'Twas the Night Before Christmas....

'Twas the Night Before Christmas....

Our Christmas Eve was anything short of wonderful.

For starters, it snowed!

I'm not big on snow except for Christmas. It was sort of magical today with it being Christmas Eve and all the snow. And pine trees with snow are so Christmasy. They are beautiful. They remind me so much of my Grandma who I miss so dearly especially at Christmas.

Then we made some cookies today. Some were for Santa but lots of them ended up in our tummies. And not just Gracie, Grandpa, and I.... But these two LOVE cookies too!

Then it was time for pajama Christmas Eve (a new tradition we are starting) over at Grandma and Grandpa's. We all wore our p.j.'s (except for Grandpa) and had soup and salad for dinner with peppermint pie from Baker's Square for dessert. Yummy!
Evie and Presley decided that they wanted to hear Bing again. We all also got a musical instrument from Gracie and sang "Jingle Bells", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Frosty the Snowman", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" because those are the songs Gracie knows real well!

Then it was time to pose in our Christmas jammies. You all know me and the matching thing so we have been wearing our jammies all month. They are cute though!

And speaking of matching jammies, Grandma decided that her, Auntie Amy, and I would also have matching jammie pants. Very festive! And comfy!

I wanted a family picture but you know how it is with kids.....it's hard to get a good one where everybody is looking and smiling. But this will work. I'm just glad Bubby didn't whack me with his drumsticks that he refused to put down all night!

Grandma almost got hit too! I think we have a little drummer boy on our hands.

He is a little rockstar!

And this little bean is a handful and into everything. But she does it with a smile!

Gracie had fun making "food" for us all night and kept telling Grandma that Santa was coming tonight! She is so excited. And I am so excited about that. I really don't know if I can sleep tonight. I can't wait to see her face tomorrow morning!

And little Evie here will be helping her big sis tear open those packages tomorrow too. She is a curious little girl.

During singing, we also decided to do a little marching band. So we put the twins up on our shoulders.

Then it was time to wind down and get ready to go home. Afterall, an early bedtime is a must on Christmas Eve!

But there was no convincing Gracie. She was wound up all day and did not nap.

We had to get home though so we could leave out our cookies and milk for Santa.

And I know Santa has a busy night ahead of him in our household.

I hope everyone has a great and Merry Christmas! It truly is the best time of the year!

And to quote one of the greatest Christmas stories.....

'Twas the night before Christmas,

and all through the house,

not a creature was stirring,

not even a mouse.

The children were nestled all snug in thier beds......"

God Bless us Everyone!

3rd Grade Christmas!

We had our annual 3rd grade Christams with the one and only Santa Gil.

Santa Gil traveled over to the Merrill household to visit us.

You would think Evie and Presley would be used to Santa Gil by now.

We had pizza and all kinds of goodies to eat.

Jackie and Gracie had fun playing and telling Santa Gil what they wanted for Christmas.

Here are all of our 3rd grade little miracles: Gracie, Presley, Evie, Jackie, Olivia, Jake, Kyle, Jacob, and our newest little Luke. Next year there will be one more too!

Then the kids all exchanged presents.

Gracie got a Princess scrapbooking kit from Jackie.

Presley got his first remote control truck from Jacob.

And Evie got a fun fish-eating penguin from Luke.

It was a fun night! Thanks for having us Andrea!

It's Almost Time for Christmas!

We Love Christmas!

Season's Greetings Dudes!

Have a Cool New Year!

Have a Groovy Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Have a Swinging Good Time this Holiday!

Snow Much Fun!

Yesterday Gracie and I decided to enjoy the snow and headed out for some fun! (Don't mind my yellow pants, they were warm and were big enough to fit another pair of sweats underneath!) Anways, we got out the sled and had fun sledding on the hills.

I actually think I had more fun sledding than Gracie. She wanted to roll down the hill. The snow was perfect for sledding and even my heavy butt went pretty fast!

We had a lot of fun. We tried to make a snowman but that wasn't happening too easily. We made snowangels instead. Then we noticed 2 little heads popping up, peering out the kitchen window. Poor Evie and Presley! They wanted to come too. We made silly faces and through snow at the window for them and they laughed and smiled like crazy. Next time guys!

Here is Evie crying because she couldn't go out and play in the snow! But then Auntie Anne and Uncle Mark and Jackson stopped by and it was all good. Evie brought books over to Auntie Anne and plopped herself down to listen. In the meantime, Jackson had fun playing with Jessie from Toy Story. And all Presley wanted to do was crawl and play on Gracie's bed. Since he couldn't go outside and play, the next best thing would be to have fun jumping on Sissy's bed right?

Speaking of Christmas Movies......

Last week, my mom and I went and saw "White Christmas", the musical. Was it good! Much like the movie, with a few extra twists in it. I got my mom tickets for her birthday and she asked if I wanted to go. Of course I said "yes" so we headed downtown for some mom-and-me time. We ate at 7th on State at Macy's and did some Christmas shopping. It was a good night!

I would highly recommend seeing it for all you "White Christmas" lovers out there. It's only in town for a few weeks so get some tickets. We'll be dreaming of a white Christmas which I think it's safe to say we will have! Happy Holidays!

We Love Santa!

We Love Santa!

Can you guess who loves Santa the most?

Christmas Capers and Crafts

We've been having lots of fun since I have been on Christmas break (thank goodness). We have fun hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house. That's where Gracie has been doing all her baking you see. We even made cookies for Santa already. They are wrapped up and sitting in a special place to put out on Christmas Eve. But yesterday we had fun giving each other piggy-back rides.

We also had fun listening to Grandma's Bing Crosby singing. All the kids love him as do I. Presley and Evie even know how to make him sing!

They're dreaming of a white Christmas! We'll be home for Christmas. (and at Grandma and Grandpa's) Santa Claus is Coming to town too! Gracie loves Bing! Gotta start 'em young! Then we had fun practicing our Christmas smiles. or at least the sitting still part. Then Grandpa wanted in on some of that piggy-back ride action. Or should have pretended he was Rudolph giving out rides!

I have a feeling someday these two will sing the "sisters" song!
We have also been busy making Christmas crafts. Gracie made this fun gingerbread house.
Sorry it's sideways. She also made this igloo. We also painted ornaments too. And at school, she's been busy making all sorts of things.

This is neat because her teachers had all the letters to her name written on lights and Gracie had to put them in order to spell her name! What a smart girl. They did the letter "L" last week and "L" is for lights.

Gracie also had fun using the scissors to cut out the triangles for this Christmas tree. This one was all about using glue to decorate the tree. Anything that involves glue is cool to Gracie! And of course stamping is always fun too. I think Santa might be bringing some stamps our way!
Gracie even made this especiall for us at school. It came wrapped with a bow and everything! It's her handprints making a tree with her school picture in the star at the top. The little note attached says:

Sometimes you ge discouraged because I am so small

And, always leaving fingerprints on furniture and walls.

But everyday I'm growing big, and soon I'll be very tall.

Then all my little handprints will be hard for you to recall.

So here's a special handprint, just so you can say,

This is how my fingers looked, when I placed them here today.

If that's not enough to make your heart melt, I don't know what else is. I LOVE it!

These are the best gifts from my kids! And what do I want for Christmas are you wondering? Well, besides all the homemade crafts, I wouldn't mind a silent night! Happy Holidays!