Breakfast with Santa at the Zoo

For our second Christmas event of December, we headed to the zoo for Breakfast with Santa.  The kids always love going to the zoo so it was an easy decision and they were very excited for breakfast.

We decided to eat as soon as we got there because the kids were hungry.  There were lots of good choices like eggs, french toast, bacon, sausage, and other yummy things.

Happy boy chowing down

The kids were very excited because Mrs. Claus was there.  They are always asking where Mrs. Claus is whenever we see Santa, so they thought it was great that she was there.  She was helping out at a table where the kids got to frost their own cookies.  They liked making and eating the cookies.

Leah, very proud of her cookie

Yummy!!

Going up to see Santa, Leah was talking all about how she was going to see him and sit on his lap with Cameron.  When it was our turn, she practically crawled up my legs to get into my arms, so we ended up with another picture of Santa, Cameron, Leah and Mama.

There were also craft stations, which the kids always love.  This one was one of their favorites, which was a little ornament that you scratched off the top layer to reveal other colors.

Both had lots of fun and were excited to bring home their crafts to hang on our tree.

After breakfast was over and the kids were done with crafts, we went to look at the animals.  Cameron had hockey practice so he could only look for a little while, but Leah and I went and looked at all of the animals.  It was fun to go around with just her and see what animals she wanted to spend time looking at.  She wasn't very interested in the penguins (which Cam loves), but was enthralled watching and talking to the wolves.  She liked walking through the bird aviary but didn't even want to go in the barn.  It was fun and she and I had a good time together.

12-12-12 Celebration

One of the the things we like to do as a family is go geocaching (or "treasure hunting" as the kids call it).  Geocachers love numbers, so 12-12-12 was especially exciting.  There were a ton of different 12-12-12 geocaching events, including one in Syracuse.  The one around here was an ice skating geocache event - a perfect combination for us!

We met Matt and Gina at a restaurant near their house for dinner and then headed to the rink together.  Cam did amazingly - he was kind of nervous at first because he couldn't have his stick, but he did awesome.  Leah did well when she was walking on the skates (not on the ice) and loved being zoomed around the ice, but wasn't very interested in trying to skate on her own.  It was about the same as the first few times we took Cameron skating, it takes a while to get used to.

 Leah's favorite way to skate - being zoomed around the ice.

Mama and Leah trying to get Cameron.  Leah LOVED this game!  I loved hearing her laugh over it but my back did not love hauling her around the ice.

Uncle Matt and Leah playing tag with Cameron.  Looks like Cameron got Uncle Matt.

We didn't get many pictures at the event but we did get some videos.  Here is Cam skating:

And Leah "skating" (aka, being dragged by Uncle Matt and Aunt Gina)

Here are a few pictures from the geocaching.com website of us chatting with other geocachers at the end of the event.

It was a fun event and we got some good ideas from some of the other cachers - one guy was telling us about special night caches that are only available after dark.  They have glowing paint or other glow-in-the-dark markings - sounds awesome, something we'll definitely have to try once it gets warm again!

LMEA Christmas Party

The next weekend in December was the LMEA Christmas party.  We went for the first time last year and enjoyed it, so we figured we'd go again.

At the beginning, they gathered all of the kids on the dance floor to call Santa to the party.

Apparently, to do that, one needs a dance floor full of kids doing the chicken dance.  Braden, Leah and Cameron (and a ton of other kids) were more than happy to oblige.

"A little bit of that..."

What a cutie, peeking at Mama and Daddy

Emily wanted to come join in the dancing but was most comfortable doing so from the safety of her mama's arms.

More dancing

There were snacks and lunch, but the part that the kids liked the best was the decorate-your-own-cookie station.  Leah decorated hers with LOTS of frosting.

Tasting her handiwork

I think she likes it!

The big excitement of the day was going up to see Santa.  Leah wrote her letter to him, but was very tentative during the wait to see him.  She is not a big fan of Santa.

Cameron was a very good big brother and tried to take Leah up with him and show her that Santa wasn't scary.  She wasn't having any of that.

Then it was Mama's turn to try to coax Leah over to see Santa.

That didn't work either so it was our second year in a row that Mama was in the Santa picture with the kids!

They both got very nice gifts from Santa.  Cameron got a really cool rocket kit and Leah got a Silvermist fairy doll.  Both of them loved their gift.  The entertainment during the party was a guy who did bubbles.  I was thinking it was going to be really cool but he turned out to take way too long with the setup of each "trick" and got a ton of the kids, dressed in their nice clothes, soaked in bubbly mess.  Most of the kids, including Cameron and Leah, got bored and came back to the table.  It was still a fun party and the kids were really upset to leave at the end because they were having so much fun.

Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

This year we went back to the same place we have been going for a few years, Grace Farms in Central Square.  They are always very nice and helpful and have good prices for the trees.  We have had fun every year we went there, so it was an easy choice to go back.

There were baby trees planted in every spot where someone had cut down a tree previously. Cameron and Leah loved the baby trees and wanted to "pet" each one of them.

Cam with a baby tree

And Leah with one

After a bit of searching, we found a giant tree that made everyone happy - tall enough, full enough, the right type of tree.  Tim crawled underneath to cut it down.

Full length shot of the tree while Tim chops it.

Leah watching Tim cut it down (from a safe distance, of course)

Cameron watched from a REALLY safe distance

There it goes!

Timber!

A picture so we could count the rings

Leah standing on the stump

And Cameron on the stump

The tree in machine that winds twine around it to make it easier for bringing home

It got pretty thin!

After we got our tree into the trailer and went back up to the front of the farm, we went in to get cookies and hot cocoa.

Leah loved the cookie

Cam drank a ton of hot cocoa

Ms. Sprinkle Lips

They also had a donkey and some sheep to pet and feed.  Mama was the only one who wanted to actually pet them.  Both animals were so soft and were very sweet.

Feeding a very soft sheep

The tree in our trailer - it is huge!

The tree was so big and heavy that we knew Tim and I couldn't bring it in ourselves, so we enlisted Uncle Matt to come over and help bring it into the house.  It was a good thing we asked him because even he and Tim struggled to get the tree in on their own, it was so heavy.

Yikes - giant tree!

The tree, unbound and sitting in our family room, ready to decorate.  The kids love our big tree!