I was a little busy resetting the snowmen for our bowling game. ;)

I think it's safe to say that Jacob loves when I come to school to help in his class, too.  Lol  And, I, of course, love it SO MUCH!

Williamsburg Trip!!

The first weekend in December is the Grand Illumination weekend in Williamsburg.  I've been a few times, but never really seemed to care too much for the actual Grand Illumination festivities.  I just want to go to Busch Gardens to Christmas Town!  Lol  This year I really wanted John to be able to go with us because the last time we went he was out of town on business.  He ended up not having to go out of town for work this year, so he was able to go with us.  Yay!!

We took that Friday off, picked Jacob up early from school and left town around lunch time.  It was a beautiful day out, but it was pretty cold.  When we got down there we checked in to our room and then went to Hooters for dinner.  Yum!

The next morning we got up to .... RAIN. :(  Christmas Town doesn't open for business until the afternoon, so we went to breakfast and then stopped at the Christmas Mouse where I got our family's Christmas ornament for 2014.  :)

It's cute, no?  And, different than anything else we have in our collection.  John also spotted Advent calendars for the boys .... something I've been wanting to do with them for a few years now and I just never remember to look for them.  They really loved them, though I think they still missed the Christmas story because they were more interested in the daily morning candy.  Lol

After the Christmas Mouse we went to the giant Yankee Candle store!  I loooove that place!!

We browsed all the different sections, checked out the awesome decorations, listened to some carolers and the boys even got to write and MAIL letters to Santa.

So ... after the Yankee Candle store we decided to drive out to Busch Gardens and try it in the rain.  We got in, got parked and then ... it POURED.  Worse than it had all day.  We waited a few minutes to see if it would let up, but no such luck. :(  Time to call it ... we left and we never did get to go to Christmas Town this year.  Well, John and I didn't.  The boys and my parents went back down the weekend before Christmas, so at least SOMEONE got to go.  :-/

To kill some time we decided to check out the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum as none of us had ever been to that one.  I'm glad I can say I've been, but I don't think I'll be going back any time soon.  Lol  It was just .. ehh .. okay.

Jacob enjoyed the giant Iron Man and Transformer.  And, I personally thought the tallest man was pretty neat ... 

And, since I'm really intrigued by the Titanic, I liked seeing a piece of coal from the Titanic.

But, then there was some stuff I wish I could UNsee.  Like this double headed goat.  WTH?

There were some games that the boys enjoyed like this shooting game.  And, there was a "mission impossible" type game that *I* really enjoyed. Lol  You had to make it across and room and back without breaking any of the lasers.  I did pretty good even on the "hard" setting when my husband turned it up and didn't tell me.  Lol

Probably my favorite part was this 3D movie we got to see when it was over.  It felt almost like a motion simulator  yet the seats didn't move, so it was safe for the kids.  Henry, however, FREAKED OUT about halfway through and I had to hold him so he couldn't see the screen while he cried through the rest of the movie.  Thankfully it wasn't a very long movie!

That night we had dinner at Captain George's ... our consolation prize. Lol  After that we just went back to the hotel and hung out the rest of the night.  John and I had to get up early and leave to come home the next day, but the kids stayed and hung out with my parents.  They got home later that night in time for dinner.  We had fun quality family time, but I'm still bummed over not getting to go to Busch Gardens!  Lol

Christmas ~ 2013

Christmas is one of the reasons why I wish we had a larger family.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my family.  But, I'm always wishing for more members of it.  Or, at least I wish our entire family all lived in the same town.  That would be really nice.  I love entertaining so much, but it's always just the four of us and my parents.  One of these days we're going to have a huge Christmas Eve party!

Anyway, last Christmas we had my parents over as usual on Christmas Eve for dinner, to hang out, open a few presents and Pap read the boys The Night Before Christmas.  It's our little family's tradition. :)

 

Each year we get the boys matching Christmas jammies that they get to open on Christmas Eve and they wear that night (this is so I can get some cute pictures of them in them on Christmas morning, lol) and my parents always get them each an ornament that they also get to open on Christmas Eve.  Last year Jacob was complaining of not having any footie pajamas like his brother, so I made sure the pair I chose for him had the feet in them.  It's definitely safe to say that he LOVED them!

 

 

 

 

Just before they went to bed to wait for Santa, I tried to take a good shot of them in front of the tree with the lights glowing (like I had seen on Pinterest).  I didn't have a good enough lens, though, at the time.  I've since bought a 50mm lens for my camera, so next year I should be able to get a much better shot.

 

They also put out some cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the Reindeer.  After all, they're working their tails off all night long.  Gotta give them a little snack. ;)

 

 

 

The next morning they were up and early (of course!).  I snuck down to get a picture of what Santa left before they wandered down the stairs, and then I was lucky enough to catch a photo of them each coming down the stairs.  So precious!

 

 

 

 

 

These are two very lucky, very loved, very SPOILED little boys!

 

Over the next couple of hours the boys tore in to all their new toys, checking everything out.  I think they were quite pleased what the big guy brought them!

 

 

Jacob knew he would be playing soccer in the Spring, so Santa brought him a new net and ball.  After they were done opening their gifts, we took the net outside and let him kick around the ball a little bit.  It was so cold, but that didn't seem to bother either of the boys!  They went out in their footie jammies!  haha 

 

 

 













Later on in the day, my parents arrived with round two (see what I mean about them being spoiled).  It was as much, if not more, then the first round!  So, they spent another hour or so opening gifts ...

 

That little Elmo in the picture above is solely responsible for Henry potty training, by the way.  I'll write another blog post about that at a later date, though.

 

My parents got each other personalized jerseys for their favorite teams (Steelers for my mom and Packers for Rick).  Pretty cool!

 

My parents got me another awesome Santa to add to my collection!  And, my mom fulfilled one of my childhood dreams of owning an American Girl doll!  I had always wanted one, but never got it.  Now that I have two boys and will never buy one for anyone, *I* am the proud owner of Rebecca. :)

 

Anyway, back to our day ... we spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching TV/football and playing games.  Jacob got a new Cars Monopoly game for Christmas, so he played that with Gee and Pap quite a bit. 

 

 

We had a yummy dinner and enjoyed each other's company!  A totally awesome Christmas was had by all!