25 Days of Christmas, Day 22

Today after dinner, we drove over to Christmas Card Lane, in Rancho Penasquitos. It's a four or five block area where all the houses put out wooden cut outs, either looking like Christmas cards or depicting their favorite characters, movie, etc. It was a very cold night and the streets were packed so we opted to just stay in our car and drive through. The kids loved seeing some of their favorite characters like Belle, Nemo and Dory, Winnie the Pooh and friends, etc.

Some of the houses had fire pits in the drive way and were having parties. Some were selling hot cocoa, treats, etc. One even had a four person band! Some had their whole yard set up with trains, a fire place, so crazy! And some were very ingenious like depicting The Christmas Story movie with a pretend kid standing next to a flag pole with his tongue stuck to the pole, one of my favorite scenes in the movie. They even had the leg lamp! Such a fun area, we plan to come back next year and walk the streets!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 21

Tonight was Christmas movie night! I don't have any pictures since we just watched different movies, but we all had a fun night together. Each person got to pick a different Christmas movie, most of them I had recorded on the dvr the last few weeks since practically every day there was a Christmas classic on. We watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Mickey's Christmas special, The Flinstone's Christmas, and my personal favorite, Charlie Brown's Christmas. That was actually our second watching on that one. :) A fun, festive night in.

25 Days of Christmas, Day 20

Today we brought Grandma to Sea World to check out the Snow World. We aren't getting up to the snow this season until February so we were all excited to get back to the Sea World snow for some more fun.

Grandma found this igloo snow block maker so Ty got right to work scooping up the snow and throwing it and anything and everything close by. He also enjoyed running around and stepping on little snowmen people had made. Oh goodness, I have my hands full!

Tatum opted to play nicely by herself, making a little snowman. They both LOVE the snow.

At one point, Tatum said she wanted to make a snow angle and laid back to start when she realized the snow was wet and would get all her clothes wet! We're not in our snow suits!

We also enjoyed watching the sea lion show, checking out the sharks, getting some ice cream, and walking by the huge line to see Santa. We waved from the outside. :) It was our last trip to Sea World since our passes were for the year. We've enjoyed it though and plan to buy more another year.

25 Days of Christmas, Day 19

Today we got a very exciting email from Santa Claus. I don't have any pictures to post since I took a video of Tatum receiving her email from Santa. She gets so excited when it comes and we love watching it and hearing him talk to her. It's from www.portablenorthpole.com. This year, Santa said her name a few times, showed her on a map where she lives and that he's worked out the details on how to get to her, checked her year in his special book and saw a few pictures of her doing things throughout the year. Then, the elves put her card in a machine to see if she'd been a good girl this year. She got the green light!!! Oh, she was so excited. Santa reminded her to always listen to her parents and be a good girl, and she obediently nodded and said, "Yes Santa!". So cute, we look forward to this email every year. Santa, we can't wait to see you in just a few days!!!! Side note, we got an email from Santa for Ty but he didn't even care to watch it. :)

25 Days of Christmas, Day 18

Before we had some Christmas fun, we celebrated Tatum's friend Kelsey's 5th birthday with a princess tea party. Her mother Denise did a beautiful job setting up the table and all the decorations.

And all the girls dressed in their best princess attire. :)

Here's Tatum with Anna, Shay, Kelsey, Grace, Ellie and Kaitlin.

The girls enjoyed real tea, punch, crackers and some scones.

Then someone else arrived at the party. Arial!!! The girls were all beside themselves with excitement!

Look at Tatum's face, she's in heaven!

Arial was so sweet, just like she is in her story. She sang her favorite song, Part of Your World, read a book about her under the sea friends, played a game of Hot Sebastian,...

and then did some cool body painting!

Most of the girls chose this colorful unicorn. That Arial is multi talented!

The excitement of seeing Arial, what a treat!

After singing happy birthday, having cake and opening lots of presents, it was time to say goodbye. But Kelsey is a twin so Tatum was back the next day for her brother Colton's birthday! Two days of fun!

That evening, we headed over to our neighbor Cookie's house, for a fun kid party! Her daughter has a few friends she's still close with from middle school. So Cookie has this party for her daughter and friends to get their kids together. She was so nice to include us, and the kids loved all the kids!

Ty was the youngest but the ages went up to 12! All the kids wore pajamas and had fun playing with toys, coloring frames that Cookie had bought, and running through the house.

Then, at half time, (the Charger game is a must at this party) the kids were prepped and they put on a production of the Christmas Story. So cute! They sang Rudolph, Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, etc. in between the story. Ty was too cute. He just stood in the front, making his mouth move like he knew the words, putting on a great show. My kids love the lime light! :)

After a few songs, he decided to sit back and watch the others. He decided they all looked a bit silly! :) What a wonderful, festive night!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 17

On Saturday we were all feeling a little under the weather. We've been sharing a head cold and instead of resting, we've been running around and getting sicker. So Saturday we stayed home and took it easy. We made some snowflakes the other day which we put up on the glass door but today we decided we needed to spruce up the door.

So we got out our paints and started painting.

And look at this festive door!

We have a wreath,...

snowmen,...

and a few Christmas trees and some snow. Lots of fun!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 16

I feel like this is a repeat post from last Christmas, but a tad more serious. We had to run Ty to the ER again this Christmas but instead of a jammed big toe, he has a nurses elbow, or a fracture, not sure yet. Tatum was helping him up on the bed by pulling him by the hand and forearm. Suddenly his arm wouldn't move and he was screaming. Garrett came home immediately after my hysterical phone call and at the hospital they took a few xrays but since it was so swollen, they aren't sure if the elbow just popped out of socket or if it's actually fractured. A few days will tell. But in the meantime, Ty gets to wear this cool arm brace.

While Ty was gone, we passed the time by making snowmen ornaments. So much fun!

And Shauna stopped by to help!

Tatum took this picture after we hung our new ornaments on the tree.

Then Shauna and I headed to Kelly's house for December wine night. Two of our wine night girls had babies last month so this was sort of a sip and see. We had an in house wine tasting with delicious food we all prepared. Fun night and lots of yummy wine!

And look at these beautiful babies that have joined the group! Eileen had Elle on November 7th and Kelly had Tyler on December 2nd. We all enjoyed getting our baby fix!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 15

Happy Birthday Erica! This was the second year in a row that the kids and I got to hang out with Erica and Jack on her birthday. The two of them came over to the house and we all helped make cupcakes after lunch. The kids loved singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl!

And they all LOVED decorating their own cupcake! :)

The kids also enjoyed playing together and exchanging Christmas presents. This will be the last year for a few years that we get to celebrate any holidays with Erica and Jack since they will be moving to Guam in March for Matt's job in the Navy. We're sad to see them go but we've been lucky to have them live so close for 5 1/2 years, much longer than they were suppose to. And they'll be back, our fingers are crossed!

That evening we headed to Bernardo Winery where they're having their December Lights celebration. Lots of craft booths, food, wine and Santa and Mrs. Claus of course! Look at Tatum's face. She was so excited to sit on Santa's lap again to reiterate that she wants a real Cinderella to come live with us. Hmmm.

Ty got up there too and said he wants a truck. :)

There was also Petal's the clown there who did face painting and balloon creations. I love Ty's face in this picture. He couldn't stop watching her intently. Petal's kept asking if he wanted something painted since he was practically breathing down her throat. But nope, just wanted to see what was happening to his sister's face.

Tatum asked to look like a Sugar Plum Fairy.

Then we took a horse drawn carriage ride around the vineyards, so fun!

The kids thought it was great!

And Mom and I enjoyed our wine on the ride. I said if we closed our eyes, we could make believe we were in Central Park! :)

After looking at all the decorations, crafts and shops, we headed home to Grandma's house for dinner. A very merry night!

25 Days of Christmas, Day 14

A movie star in the making! Here comes Tatum with her class for their Christmas program performance. She walked out with such determination on her face, she has been looking forward to this program for a long time.

And she did a wonderful job. Her class along with two other classes sang a few church songs such as God Made Me, In the Beginning, and Mighty is His Love. Then we heard some beautiful Christmas songs such as Away in the Manger, Angel Told the News, Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. There were hand gestures with each song and they all did a great job. So cute!

After the performance, Tatum went back to class to enjoy a holiday party with her friends where they had snack, desserts and they received a gift from their beloved teacher Ms. Kristen. Tatum just adores her. The other day Tatum asked me if she has jeggings. I said what are jeggings and she said, "Jeans that are leggings!" and when I asked how she knew that and why she wanted to wear them she responded, "Because Ms. Kristen was talking about them and has them." Of course. :) Tatum made this ornament for Garrett and I. We couldn't wait to get it home and hang it on the tree. What a fun day.