Christmas Day!

For Christmas this year we just wanted to stay at our house! The girls were so much fun as they were all at the age they kinda knew what was going on and they were so excited! We got the little girls a kitchen set which they absolutely LOVE! We also completely surprised Mackenzie with a Nintendo DS that she never asked for and said she thought we would never buy for her! It was so much fun surprising her like that! The girls had a blast playing with all their toys all day then we had my brother Daniel and his girlfriend Kristen, my mom, the Kessler family, and a friend Caren over for Christmas dinner. It was a little crazy in our little house, but we had so much fun! It was a great Christmas and we are truely grateful for all that we have this year!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went to Grandpa and Grandma Peck's house. We had a great time eating lots of good food and just being with the family! After we left their house we went through the Pepsi Christmas lights which is always a hit!

Snow Days!

We got hit with a little snow this year already...the girls really enjoyed playing in it for a little while anyways. We didn't get as much as the other areas, but enough for our girls since they really don't enjoy being cold. :)

Coins for Daddy!

Kids say the darndest things....for our Dutch Christmas, one of the things that the kids got in their "shoes" was gold chocolate coins. When Cydney saw all the coins she scooped them up in her hands and brought them over to Joel and said: "Dada, you can have these coins for your job. We can buy food?" It was so precious and so heartbreaking at the same time. I didn't even realize that she got that dad didn't have a job and that money is kinda low right now, but obviously she is aware of the things that are going on. It was so cute and sweet.....I just love that girl!

Dutch Christmas!

For our Christmas Celebration with Joel's side of the family we decided to start bringing in some Dutch traditions since Joel's dad (a.k.a. Opa) is from Holland. The biggest celebration that they have in Holland is St. Nicholas Day which is celebrated on December 5th. We decided to try it out this year and begin the Christmas season early and try to focus on the reason for the season. We filled our wooden shoes with little toys, which turned out to be a little bigger than it was supposed to. We had all kinds of dutch candies, chocolates, pastries, and even a traditional dutch dish for dinner. First we met at Storybook land in Albany (which is not a traditional dutch event) and then had the family gathering at Joel's parents house. We had a great time and kept the presents simple which was nice. It wasn't so much about "what we got" but just being together. The first picture was leaving our house....on our way to storybook land and the last is on the way home from all the festivities....it was just too cute to not take a picture, they we're tuckered out!!