The Polar Express

I love that I am just now getting all caught up with our holiday fun on my blog.  Blogger fail.  But it must be documented...I have too much fun looking back!

So on December 1, on the tenth anniversary of Frank's passing, my mom brought all of her kids and all of her grandchildren to go on The Polar Express!!!  It seemed appropriate for us all to be together and talking about what Frank would be saying/thinking about all these ladies!

Before the big event, I let Scarlett watch the movie a few times because she wasn't familiar with the story and the book is just a bit too long.  By the time it was time to go, she was all pumped up to go to the North Pole!
Mission accomplished!

It was a really great experience for all the little ones, but I think Camdyn, 9, was a little too old.  They literally drove the train down the railway, stopped and said, "There's the North Pole," then drove back.  It was a total of one hour and pretty torturous for the adults, but the excitement on the kids' faces made it all worth it, cheesy as it sounds!

There was Christmas music playing after they finished reading The Polar Express and they served hot cocoa!  Santa even came along for a ride on the way back!  Perfect!

Of course, I have millions of pictures!

The granddaughters!

All of us!

Blurry, but all of us!

SANTA! ('s biscuits!)

Love their faces!

One side of the train: Scarlett, me, Max, Poppy!  (Sorry Clunies!)

The other side: Molly, Alyssa, Mum, Camdyn

An outside view of the train!

After this, we went to Whole Foods, so definitely worth the trip!

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

We had a fantastic Christmas!!!  The gifts were toned down from past years and that just made it more fun!  Less stress, but more thoughtfulness!  Yes, please!

This was the first year that Scarlett got it.  It was magical for her and that added so much fun for me!  We made reindeer food, drove around looking at lights, talked about how Santa goes into the houses through the chimneys, left out the cookies and milk for Santa, and all that good stuff!

Here is our Christmas Day 2013 in pictures...

Happy birthday, Jesus CAKE!

Tracking Santa with Lulu...

Wrapping gifts:

Santa came!!!

And he brought "Staige" with him!  Scarlett was psyched!

Then we headed to GRAMMUM'S!

Christmas in school!

I cried ugly tears when I saw this story on the news. So sad, but still so sweet. Ali found out she had a rare form of lung cancer when Olivia was just one; that hits so close to home. I cannot imagine leaving my little ones behind...

On a happier note, Scarlett had lots of firsts at her school this week!

First Christmas Program:

First Classroom Christmas Party:

And Poppy had her first Christmas party, too!

First Christmas ornament made by Scarlett!

Christmas cards are ordered. . . FINALLY!

Ordered 5 minutes ago from Shutterfly! (Um, they have crazy amazing deals!!!) Rocks my world!

And we have Winston's cute face on the back!  It'll be the first time that anyone has really learned of his addition to our family, so that will be interesting!

I'm later than usual ordering these...not sure how Christmas is almost here already!

These pictures were my three favorites from the 41 acceptable pictures taken on my iphone!  All together, I took over 200, so yeah . . . that should tell you how successful I was.  Thank goodness for pop bribes!!!  They worked!  (Although they were in half the photos rendering them useless!  Shoot.)

Next year, it might be time to consider using a professional photographer!

Our Christmas in pictures!

This was the best Christmas we've had for as long as I can remember; it was just like the Christmases I remember from when I was little!  We spent lots of time slowly opening gifts, snacking delicious food, and relaxing with family!  It. was. AMAZING!  It was also Poppy Ballerina's first Christmas, so that made it memorable, too!  We spent the day at my mom's house in our jammies...and a full face of make up!  Aside from a few turf wars over new toys, the day was a success!!!

Ladies playing while I bake!

Poppy just looks scared!

Photo shoots are hard!

Poppy -- 7 weeks

Santa's reindeer secretly LOVE puppy food, so we left some of that, too!

Lulu with her new Abby Cadabby

Santa brought a PUPPY for Cam and Alyssa!

Rocco, and australian terrier puppy

Poppy and Rocco!

Our Christmas card this year!

Merry Christmas!

SANTA!

We went to see Santa and his elves!  Scarlett is at the perfect age to start our family traditions and get excited about Christmas!  It makes me feel even more festive and DEFINITELY means I have to be on top of my stuff.  Scarlett gets into the whole festiveness of the season; we talk about Santa and his reindeer, read all of the best Christmas books, and we even watch classic Christmas movies!!!   (A bonus for this year is the fact that Poppy is still so little that I can focus on starting our traditions with just Scarlett!)  Next year, we can both show Poppy what is up!   This is going to be so fun!

"May I please have a guitar?"  --Scarlett to Santa this year...I was concerned that she didn't know what a guitar was.  She calls lots of instruments, "guitars."  I asked her what she would do with a guitar and she folded her right arm up and started strumming with her left hand.  Where did she learn that?!  So if she's a good girl, hopefully Santa will come through with a guitar!  ;)

Scarlett's pretty impressed!

This year, we're doing something a little different from the past few years; we're putting up Frank's vintage aluminum tree.  My family always put it up at his house, but then, after he died, I got it.  I was living with Tyler and Mary, so we put it up in our apartment.  The bulbs were so fragile and kept breaking, so to preserve them, we started using a real tree.  I let Scarlett pick -- real tree or silver tree -- and she wanted the silver tree!  Yessss!  It will be the first year that the little ones get to see the aluminum tree!  I stocked up on Christmas Wreath home fragrance and we're setting up the tree this afternoon!   Christmas traditions in the making...!

Still full...

Thanksgiving was a success!  We went to my mom's and ate LOTS of delicious turkey!  Mum made a dessert for each family (less arguing that way!), so we all had something that we love.  My choice was a chocolate pecan pie and she didn't disappoint!  We all ate our body weight in dessert...but there was enough leftovers for us all to bring home some for today!  That is one plus over our family tradition of eating out on Thanksgiving...leftovers!

While we all had a fun, happy, argument-free Thanksgiving, the pictures from yesterday were a complete fail! But now we have some of all five girls...even if they're not pretty!

Happy Black Friday!  I'm doing all of my shopping online, and so far, I had some really great deals!  There's nothing better than checking people off the Christmas list while sipping coffee in my jammies!

What I'm Loving Lately.

I'm feeling like I'm in a blogging mood, but I'm just not fun & bubbly enough to write full paragraphs that go together/I was bopping around town last night and thought of too many blog ideas, so I'm smushing the ideas into one post and being lazing and making it a list! Get excited to read what I'm loving right this second...!

BEYONCE. I love that she's pregnant. I love her album 4. I love all of her fun, dance-y music videos. I love how excited Jay-Z was when she announced her pregnancy. I am loving me some Beyonce! (#'s 2, 3, 7, and 10 are the best songs on 4, fyi.)

• This blog. Mary discovered it, like she always does, so at least I'm giving her the finder's credit! Cely rocks, even if her name is a bit wonky!
• This blog, too!!!! I know, Kelle annoys me sometimes because she makes me feel like a mom FAIL after how awesome she is with her girls, BUT she is also inspiring, her photos are A-MAZ-ING, and her writing flows so well. I bet she doesn't do lists. Dang! Oh, and she is SUPER-EXTRA-CHRISTMAS-Y this time of year. Love!
• More music! Rihanna's We Found Love. It's really fun and her accent is pretty!
• They're called reindeer noses in our house and they are sinful. And adding the holiday lbs as we speak. Dang, Mary, and her baking skills.
• Our garbage men. I know, so strange. BUT they are the most friendly guys on earth. Swear. The old man with the big grey beard who drives the truck isn't even scary because he waves his little heart out every Wednesday morning. Scarjo loses her bananas whenever she sees an orange truck around town, but especially if it's making it's way down our street. We sit in our driveway or front window and just watch and wave. It's pretty cute, all the way around! So, tomorrow, we're bringing them cookies in their own plastic containers. I baked them, so it's not that exciting, but it makes me happy for them to know how much I appreciate them taking the time to be friendly to Scarjo & Neiners!

Ok, so their relationship had a rocky start!

• CHRISTMAS CARDS in the mail make me giddy! Like I race to see the mail everyday hoping to find more cards from friends! I showed you mine here!
• Another blog that I find extra interesting because her daughter, Everly, is two weeks older than Scarlett and their milestones are so similar! It's neat to read about other little girls like my little one!
• Watching Scarlett go crazy in the back seat to Adele's Rumour Has It. Oh my, she bops around in her car seat and sings right along with the music. I seriously need to record her!
• Hair appointments! Molly, Mary, and I are all having our roots touched up this week. Yay for sisters; they make the best babysitters!
• Hearing Scarlett "talking" on the phone. It never gets old! Her little gibberish is too funny for words! I must record that, too! She still calls Santa the most to say, "baby ease! I nice!"
• New Girl. Love, love, looooove Zooey Deschanel and her new tv show!!! "You've got some Schmidt on your face!" Hahahahaha!

source

• And lastly, I'm loving anything Christmas-y. The Starbucks flavors for the season (& Dunkin Donut's!). The all-holiday music stations. Wrapping presents. Baking goodies. Reading Christmas books. Talking about Santa with the little ones. Christmas concerts. Driving by Santa's house and getting Scarlett all excited for Saturday night!!! Fun stuff!!!