December was a whirlwind of activities for our family. I love the holiday season. There are so many wonderful things to look forward to around Christmas time: decorating, parties, spending time with family, hanging out with friends, listening to music, holiday concerts, wonderful food, giving gifts, receiving gifts, shopping, baking, wrapping Christmas gifts, watching Christmas movies...my list could go on and on! Christmas really is the most glorious time of the year!
Here's a list of some of the fun we got up to this holiday season:
1.
Annual Girls Gift Exchange- For the past 5 years I have been holding a girls Christmas party in December. It is honestly one of my favourite things to look forward to at Christmas. I love having a night to get together with girlfriends, chat, indulge in some yummy food and receive a gift too! This year we had a favourite things party and it was fantastic! For those of you who don't know what this is google it and then have one, it won't disappoint! It was a spectacular evening and I went home with 5 amazing new gifts!
2.
Annual Fuller Party- For the past 6 years we have been hosting our annual Christmas party! I LOVE to host a party. There is something about bringing people together, serving good food, listening to the chatter of multiple conversations and seeing people have a good time that makes me happy! I don't claim to be great at hosting events I just like it! I dream of the day when I have a much larger home and can hold much bigger and better parties than ones I currently do!
3.
Gingerbread Party- This year I decided to have a cookie decorating party for the kids. Growing up my mom always had a gingerbread house decorating party for my sisters, our friends and I so I decide to adopt the tradition for my boys. Seen as the all kids are still quite young I opted for simple cookie decorating. I think the party was a huge success as the kids all seemed to have a ton of fun!
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| The kids having fun decorating their cookies! |
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| Marshal just kept eating the icing, hence the red lips. |
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| Cohen just kept eating the toppings! |
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| Leah and one of her cookies. |
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| Adelade was really into decorating! |
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| Thomas showing off his blue cookie. |
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| Cohen and his little bear cookie! |
4.
Visits with Santa- The kids went to see Santa twice this year. The first visit we took was to the South Centre Mall Santa. I got the kids all dressed up for this and we ended up with this photo.
Not bad considering Cohen was terrified when we got up to see Santa! He freaked right out and had to sit on my lap, while I wore Santa's glove to make it look like Santa was holding him. A little closer to Christmas I decided to take the kids to have one more visit with Santa at a smaller mall where you can take your own photos for free. My parents and Aeron came along with Kendra (the boys cousin.) Cohen was still scared of Santa but I got a few cute photos of the three while Novah slept.
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| Marshal was pretty excited to see Santa again! |
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| Marshal and Kendra. |
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| Kendra was trying to eat Santa's bells. |
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| Those bells were quite a hit. |
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| Cohen decided he wanted to show Santa his planes. |
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| This was as close as Cohen would get. |
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Tried to get Cohen to look with me holding him but he still wouldn't have it!
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5.
Ward Christmas Party- The ward Christmas party was a lot of fun especially the kids Nativity pageant which was purely hysterical. It was a delicious dinner and a great evening with friends!
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| Marshal was hilarious! |
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| Cophen had to run up and join the crew on stage! |
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| The cute boys. |
Dan, Novah and I.
6.
Marshal's Preschool Christmas Concert- This was a huge disaster. I must admit I was a bit upset that Marshal decided not to participate in his concert and instead ran around being noisy and disruptive and gave me a hard time during the concert! I was frustrated but c'est la vie! Afterwards I was able to realize that it was probably just a bit much for him, after all he is only 3.5 and there were a lot of people there to watch. Still he was the only one out of all the kids who didn't perform. Oh well, I got many private concerts later at home when he decided to serenade me with all the songs they had performed! Pretty cute.
7.
Live Nativity Pageant- Our church holds a wonderful live, outdoor nativity pageant free for the city every Christmas. We watched the weather and took the kids on the mildest night which happened to be December 23rd. We went early enough to catch the first show at 7:00pm and surprisingly it went really well. The boys loved it and Cohen kept talking about the baby Jesus and baby Novah, and pointed out the horse (aka donkey) as it walked past us. It was a fun night and something that I always look forward to at Christmas time.
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| My boys :) |
8.
Christmas Eve- The boys were really excited about Santa coming this year as they understood much better who Santa was and what he was going to bring for them! The kids received their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas before heading down stairs to leave out cookies and milk for Santa.
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| Excited about new pjs! |
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| Cohen really getting into the opening of the present! |
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| Santa jamas! |
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| Try getting a 3.5 and 2 year old to look at the camera! |
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| My sweet little monkeys. |
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| Cohen was very excited to leave cookies for Santa. |
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| Typical Marshal smile. |
9.
Christmas Day- Christmas day was wonderful. We spent the morning together as a family, just us and it was really nice. The kids were filled with joy when they came downstairs and saw all the gifts that Santa had brought! I'm sure it seemed extra exciting because there hadn't been a single gift under the tree all December (for obvious reasons) so we went from nothing under the tree to tons of stuff under the tree. I may or may not have gone a little wild with gifts this year, but several were homemade and with my early start to the shopping season I was able to get lots of great deals. Plus the kids got a lot of needed items, like new clothes and coats etc. They probably also got way too many toys so I'm going to work on cutting back for next year! Sigh I just like getting things for them. Here are a bunch of pictures from our Christmas morning.
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| So excited to see what is under the tree! |
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| Stockings! |
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| Smarties. |
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| Cohen very intent on opening his stocking. |
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| Happy with the new Planes colouring book. |
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| Happy with his stickers. |
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| Cohen loved ripping up the wrapping paper! |
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| Marshal checking out his gift from Santa. |
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| The boys really loved their Santa gifts! |
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| Cohen is pretty stoked with his airport. |
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| Checking out all the buttons. |
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| The gifts just kept coming. |
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| New coats for Spring, the boys could have cared less, they simply opened these and moved on to something else! |
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| Novah checking out Marshals new car. |
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| Rip that paper! |
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| Cohen in his element. |
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| Every time he opened something he said, "Want more presents." What a greedy little kid! lol! |
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| Novah enjoyed watching the boys. |
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| Cohen happy with his Finn McMissile boat. |
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| Novh and her new clothes. |
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Dan piled it all on top of her!
Cute little Christmas baby!
So happy with her new toy! |
We also decorated gingerbread houses made by Grandma on Christmas day afternoon.
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| Cohen was really into decorating, much more than Marshal! |
Later in the day my folks came over and then we enjoyed a delicious Christmas feast. We had a great time with family and overall had a wonderful Christmas. I couldn't have asked for a better holiday season! We finished the day with a family photo! Christmas 2013 was wonderful!
