Thanksgiving / Christmas 2013

So clearly it has been FOREVER since I’ve posted on the blog….  I’m not letting it go for good, (even though it looks that way) I just haven’t had that kind of free time in a long time.  I’m committed to capturing our lives on here even if I have to back track to catch up.  My blog had it’s 6th birthday recently and I desperately need to make up for some lost time: 

So Thanksgiving was at Nancy and Lance’s again this year – Charles was traveling so it was just me and the kids, but I was determined to keep with tradition and give our kids that American holiday we love so much.  We invited others to join us, but it just didn’t work out to where anyone could come.  Between the two of us we did it all: Turkey, Cornbread dressing, Rice dressing, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Pecan Pie and Chocolate Bread Pudding– and really, somehow –by the grace of God-  it wasn’t that hard.  We hit crazy traffic going over to their house (usually a 30 minute drive) – it took us well over an hour and on top of that the kids were wild WILD. One of those times you have to just eat and run. boo.

Kids table: Nancy made color books for them to work on

Baby corner: (photo bombed by william)  Julia is wearing Audrey’s old turkey outfit! Gobble Gobble!

The food:

The hosts:

The Cooks:  Yes we went thru all that trouble for just the two of us  

 

Ok now onto Christmas:

Pics were a bit out of order, so try to follow me here….

The kids got out of school mid december – jan 5th so they had THREE WEEKS off.  yowzers.  I was a bit nervous about how it was going to go since we chose not to travel and just to stay at home.  I did not plan a stay-cation like I did in October for Eid break –this time we just relaxed, rested and recharged. it turned out way better than I ever could have guessed.  The kids LOVED the down time.

Jumping forward to Christmas Eve:  It isn’t exactly a ‘recognized’ holiday here, so Charles spent the day at work.  I took the kids to the Park for a couple of hours to play… we were all totally filled with Christmas spirit and had a great time!

 

Later we got some lunch, put Julia down for a nap and then started decorating cookies for Santa!

They love doing this! What kid doesn’t?!

Per their request, we had a ‘Taco Night’ for Christmas Eve Dinner… LOL. why not? and then we opened gifts from Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents.  We (as in ME) shopped for weeks to get each kid the right gift in the right budget – whew. lots. of. running. around. (but totally worth it).   WHEN is UAE going to get on the AMAZON bandwagon?!

The kids LOVED their gifts from all our family members – they were SO EXCITED.  We played with all the new stuff and then off to bed so that Santa Claus could come!

Christmas morning, the kids were once again so thrilled and had a blast with their loot – I had even more fun watching them… such a FUN time and fun ages that they are in.  It was a magical Christmas – so relaxing and so peaceful. 

Backing up a bit, before Christmas we did the advent calendar activities again, but I found it more difficult to pull off this year and some days we just couldn’t get to it.  We did the best we could – mama was just SO BUSY.

Here is a peak at just a couple  of the ones we did.. Having 3 kids and two hands – sometimes it is not possible to bust out the camera…

here’s when we did Gingerbread houses:

And Sleeping near the Christmas tree:

And The Breakfast with Santa Event at school:

Class Christmas Parties: (*I have pictures of Audrey’s party somewhere…)

We even somehow snuck in a trip to the zoo with friends:

And Celebrated Amelia’s 1st Birthday! (Nancy’s youngest)

Trying my best to catch up – I’ll have the month of January coming soon!