From our Christmas eve dinner with my family to Christmas morning at home to open presents and see what Santa brought, to celebrating with Jenny's family later that day and then the trip to North Carolina to see more of my family, it was a wonderful Christmas. The kids were thrilled with all the toys they got and we all enjoyed all the good food and time with family.
This season Elfie appeared in many of his usual places and got into some new mischief as well. He enjoyed playing some tic-tac-toe, getting into some of the candy as well as some gymnastics.
We will miss him now that he has left for the year. But we'll look forward to his return next year!
After several attempts at seeing the holiday lights at the Columbus Zoo were foiled due to the weather, we were finally able to make our annual trip there this week. The kids loved the lights and the few animals we could see that were still awake. They even liked the ones that were not so real.
Thanks to our friends having a connection with extra tickets to the Columbus Blue Jackets game in a luxury suite, Carter and I got to see the game in style.
After arriving at the game, we went down to the glass where the players come out for their practice before we headed up to the suite. Carter loved the choice of seats..including the ones in front of the big screen tv showing the Ohio State basketball game. He also loved all the food and room to move around. He and his friends had a great time...and so did his Dad!
While each of us had seen the Nutcracker Ballet before, this weekend was the first time we had all seen it together as a family. After getting dressed up for the ballet, the kids were able to get their pictures taken with the Nutcracker in front of the theatre. Both kids enjoyed it and Carter had even been studying Tchaikovsky at school while Cass got to see some of her favorite ballerinas. We capped off the show by getting them their own Nutcrackers, autographed by two of the dancers.
This weekend was our weekend for visiting Santa. It started with our annual holiday party with our Chinese group. While the kids liked the crafts, games and cookies...it was the big man in the red suit that had them most excited. They both told him what they wanted and said they had been good this year.
On Sunday we ventured a little further to see Santa yet again. This time we went all the way to the north pole. After a long drive we finally arrived at the train station where we boarded our train. The kids were very excited about the train ride. Cass had done this trip before several years ago, but it was Carter's first ride on a train. They loved it! They also loved getting to see Santa and Mrs Claus...even if Santa did look different than the one they saw the day before. After some visiting at the north pole and some snacks and hot chocolate, it was time to board the train for our return trip. It was cold and snowy at the north pole..as we always thought it would be.
