Saint Nicholas Day

The kids left out their shoes with high hopes for St. Nicholas Day on the night of the 5th.

Before...

After!

They were up well before the sunrise to check out their loot.  Among chocolates and candy canes, St. Nicholas brought each child a pair of new shoes and a Christmas storybook.  This year's new books included The Legend of St. Nicholas, B is for Bethlehem (Definitely a new favorite!), Song of the Stars and a new version of The Nutcracker.  We will enjoy these books through the season and add them to our Advent and Christmas collection for future years!

Sometimes being a parent is tough.  Dominic did not sleep through that night.  He was stirring at 2AM and 3AM and woke up his brothers at 4AM.  Michael and I were pretty upset about this, knowing that we would be dealing with very cranky, sleep-deprived children through the next day.  We found out however that he had been restless through the night because he was excited to stuff Mommy and Daddy's shoes before we woke up.  So sweet, yet so annoying.  

Our day ended with a very special outing to an NHL game, thanks to my Dad and Mom.  The boys had a blast.  We hung out with the mascot AND made appearances on the Jumbo-Tron.  

Celeste definitely does not know how to keep a low-profile!...

Our Ducks won, and our experience was so much fun!

advent preparations

One of this year's First Grade art projects was to roll our own Advent candles out of beeswax.  The boys enjoyed the challenge!  It made our Advent wreath especially personal to them this year.

fourth Sunday of Advent

We used to get our tree on Christmas eve, but it turned out to be extremely tough to find one!  So now we wait until the last weekend before Christmas and hold off on decorated until Christmas eve.  We then enjoy our tree through the entire Christmas season.

Last Sunday we also enjoyed another family tradition:  our trip to see the Nutcracker Ballet.  This year my mom and I took Dominic and Gabriel, since Nicholas is a little young to sit through a show.

Leading up to the performance, we read the storybook over and over again and listened to Tchaikovsky's score (over and over again).  And the boys absolutely LOVED the show, as always.  Gabriel was sitting on my lap and hardly moved, squirmed or wiggled.  Those of you who know a 3-year-old boy know that this is an amazing feat!

 The first act truly is filled with so much action-- Dominic and Gabriel love to reenact the battle between the Nutcracker and Mouse King.  Most importantly, I love that I have an opportunity to take them on a special outing and expose them to the art of classical dance that I am so passionate about.

 

It may have been left-over from another event, but next to the theater Gabriel discovered an enormous patch of snow, and for this SoCal boy, it was a BIG DEAL.  Gabriel has no memory of snow from trips to the mountains that we took when he was a baby.  To say that he was thrilled would be an understatement.  It might be time to send him off to visit our family in Canada for a couple of weeks!

captured moment

I finally got those Christmas cards finished up and sent out.  I am so grateful to Sara for taking our family photos again-- they turned out amazing.

I do have to share the Christmas card photo that almost made the cut.

Sorry Grandma, I'll try to censor Nicholas next time.

weekend recap

The Christmas crazies are in full-swing over here.  I blamed it on the full-moon earlier last week but since things have not let up the diagnosis is official.  As much as I try to simplify, life is just BUSY during this magical time of year.

So, instead of addressing Christmas cards or picking up the legos behind me, I am going to take a little break from it all and... recap my weekend.  Feel free to click back to your last-minute Amazon shopping.

Last Saturday I ran my first race since the half-marathon.  

It turns out that my new running routine of listening to podcasts while I jog has really really slowed me down.  I had a ridiculously hard time keeping up with my hubby/former running partner!  My IT band tightened up and my right knee started bothering me about 5 miles in and then my speedy date... ditched me ;-).  Actually I begged him to.  And I kept on running to the finish line!  I haven't done too much running (or walking really) since Saturday, but am overall feeling much better.

On Sunday it was our turn to host our annual Advent party with dear friends.  Once again, the Stage Moms in us coerced the kids into entertaining us with a nativity play.  They loved it.

 Nicholas made his first appearance on stage as a sheep dog.  

 

 Gabriel dressed up as a shepherd this year.  You can probably spot him in the photo below, hidden behind "Elmo"... I really wish I could explain to you why Elmo was present at the birth of Christ...

Onward.

 My sweet, adorable little Godson Michael definitely stole our hearts for this year's production as the SuperStar of Bethlehem.  I would follow that cute little light anywhere.  

Dominic was thrilled to be one of the three Kings this year. 

Adoring the baby Jesus.  

We used our coach ottoman as a manger.  I am pretty sure the kids hide snacks in there all the time anyways.  Close enough eh?

 Chaotic?  Definitely.  

Adorable?  You could try to lie to me and tell me they aren't.  But you can't, because they are so, darn, CUTE.

 Rejoice!