Pre-Christmas Festivities

The month leading up to Christmas was super busy. We had multiple visits with Santa, snowstorms, birthdays, school parties and cookie making among many other things.

The beginning/middle of the month there was quite a bit of snow and the girls took advantage. This was Tenley's first real time playing in the snow and she seemed to enjoy it.  By enjoy, I mean she liked eating snow.

Next up we had Rylee's Christmas party at school.  I was able to go with her, which was nice.  I was sad that I had to miss Morgan's party.  Rylee wouldn't get real close to Santa, but she did get closer than I thought she would.

That Saturday, Santa visited us on the firetruck.  I love that our local Fire Department does this for the kids.  They were so super excited when they saw the firetruck!

The day after that we headed to the mall (FINALLY!) to see Santa. I was a bit nervous how the middle two would react but it went much better than expected. Tenley stood right by big tub of candy canes and wouldn't take her eyes off them to look at the camera until we gave her one.

That afternoon we came home to do some baking!

Tenley didn't so much bake as she did eat all of the sprinkles.

Fun times in the Stoicoiu household!

Breakfast with Santa

This year Paul and I had the pleasure of attending the The Big Red Fund Dinner with our friends.  The Big Red Fund is a group of people in the community who raise money to help the athletic program at Field Local Schools.  Their latest contribution to the school was a brand new track.  Anywho, during this dinner is a live auction for items like freezers, lifetime sports pass, flat screen tv, and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Two of the couple at our table bid on the Breakfast with Santa and won!  It was a really fun night.

Fast forward to the beginning of December and here we are.  Our friends Erin and Danny hosted the soiree and were nice enough to invite our brood over.  Other than the fact that the monkey bread I made filled our house with smoke (the syrup portion spilled onto the bottom of the oven, hence all the smoke), the morning was great! The girls (Morgan especially) were so excited when Santa arrived and brought them each a present.  Thanks for having us Erin and Danny!!

Christmas Eve 2012

Each year on Christmas Eve the girls get their final gift/appearance from our elf Ruby.  She always brings the a pair of pajamas for the girls to wear on Christmas Eve.  We usually have some sort of gathering with my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve so they always get to open their gifts before we go.

This year we headed to my Uncle's house and spent some time with the fam, played our gag gift game and then headed home to play Santa.  Being Santa is exhausting.  Good thing I like these kids.

Santa, Cookies, Snow!

December was a whirlwind month for us with the holidays, birthdays and winter fun.  No December is complete without Santa, cookies and snow!  We managed to fit all three in before the month was over and the girls loved every minute.

Our first activity was cookies.  I bought these cute aprons from PBK a few Valentine's Day(s) ago and relish the opportunity to take pictures make cookies with them.  The girls really enjoyed eating making all of our sweets this year.  It's so neat to watch them get older and really start to get into doing these sorts of things.

That same day Santa made a surprise visit on his firetruck with some special presents for the girls.  I have to say we are truly lucky to live in the community we do. Besides the wonderful Chief Oliver and staff of the BPD, the BFD does a fabulous job delivering presents to all the kids in the community on the firetruck at Christmas time.  Our kids love it every single year.  Watching their little eyes get big when they see the firetruck come down the street with the lights going and Santa getting out is just awesome.

Later that day the girls were dying to play in the snow.  We had finally gotten our first big snow of the year and they just couldn't wait!  After we spent what seemed liked hours getting them all suited up, I sent them outside with Dad.

This picture could not be any cuter. It just couldn't.

Afterwards, when they finally got cold, they came inside to warm up by the fire with some hot cocoa.  It didn't last that long since Rylee spilled hers not long after sitting down but nonetheless, they thought they were super cool.