Santa Visit 2016

It was time for the annual Santa visit.  As you recall, this does not always go as planned in our house but we are always ready for whatever life throws at us.  This year...we were ready!  We of course waited probably a few days (or weeks) longer than we should have so we knew there would be a decent line in our future but we decided to send Chad to Bass Pro a little early to get a line ticket and do some Christmas shopping.  Only problem...Chad looked at the hours wrong and got to the store an hour before they opened!  So that left him in the parking lot...for a long time.  As Chad waited though he started to notice all the "Dads" lining up outside for Santa!  Did I mention it was 6 degrees outside?  Well, Chad to the rescue he got out of his warm car and went and stood in line for us.  Our hero!  So by the time I got there (when the store opened) the boys and I literally walked straight up to the front of the line and met the jolly old man.  I'm telling you I barely had time to get my camera out!  And then the little elves even talked Chad and I into a picture, I mean who argues with elves?  Not this girl.  Anyway, quickest visit with Santa ever but we got our picture and were on our way!  Only other stop was to write down the specific things we wanted from Santa because we were a wee bit shy when we met him and only asked for a Dinosaur and some batting gloves.  The boys wanted to make sure he got a FULL list, and that's just what he got!

Gingerbread Mania

One of our Christmas traditions has been to decorate a Gingerbread House.  The boys usually enjoy it, you know for a good 10-15 minutes, and then it's usually up to me to put some finishing touches on.  However this year Bennett was all over it.  Nolan in true tradition gave me the standard 15 minutes, but Bennett he was in it for the long haul (as was Chad).  I think this beauty might be our best yet.  It's so good I'm SURE that's why my sister in law didn't invite us AGAIN to the Gingerbread Decorating Contest she hosts, wouldn't want to show them up.

Family Pictures 2016

Well it wouldn't be a happy holiday season unless I forced my family to take posed family pictures now would it?  They hate it (Chad hates it), but it's tradition dammit.  And they will thank me one day, right? Right.  This year I took the opportunity to get a decent family picture while we were in Kansas City visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.  My brother has had a renewed love of photography so I knew I could talk him into snapping a few for me (tripod gets a break this year).  Every year I tell myself I'm going to do better and schedule a session and every year it's November and I have no pictures, but brother to the rescue!  He took a family picture for me, I took a family picture for him (and then of course I tortured the kids for one or two more of them).  In the end we each had material for our Christmas cards so we both walked away winners!

"Polar Express"

We REALLY embraced the Christmas season this year.  We hadn't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet and we were on like our third big Christmas outing.  I'm starting to fear that my children are getting old and before too long that "magic" of Christmas will diminish.  So embrace we shall.  Next up on our agenda was...Polar Express.  We were SUPER excited for this event.  And I wish I could report to you that it was amazing...but I cannot.  It was terrible.  I had heard about this event in the past and people had said it was so great.  I think this year was different in St. Louis and instead of the real "Polar Express" they had a Holiday event at Union Station.  I didn't know there was a difference, but I sure think there was (at least I hope so).  It was a complete joke.  The decorations were nice, but that's about it.  The Santa was creepy (just wait, you'll see), we took a 45 minute train ride through crappy downtown (graffiti included) and our end destination was to wave at some skinny Santa dancing on the porch of a shack conveniently located right in front of the casino.  CLASSY.  We didn't even get our hot chocolate on the ride to boot, which I think we actually paid extra for.  I mean throw me a bone people, if you're going to ruin my holiday experience at least burn the roof of my mouth while you're at it.  Anyway, we did manage to get a few photo opps in so I will share those with you.  But don't be deceived...this event is a total bust (we just make anything look good).

 

Ozark Mountain Christmas

Well as you can see in this house we wasted no time going from Halloween straight to Christmas!  One of my favorite attractions is Silver Dollar City at "Christmas Time".  It's the perfect thing to really get you in the holiday spirit.  There are parades, Christmas shows, Christmas music, hot chocolate, all sorts of decorations and all of this is on top of the regular awesomeness of Silver Dollar City.  I mean, amazing right?  This year Chad was hunting, or as he describes it "putting food on the table", so we ditched him and went with some friends.  We even had a surprise appearance by my brother and his family while we were there!   We had a great time, and I'm so glad we were able to fit it in our busy schedule this year.  

Halloween

The night had finally come, Halloween night and the boys were super excited. Especially Darth Vader.  Bennett is at the perfect age for Halloween and I think really believed he was the actual Darth Vader.  We stayed around our neighborhood and hung out with the neighbors and of course we went and begged for our fair share of candy.  Bennett wanted to keep up with the big kids but his little legs just didn't get him there fast enough so eventually Chad and I had to divide and conquer.  Next year I think he should be able to keep up, and perhaps we will pick costumes next year for both boys that do not require full on masks because as it turns out masks are not great for visibility at night walking around in the dark!  Lesson Learned.  However, the boys told me numerous times that they loved the masks because that meant they didn't have to smile for my pictures.  Touché boys, touché.  So on second thought, masks all around next year.