CHRISTMAS MORNING...

SANTA CAME!!!!

Cale could not believe that Santa actually left him a letter this year. Santa must have REALLY loved those Rudulph cookies that mommy slaved over!!!!

...babies, babies, and more babies...

Keegyn LOVES her babies.

She has a special name for each and every one...

"BABY"

;)

The rest of Christmas Day was spent enjoying the company of the Buchar Clan. It was a very relaxing day...the adults lounged, gabbed, and ate...the kids played and played and played...

OH, DID I MENTION...I NEED A BIGGER HOUSE!!!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

The morning of Christmas Eve, my family, my parents, and my brother's family all headed down to see the 8th floor Macy's display.

Jason and I have also adopted this as one of our traditions and we've been partaking in it since the first year we met!

The last few years have been the same "Santa's Workshop" theme but you could see it a million times and still be amazed at the details and magic of it all!

Our two divas...giving us their best smiles...I think they could have both done better!!!!

...the dancing pig doing a little jig really captivated them...especially Mikayla...she is really into her animals and know all the sounds they make so she had to give Keegyn a little lesson!
My sweet luv bugs

Daddy and Cale trying to figure out why Rudulph's door is the only one closed....all the other reindeer were out of there stables.

Cale's mind is ticking....and then he told Jason that Rudulph must be sleeping cuz he needs to get ready to pull Santa's sleigh!
(I love this kid...he is such a believer!!!)

Me and my buddy next to Santa's Toy Shop!

Walking back through the sky walk...the kids loved this just as much as the Macy's display...maybe even more!

Pretty tree....Pretty Keegyn

This was Cale's attempt at taking a picture of me and Jason....we look like wierd giants from this angle, but, a picture is a picture, I guess....and I'll take it!

Before heading over to Darik and Andrea's for Christmas Eve dinner, we let the kids open a few gifts from Jason and I

MORE PRESENTS AT THE BUCHAR'S

Uncle D, trying to blow up Cale's whoopi cushion, which popped after the first use! But it was worth it to hear the laughter erupt from my little man!

My beutiful niece, Mikayla.

So precious!

Grandpa B enjoying his grand babies

So priceless.....Little M is showing Ashlee exactly how to get to her favorite YouTube video!

(at this point, I hadn't even gotten my iPhone yet, so she was actually giving me quite the tutorial!)

More wrestle time with Grandpa B

HO HO HO!!!!

HAVE YOU ALL BEEN GOOD LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS THIS YEAR?

HO HO HO!!!


Darik, once again, sported the Santa Suit this Christmas. The girls were scared and didn't really think this particular Santa should even be allowed in the house...Cale was a bit skiddish, but I think was willing to go along with it....after all, he did have a big bag of presents!

Helping Santa pass out the presents.....Keegyn and Mikayla gladly waited on the opposite side of the room where Cale would be the one to deliver them

Merry Christmas Santa!

(After Santa left, Cale must have been thinking about his visit the rest of the night. On the way home, he told Jason and I that he didn't really think that that had been the real Santa...the one he talked to at the mall was the real one. He had glasses and was older. Ultimately, what he came up with was that Darik was just the "typical elf"..."one of Santa's little helpers."!!!

Keegyn was trying to get Mikayla to start dancing along with her new Dora microphone, Mikayla was spent!

....Come to think of it...I haven't seen that Dora microphone since that night...

Time for us to go home and get ready for Santa...the REAL SANTA....and the REAL RUDOLPH

AHHHHHHH!!!

Time for a break....We went on our date!

Chianti Grill, followed by "The Christmas Carol" at the Guthrie

(one of my all time favorite traditions with my hubby)

TWAS THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

DAY SIX

Time to celebrate the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa B!!

Which means.....MORE PRESENTS!!!!

Good Lord! We need a bigger house!

Stocking Stuffers first...of course this is just the appetizer!

Trying out her new Hello Kitty lip gloss

Cars 2 Tokoyo Race Track!

Keegyn STILL laughs at peek-a-boo bear! This one was a huge hit!

And then came her very own kitchen!!!

Quite the pro already....Coffee anyone???

Now, what in the world is in here???!!!!

It took all of Cale's might to rip that bag off.....

His very own air hockey gave!!!

Final Score

Cale--7 Grandpa B--2

Wow! I am WAYYYYYYY behind in finishing up this Christmas blog post!! We still have a few more days to go to complete our "week"

TWAS THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS

DAY FIVE

This year we decided to start a tradition of going out to eat at, kid's choice of restaurant, and then go drive around and see all the pretty Christmas lights. To start off our new tradition, Cale chose....(drum roll please........)

IHOP!

Cheap, easy, and quick...and actually, pretty decent food! Not to mention we were ALMOST the only ones there two days before Christmas Eve!

(note the one lone man in the background)

(and noone in the tables surrounding Cale and I)

This made for a pretty enjoyable dinner and we didn't care that Keegyn was running around the table most of the time, being loud and spilling her chocolate milk on the floor!

This year we chose to drive to St Paul and drive through the display around Lake Phalen. The kids had a blast and the lights were fun...although I'm sure they would have been better IF there had been any snow to make them glow a bit brighter! I must admit, that I was somewhat of a scrooge this year when it came to the fact that we didn't have at least SOME snow for Christmas.

(and now that we have some, I'm sooooooo over it and ready for it to be gone!)


Here are just a few of some of the kids favorite light displays:

Where will our tradition take us next year???