Belated Christmas Recap

I am still so behind on blogging! Before we are officially in February I thought it might be a good idea to finally post about Christmas!

As events go, this Christmas was just about the same as last year, but the excitement level was through the roof this year!

One thing we like to do during the Christmas season is go see the light display at McCormick Ranch Railroad Park. We had talked about having a play date there sometime with Benny's little girlfriend Maddie, so we thought it would be fun to invite their family to come along with us (Maddie's dad couldn't come so her mom brought a friend along to help out). The night we went turned out to be the opening night of the light display, so the lines were unbelievably long. But the kids sufficiently entertained each other so the hour long wait just flew by. Here we are ready to go!

The kids loved the train ride and the lights, and when we got off the train, they loved to dance to the live music and ride the carousel.

When the big day finally rolled around the boys could hardly stand it! We spent Christmas Eve morning visiting my Grandma. We don't get to see her very often, and it is always a treat for her to see the little ones. Although it can sometimes be a challenge to have the boys over there, they did a great job, so afterward we rewarded them with lunch at McDonalds. After a quick nap, we were ready to keep rolling with the Christmas festivities! We went to church, and again the boys were superstars. Joshua was even clapping and singing along with the Christmas carols. After church we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa B's to celebrate with that branch of the family tree. It is always so fun to get all of the cousins together and watch them all enjoy their new toys!

We can usually count on the kids completely wearing themselves out at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but not this year! They were completely wired the whole way home, talking about the fun they had, and that Santa was on his way. But even though they were so awake, they got in bed at lightning speed when we got home. In fact, Joshua even tucked Ben in before he jumped into this bed. It was too funny. They both went to sleep without a peep. Benny woke up at about 7:00 and so we went in to get Joshua up. It was like the kid was on a springboard! He was waiting so patiently for us to come get him, but was definitely ready to go! We spent the morning opening our gifts and stockings, and just having a lot of fun together.

Grandpa and Grandma Maple and Auntie Andrea came over for breakfast. We had a nice time visiting and sharing more gifts. The rest of the day was spent hanging out, playing with new toys.

This Christmas, I decided to go on strike and declared that I would NOT be making Christmas dinner. So we went and had a wonderful family dinner at Bucca di Beppo, and was it ever good! I'm sold on going out for Christmas dinner! :) After dinner we carried on our Christmas night tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights, and enjoyed some Christmas cookies and cocoa along our way. It was the perfect end to the perfect day.

The next day Christmas continued when we all gathered at my parents house for dinner. The kids all love getting together and pretty much entertain themselves, giving the adults some nice chatting time as well. My mom made a delicious prime rib with all the fixings and we all ate and drank and were very merry! :)

It was such a great time, and THIS time, they were sufficiently spent.

It really was the best Christmas ever!

Vigilanty Santa Photographer

I don't really think of myself as "cheap", but definitely thrifty. I have this way of sort of rating the importance of the things I can spend my money on, and there are just some things I won't pay for. For instance, the Chandler Mall has a train that drives around the ground floor of the mall. For me to take my kids on this train would cost us nearly $10... To ride a train....around the mall. I would much rather take that $10 and say, buy a DVD that we could all enjoy over and over. It just seems to make more economic sense to me. My kids have come to accept this about me and have stopped asking for certain things after I've made it clear that Mommy doesn't spend money on that.

With that being said, I have always loved to get a picture of my kids with Santa. It is just one of those things that marks the holidays for me. So when the kids balked at seeing Santa when we went to the Polar Express, I asked them if they wanted to go see Santa at the mall, and they told me they did. So one Monday night we loaded everyone up and went to go see Santa at the Chandler Mall.

For the last couple of years there has been a sign that asks you to please refrain from using personal cameras, in an effort to get you to purchase their "professional" photos. However, purchasing WAY overpriced pictures of Santa does not rate very high on my importance meter, and I just simply refuse to do so. I have always asked politely if I could take my own picture and have never been refused.... until this year. The not-so-nice photographer informed me in a not-so-nice way that taking pictures of my child with Santa is prohibited and if I wanted a picture I was going to have to purchase it. So, I checked out the prices and almost fell over. It's one thing to charge $5 for a photo in a paper frame. That I would have been all for. But the prices were astronomical! I'm talking $23 for 3 small photos, and if you wanted a digital copy of the photo (which is all anyone is really interested in these days) it would cost upwards of $40!!! I just looked at her and laughed. No way, Jose! I was so mad that this company is turning the fun of Christmas in to a disgusting racket. I felt I had to make my little statement right then and there. Out came my camera and a picture I took of Josh on Santa's lap, not even coming close to trying to be sneaky about it. The girl looked so annoyed I thought she might sick a mall cop on me and have me kicked out of there! It's not a good picture and was taken more on principal than to get any kind of decent picture. I guess our days of getting pictures with Santa at the mall are over. I knew the day would come, but that somehow doesn't make me feel any better about it. Bah humbug!

Annual Cookie Party

Every Christmas the boys love decorating sugar cookies (and so do I!) so we make it a little party each year. They do such a great job!

Santa sure did love them!

Christmas Fun

One of the things we love to do during Christmas time is go to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park to see their light display. This year we thought it would be fun to invite a friend to come along, so Benny's little girlfriend, Maddie, and her mom came with us. Although we went near the middle of December, it ended up being the first night of the light display, so the line was incredibly long and took over an hour. But since the kids all had each other to play with it really wasn't bad. We finally got on the train and the kids had a blast with each other!

The light display, as always, was awesome. They really do a great job putting it together.

After the train ride, we rode the carousel...

and the kids got their boogie on to the live music.

It's always a good time at the railroad park! Merry Christmas!

Polar Express!

Over the last couple of years we have really wanted to take the boys on the Polar Express train ride in Williams, Arizona, but we had wanted to wait until they were both old enough to enjoy it... not to mention that it sells out so fast we usually have missed our chance for tickets. I was determined to go this year, and actually remembered to book our tickets far in advance. What made it so much more fun was that we went with some good friends of ours whose 2 little boys are the same age as ours. I can't even begin to say how much fun we had!

Since all tickets are done by Will Call, we were advised to get to the station early in the day to pick up the tickets to avoid long lines. So we left that morning and drove up to Williams (about 40 miles west of Flagstaff) and got to the station at about 11:00. It was great because we were pretty much the only ones there.

We got to peruse the gift shop for a while, and try on some of the fun winter hats.

After getting our tickets we checked into our hotel. We opted out of the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel package and decided to save a little money by staying down the street at the Holiday Inn. I'm glad we did. Our room was comfortable, large, and much more secluded than the GCR. There had been a snow storm moving through a few days before. And even though a lot of it had melted, there was a big patch out behind the hotel... perfect for little boys to play in! So when our friends arrived at the hotel, we all spent at least an hour playing in a 1-2 inch deep patch of snow. It doesn't take much to entertain the little ones!

After playing in the snow we all headed back to our rooms to suit up in our jammies to head down to the train station. The weather was beautiful, and the station was less than 1/2 mile away, so we decided to walk down. It was great!

The Schnabels

Inside the station they had all sorts of activities for the kids. We attempted to go see Santa and take a picture, but both of the boys chickened out right when it was our turn. Benny decided a few minutes later that he wanted to try again, and worked up a little more courage this time, although he still didn't want to sit on his lap.

Josh still was not interested in visiting Santa, especially when he learned that there was coloring in the other room.

One of the other activities available was to make an ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. Both of the boys had a lot of fun making their ornaments.

After coloring, Benny went to visit with Mrs. Claus for a minute. Josh was still not interested. Oh well!

Pretty soon the train arrived!

The train ride was so much fun. We got to eat cookies and drink hot chocolate...

And we got to hear the Polar Express story.

And having great friends to share it with made it all that much more fun!

Pretty soon, we were at the North Pole!

Santa got on the train at the North Pole and came through all the cars, and gave each child a special gift. The kids were so excited for Santa to come!

The gift, of course, was a bell. If you can hear the bell, you still believe!

After Santa came through we spent the rest of the trip back to the station singing Christmas carols. It was a lot of fun.

The next morning we all met for breakfast at a little local restaurant with really yummy food. Thankfully they had a table big enough for all 8 of us!

Before heading back home, we stopped at a new wildlife park in Williams called Bearizona.

Bearizona is a drive through park, with all sorts of animals, including wolves and black bears.

There was also a walk through area with bear cubs, fox and bobcats. We got there right at feeding time so everything was awake and active.

And of course, these little animals!

It was a blast! I'm so glad we did it!