Why...to the North Pole, of course!!!!

We had the most amazing time on our trip to the Polar Express!  It snowed and snowed and snowed!  The kids loved the train ride and they played and played in the snow!  It snowed before we got there and then it started again Friday night and continued ALL day Saturday!  Instead of writing too much I will just show you pictures!

 Matching plaid pajamas....we got some compliments on them!  They were $10 at Walmart!  They were perfect, classic Christmas pajamas!

 The North Pole from the train window!

 This was across from the depot.  Just a fun area for the kids to walk around and see lights!

 I took pictures of the pictures to put on here.  I loved our pictures with Santa!

 Ready to go out and play in the snow.  They spent so much time playing outside!

 The snowman they built in front of the hotel.  It was right by the driveway to welcome all the visitors!  A lot of people took pictures with our snowman and it was the hot topic with all the kids at breakfast!  They all wanted to build their own because they could see ours out the window!  Andrew and Grace thought it was awesome that everyone liked their snowman and made it their little secret that they built it! It was so tiny! I'll try to get the picture on here of the kids next to it (but I have to find my camera)!

I have more amazing pictures on my regular camera.  These are all from my phone but I think you get the idea of how  awesome the weekend was!  The kids each got a silver bell from Santa on the train and were so excited!

Merry Christmas!

From our family.....Merry Christmas!  We are enjoying our time with family and are going to make the best of the next week that we all have together! 

Pretzel Turtles

The kids helped me unwrap almost 3 bags of rolos to use for pretzel turtles, which by the way are one of the easiest (and tastiest) Christmas treats!  Just place a rolo on top of a mini pretzel and stick in the oven for about 4 minutes (or until shiny and soft) and then smash the rolo with a pecan (or m&m's, other nuts, whatever you want) and then drizzle white chocolate over the top.  So yummy and fun for the kids to help make! 

Warning, it's hard to eat just one and make a bunch because they will be gone in no time!

Decorating

 letters to Santa (before they wrote them)

 helping daddy put the tree up...yes we have a fake tree but I can leave it up as long as I want!

 decorating the tree

This year I let the kids decorate the tree 100%.  I didn't move any of their ornaments.  The are so proud of their Christmas tree.

 the gingerbread village they made with daddy

We did all of this the weekend after Thanksgiving but as you all know, I've been lacking in my updates. 

Christmas Countdown

Just thought I would share the Christmas countdown that I made.  I am going to put it in a frame and let the kids use a dry erase marker to change the number in the circle each day.  If anyone would like a copy, please leave me a message with your email and I will send it to you.  Please do not just take it from my blog. 

I hope the kids are excited about this and are willing to take turns.  We have another calendar with pockets that you move a mouse to count down the days so maybe they can each do one and then trade the next day.  Who knows!  Oh, and a chocolate advent calendar!  Well, there will be no question in our house for how many days.  We may even do one to countdown for IL.  The kids are so excited about the airplane.