Christmas 2017

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and very Happy New Year!  December is such a fun month, but oh so busy.  This year I felt more overwhelmed than ever - definitely made it my goal not to do that again!!!!  These three help to keep the spirit of Christmas in our house for sure!!  We had a great Christmas break, wonderful Christmas and a fun trip to St. Simons for New Years.  Here are my three ready for a special Christmas Eve family celebration.

 We tried to do some things over the break that we don't have time for usually.  James is ALWAYS asking to just go free skate at the ice rink.  So day one we headed out.  Ben refused to get on the ice (therefore I told him we are not playing hockey this year).  So I got on my skates and headed out for fun with these two.

James doing his normal crazy skating - jumping over every line while Mary timed him.

 Mary having fun and trying not to worry that James is better than her at something....!!!!

 Kids had fun with friends...here is Ben and his buddy playing Twister...so thankful when he has a friend over because otherwise this is me on the Twister board:)

 Always so form of costume going.

Bike ride to Starbucks....always a favorite activity!!!

Hot Cocoa!!!

Christmas Eve with family.  We had a very nice night with kids playing, dinner and fun opening presents.

 Ben was SUPER excited to get a new shirt!!!

 Mary too!!!  Its always so fun to give out our presents too!

Later the kids making cookies and a letter to Santa.  They had tracked him all evening and were rushing to get to bed because he was going to be at our house soon!!

Mary made an extra long note to Santa.

 Christmas morning!  I was so thankful they did remember to sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus first, however this year there was a mad race into the family room....just to make sure Santa really did come!

 James was so excited to see Mr. Dog was on top of his presents.

There was a new truck for Ben....he was SUPER excited!!

James got a new watch...probably one of his favorite presents.

This!!!  Best Christmas present, in fact, James used Christmas money to get one for himself.  We now have "Thunder" blaring all day long!!

 Theme for this year for James was hockey.  New hockey stick/bag/checkers/games....lots of fun!

 Ben got his own scooter - yay!!!

 Finally a rolling bag for all of his hockey pads!!!

 Basketball game for his room

Santa sure did wrap the hockey stick well!

 Ben got this new sweatshirt and has probably worn it almost everyday since!

Mary asked for Mary Ellen...she was thrilled to get her.  Love that I have a few of the exact same pictures from years past:)

 She still LOVES her dolls....will escape to her room and play forever with them.  I love it:)

 Pittsburgh Penguins jersey...he has been wanting one since he started hockey!

One of my special gifts;)  I love it!

 Mary also asked for a new coat with fur...she loves this one!

 New boots!!! This kid could never have enough clothes, shoes and accessories!

 My gift from James...he told me they were rosary beads...love hearing this out of his mouth:)

James and Daddy trying to fly the drone...at night...in the woods = not a great idea!

 I took the kids to the park after Christmas to fly the drone easier and play.  They had a ball!

 Even Mary got into it!

 James was determined to figure it out!

 Meanwhile Ben practiced his soccer skills with his new soccer ball:)  He is really wanting to play soccer.

A few days after Christmas we headed to St. Simons Island!  It was cold there but we made the best of it!  Mimi and Papa have always had a garage filled with toys for the kids and this is there favorite place to play.  Well..now they got a fuze ball table and had a ping pong net set up...the kids loved it.  Turned into a game room!  Sadly the play kitchen is gone:( But the kids still love to play with the McDonald's Drive thru!

 Later that night we played Pictionary - one of Mary's Christmas gifts from Noni and Granddaddy.  It was fun!! The kids LOVE playing games lately.

The next day my dad and I took the kids and Razzle to the beach.  It was cold!!!  The kids ran and ran ....played football...and then decided to was too cold.

Fun playing football

 Papa is always the best playmate for James when it comes to sports!

 Brrrr!!!!  But we had fun!  We ended up going to McDonalds for hot chocolate to warm up.

 Later that day Papa was taking the kids to the movies.  Unfortunately this one had a few set backs and ended up having to spend the afternoon doing some "adult" shopping with Mimi, Brad and I.  We did find this really cool mermaid carved in a tree though.

 We ended up running into my Aunt in the village while we were shopping and she took James home with her for a visit.  Later when we picked him up, the kids wanted to climb the beautiful trees.









PERFECT for little boys!

 Mary giving it a try!

 This one made it the highest and just hung out in the branches.

 This beautiful park is right in my Aunt Thea's front yard...what a sight everyday!

Bike ride time!  We headed out on bikes to the toy store to spend some Christmas money.

 These two little snappers beat their little brother who decided to go on the training wheel bike....2 miles one way.

Mary picked out the Game of Life.  Such a fun game and we have had so much fun family game nights playing it.

No problem for him though!

 We headed to the King and Prince to see the Christmas decorations.  We found a great fire pit right on the beach and got to watch the sun set while the kids ran around the beach....it was absolutely beautiful!

The next day my dad too the two boys to the village to play and walk around....always love visiting the whales!

 He had some fun pictures of the boys!

I don't know where this is, but looks fun!

All bundled up!

Mary decided to stay at home with Mimi in the warm house.  They decided to do a report on Michael Phelps.

Mimi taught her how to do a Google slide show!

 Poor Mimi got sick on New Years Eve after we went to church.  So later that afternoon we decided to head out (in the cold rain) to check out Jeckel Island.  We really explored the island and decided we couldn't wait to come back when it was warmer out.   After sightseeing, we found a hotel bar for shirley temples for the kiddos!
We went to a fun restaurant for dinner and had a great night!

We went home and had fun with Sparklers!

 It was perfect for the kids!

Papa had a ton of boxes so the kids had a ball with all of them.

 Except for this one who still remembers years ago when he burnt his finger on one.  He stood by the door and watched:)

 Happy Happy New Year!!! We wish you all a happy and healthy new year!!!










Fun video my mom made of the trip: