Trunk or Treat

A few hours after Grey's baptism, our ward had a chili dinner and trunk-or-treat. I was so burned out that I barely managed a leopard-print scarf and kitty ears. We brought our neighbor friend Cooper with us.

Elise: Ariel, Greyden: Lacrosse Player, Cooper, Cole: Spider, Vanessa: Ladybug

 I begged him to be something I could buy and he was adamant that he wanted to be a spider. So I came up with this ridiculous costume, he then cried about it when I put it on him. This was a tiny moment of joy when I told him about candy.

 Cooper the werewolf and Greyden

 Cutest little ladybug in all the land

 Cole followed his little friend Tinkerbell (Ellie) the entire time

Santa Visits

Elise & Cole go to the cutest preschool. The last week of school, they went singing at a senior assisted living home and then Santa came to visit and brought them a little gift. I was surprised to see Cole on his lap because he is kind  of terrified of Santa.

Elise & her class

Cole & his class

 

White Christmas

We woke up to the perfect dusting of beautiful white snow outside. Grey had woken up throwing up again in the middle of the night so we didn't get out of bed until 7. I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven and we slowly worked through stockings and gifts. Grey would unwrap a gift slowly then walk over to throw the paper away then back to look at what he got. He is his mother's child.

I got a label maker from my sis. She knows me too well! I got right to work on labeling.

Dogs opening their gifts

And the kids

We missed my mom & stepdad so much this year but they were able to skype us from Santiago at least.

Later in the day we went over to my dad's for a delicious dinner and even more gifts. We were spoiled this year. Even Siena was feeling fancy.

 The kids piled on Uncle Bryan to watch The Polar Express

 Isabella got a Barbie Escalade from Santa this year. My kids were jealous. They sat in there for hours listening to the radio and driving it forward and backward in the living room.

Elise passed out with her new princess dolls. It had been a long, fun-filled week!

Until next year's festivities...

Christmas Eve

The annual Wandry Christmas Eve celebration was amazing as always. We didn't have Thanksgiving this year together so we took our family photo this day.

The whole group--we have changed a lot in the past few years

Ken, Jodie, Tyler, Josh, Derek & Megan

Cindy, Brooklynn, Beau & Bella

 Jason, Pam, Ryan, Addie & Colin

Jared, Christina, Greyden, Elise & Cole (they were tired of pictures)

Addie, Brooklynn, Megan & grumpy Elise in their matching dresses

The only picture I got from the nativity was Elise wrapped in swaddling clothes. She really wanted to be Baby Jesus, so Grandma Jo ran upstairs and cut up a sheet to swaddle her in.

 Opening Christmas Eve PJ's--thank you Aunt Pam!

 Elise & Addie dancing in their new PJ's

 Elise was pretty excited about the twin babies with bunk beds and rocking horses

Caroling

This was one of my favorite Christmas experiences ever. It was imperfect because I threw it together very last minute and I was exhausted because Grey had been throwing up the entire night before. But it is an experience I will always hold close to my heart. It was supposed to be our whole family but with Grey being sick, I just took Elise. I invited some ward & family members to join us and was touched by the amount of people who came. We went to a very humble nursing care facility in downtown Denver to sing Christmas carols and pass out candy canes and hugs. My eyes filled with tears on a few occasions. I loved having the chance to sing about Jesus Christ's birth to some people who tend to be forgotten and have little or no family and friends at all. A lot of them were not mentally lucid, but they did their best to sing along and one was even drumming to the beat. I was overcome with the recognition that these men and women are children of God and grateful to be able to share His love with them.

Ward Christmas Breakfast

Our ward does a delicious breakfast every year with a special visit from Santa. We have a tiny ward so we get spoiled.

This is most of our primary

I got to be Santa's Helper and I found out one second before so I was clueless

Cole was not having it

Elise was a less nervous because she wanted a goody bag

Grey was fine although he told me before that he doesn't like sitting on Santa's lap because he is a stranger. How can I argue with that?

Later that day we went to a friend's amazing cookie exchange party with a very authentic Santa. Mrs. Claus was there too.

Long Awaited Nutcracker

Elise has been asking to go see The Nutcracker ballet pretty much since she has been able to talk. I worried that she was still too young at three but she batted her eyes and smiled with that cute little dimple. So I sat her down on youtube to watch a full-length Nutcracker ballet to test it out. She loved it! I bought the two of us tickets hoping that she would first of all last through it and secondly enjoy it. She was perfect!! It was so much fun to enjoy something girly with her. We painted nails and got on our Christmas dresses. Elise requested a ballerina bun with a princess crown. I love having a daughter. This will definitely be a yearly tradition.

We met my dad, Mona and Isabella for lunch at Panera. She threw a fit about holding my hand and I really hoped I hadn't made a mistake taking her.

All was fine once she saw the ballerina sculptures and the huge, beautiful theatre.

We got there a little early and she stole the program from me and flipped through it until the start.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Grey's politically correct "holiday" concert was the cutest thing EVER! They covered Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas (well only the songs about santa). Grey didn't tell me that he would be introducing one of the songs because he said he wanted to surprise me. But then of course I missed it on the video. I was surprised and so proud of him. After the concert, we went to his classroom for a fun little party. I have been very pleasantly surprised with his school considering it is a city public school. It has been fabulous!

And a couple videos--it is hard to tell but Grey is in the back row third from the left.

Gingerbread Houses

Annual Tradition of decorating gingerbread houses and eating lots of candy...

The mess in this picture is STRESSING me out. There were little sprinkles and balls of candy bouncing all over the floor.

Our finished winter village. Grey added a licorice zip line between his & my houses. Love the creativity.