Christmas vacation

During Christmas break, we tried to do some fun stuff with the kids. We always go to Ikea around New Year’s-free kids meals and entertainment/shopping! 

We also borrowed some snow clothes and drove up 50 to a snow park. It was only about a hour and a half up the mountain, so the snow was more slushy, but there were a ton of people there, it was cold and the kids had fun.

For New Year’s Eve, Julio and I went out to dinner with some friends and the kids had two very fun babysitters who played with them. They made these cool pipercleaner hats.

We stayed up until midnight and watched the ball drop in Times Square and drank Martinelli’s. Unfortunately, Julio and I both got the stomach flu that night and so New Year’s Eve was spent at home miserable while the kids had free rule of the house. That was not fun!

Here’s a cute picture of  Tessa after church last week.

Happy 2013!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. We really toned down on the gifts-mainly because we didn’t have the money for a lot of things. Luckily I bought most of the gifts during the summer at the Target clearance sale and on amazon many months ago. Lucia wasn’t happy with what Santa brought her (the older kids got Dream Lites). But when she realized she got other stuff she really wanted like a MP4 player, a sketch book and gel pens, a book series she loves to read and a password journal from Grandma and Grandpa, she was happy with the Dream Lite. Marco was happy with his Dream Lite, his Angry Birds lego set, his Pokemon DVD, his Angry Birds art kit and his Hot Wheels set from G and G. Sylvia was so excited about her new Lalaloopsy doll, her new DVDs, her Disney Princess PlayDo set, and her Angelina Ballerina book set. Tessa was happy with whatever, but she really liked the bear from Grandma and Grandpa.  Uncle B, Great Grandma and Aunt Tami got the kids some fun stuff too. We didn’t spend ALL Day opening gifts like we did last year, so the kids actually enjoyed their new stuff. The Hill’s came in the morning, but Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle B stayed the whole day. We had a nice dinner and just relaxed and played games. It was a nice Christmas.

The not-so excited face.The jersey was a surprise!

Callie and Dad made this cool measuring stick to put on the wall.

I wish we could have all gotten a good nap like Grandpa!

The rest of Christmas Eve

We did the Nativity this year. Callie and Brian were Mary and Joseph, Eden and Sylvie were angels, Tessa was a shepherd, Lucia, Marco and I were the 3 wise men.

Here is the Angel telling Mary she is going to have a baby!

The wise men are pointing at the star.

The end! White Elephant Gift exchange