Santa came!

Santa Came! Look, he ate the cookies and drank the egg nog! The Reindeer even ate the celery!

Santa did great! Kae got the black fireman outfit he asked for and Izee got a do-da (aka: guitar) just like he asked for.
Santa also got each of the boys a new "Cars" bike.
The Santa presents were such a hit that the boys played with them the whole time we made breakfast. After breakfast we opened the rest of the presents. We all got some great gifts!

The boys got new Hess trucks from their great-grandmother. Kae, Izee, Daddy and Poppi enjoy playing with the new trucks.

The boys also got superhero dress up clothes, a garbage truck and drums.
Don't worry, the adults got presents too.

Among other gifts, Poppi got the poster of the front range that he wanted, Nonna got a new Christmas sweater, Daddy got a superman shirt, and Mommy got the cookbook she really wanted. (I must have said I wanted it a few times because I got it from both my husband and my mom.)
After all that excitement we all needed some rest. Izee loved his guitar so much he wanted to nap with it. We convinced him to sleep without it but he still plays it everyday.
I also got new PJs and slippers. Cute, huh?

Is it Christmas Yet?

For most of December, I got asked at least once a day, "How much more days to Christmas, Momma?". We have an advent calendar to help us count down to Christmas but I still got asked. Kae also constantly asked me, "Can I give Izee the present I bought him yet?"

We were not just sitting around waiting for Santa. We kept busy with lots of fun activities to help us get ready for Christmas.

Santa came to preschool! Kae already told Santa what he wanted when he saw him at the mall. So he just told Santa he wanted some candy canes too. Izee was fascinated by Santa but would not sit with him.

Longmont has a holiday parade. It was super cold on parade night but we still had a great time watching it.
It wouldn't be the holidays without some wrapping paper sword fighting.Kae's preschool had a holiday performance. He did great! He was a sheep in the play and after the play they sang some holiday songs. Then all the kids ate snacks before leaving school for the Holiday break.

3 days later Kae had another performance in the church pageant. He was a sheep again. The week before Christmas is the hardest time. Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet? To distract from the waiting we spent Tuesday morning before Christmas at the Butterfly Pavilion looking at butterflies, holding spiders and touching starfish.

Ornaments

This year we made salt dough ornaments. This is the first time I have done this. The kids loved it!

First we rolled out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.

After the dough was baked and cooled, we painted the ornaments.
They came out great! And they were really fun to make!

Daddy

Most of my posts are about my little monkeys. Today's post is little different because it is about the biggest monkey is our family - Daddy. He can be such a goofball!

Santa

A couple days after Thanksgiving, when cousin Adelaide was still visiting, we all piled in 2 cars and took the 3 kids to see Santa.
Kae ran right up to Santa and told him he wants a black fireman coat and flippers.
Adelaide was a little more cautious but still went up to Santa to tell him she wants the movie "Tinkerbell and The Great Fairy Rescue".
Izee wasn't so sure about Santa but went up to him when Daddy went with him. Izee would not sit on Santa's lap but still told Santa, "Do Da", which means guitar. (Kae translated for Santa so he would know what Izee wants.)
One more adorable picture of the 3 cousins together:

Food, Family & Fun

We had a big Thanksgiving this year with lots of family. We had the 4 of us, Nonna & Poppi, Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Ashley & Cousin Adelaide, and Uncle Ethan and Jenny.

The 3 cousins had a great time playing together all week.

On Monday we took them to the Zoo.
Tuesday was sunny and nice so the kids played outside.

Wednesday was a bit cooler outside and a great day for the kids to do some crafts inside. They made potato turkey center pieces and place cards.
The crafts made the table beautiful!
On Thanksgiving there was lots of cooking and carving.
The turkey put Uncle Ethan and Jenny right to sleep. :)