Holiday Tradition: Christmas Eve

Holiday picture with their grandmas. So blessed to have both in their lives watching them grow up.

The girls with Grandma Marvie and Papa Nick.

Big family portrait with both sets of grandparents. Holidays are all about family!

After a nice big Christmas Eve dinner, we decided to go Christmas caroling. We have never done this before and since we have many days of our advent calendar activities to catch up on, the girls voted for this. It was cold ... but we were determined to spread holiday cheer. Our neighbors and their family from Texas were there to join us in the fun.

Ringing the door bell and waiting to see if anyone's home before we started our singing ... Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Frosty the Snowman were probably our favorites. A couple of others we tried but didn't know so well ... that proved a bit disastrous.

But when the kids are small ... even Ashley joined in ... most people were tolerant and enjoyed our attempts at caroling.

Once it got too cold to bear any longer, we headed inside to make our reindeer food. Mixing some glitter ensure that our lawn would sparkle in the night so Santa's reindeers would find our house.

Oats are biodegradable right? Grass likes it too right? You know ... just in case the reindeer didn't end up eating all of the food. Hehe.

Lena had the most fun sprinkling the reindeer food on the lawn in the front yard ... she ran around laughing and sprinkling and having the best time.

Kaila tosses the last of her bowl into the night. Welcome Santa and his reindeers, we are ready for you!

But then Nani was grumpy because she couldn't find her shoes and she was tired. This girl is sleepy and when it's time to go to bed, she doesn't enjoy doing anything else. She threw her whole bowl at once into the yard and quickly ran back into the house. Good night Nani!

One last step before the girls got ready for bed ... Kaila wrote a note to Santa and we put out the milk and cookies. Our house definitely believes!

Then the house was quiet and still as we settled down all nestled in our warm beds. To all a good night!

Holiday Tradition: Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is spent with family in our tradition of matching holiday pajamas. We take our time getting up, having breakfast, opening presents and enjoying each other's company.

Kaila was the first to get up ... waiting patiently watching TV while the others hit the snooze button a little bit more.

Lena is usually the last to get up. She is just like her daddy and really likes to sleep in. But this particular morning, she was a bit anxious and excited so she got up anad at 'em even before baby Ashley.

This was the first year we had stockings filled. It's usually too crazy and stressful for mom to worry about stockings in the past, it just never was a tradition we upheld. But this year, it was a fun addition to our normal routine. Nani enjoyed all of her Hello Kitty goodies. But her favorite was a sticky smash ball fruit that she could throw at a window and it would splat ... she is truly our tomboy of the bunch.

Kaila's favorite was her toe socks. She also found ways to keep busy during her 3 week Christmas vacation this year with a Sudoku book inside her stocking.

Lena had to keep peeking at her stocking before finally taking it down and looking inside ... giddy I guess. She got some fun coloring stuff (her most favorite thing to do) and cute penguin slippers and matching sleep mask.

Ashley is up and ready for the fun ... this might be the first year that she's starting to understand the meaning of Christmas morning.

A sign that the girls are growing up as we had a good mix of clothes, school supplies and toys. Much different than the toddler princess years where it was all about the toys.

Baby got in the act showing off her new outfit, too.

Lena's favorite outfit from grandma ... such a girly girl this one.

By far the most adored gift of the whole morning was this Dora backpack. After opening it, she couldn't wait to put it on. Then she kept saying how she has her own backpack and was so happy. Now she is ready for her adventures with Dora. Haha. LOL

Surveying the goods as they near the end of all the packages. So excited to start trying things on and playing with all their new stuff.

And right away, she starts coloring ... she really could occupy herself for hours just drawing, coloring and scrapbooking ... she is probably the most like me ... such a proud mommy. It was a merry Christmas morning indeed!

Holiday Tradition: Neighborhood Party

We are so lucky to live in such a fun neighborhood with such nice neighbors. Our kids get along, our husbands get along and us wives definitely get along ... sometimes too well (with a few glasses of wine).

Our annual tradition is to have a get together with gift exchange every year for the holidays. This year Alma was our hostess.

The kids always look forward to time with their friends, even though they see plenty of each other all year long ... sometimes 7 days a week (like Nani girl and Ally who had the same class, then girl scouts, then scrapbooking moms nites, then family parties, it's neverending). LOL

Frances' family is so sweet ... they all look like sisters!

And my daughter with her friend who's taller but younger. The luck you have when you come from a tiny family ... no six footers here. Haha.

In past years, they were toddlers excited for Santa's surprise visit. This year, they are dining at the table like grownups. Insert bittersweet tears here.

For some excitement this year, we played a minute to win it game of fishing for candy canes. For some it was harder than it looks, for others not so bad. Telling kids to keep their hands behind their backs was a bit of a challenge. In the end, they were all good sports and a success with this challenge!

The winner was Kaila ... I think that was all the candy cane would hold!

Time for the kids secret santa gifts ... really from us moms. :) Kaila played Santa since she was the one with the hat. For each child, she stated a compliment that they were good that year just like Santa would have. Pretty spot on!

They all really enjoyed their gifts.

And then the roles reversed and Kaiolena put on the Santa hat to give Kaila her gift. This year Kaila was good because she was a great Santa. Haha, how creative! (or not)

Then it was the adults turn! For ours, there was lots of stealing going on and the most favored gifts are always alcohol related. Hmmmm .... what kind of neighborhood is this?!? Haha. A set of wine glasses, some wine, a really cool wine sampler, some hard alcohol and a UFC coffee set. Santa is good!

Wrapping up the night were just more laughs, good eats and good times. After many years together, we continue to hope each year there will be many more still yet to come. Merry Christmas 2011!