It's Here, it's here!!! Christmas is here!

A very excited little boy woke up around 6:30am on Christmas morning asking if he had slept through the night.  I said yes and then asked him how many more sleeps until Christmas... after a moment of thought he was spinning out in his bed trying to run down the hall to get his Daddy up to come downstairs with us.  I wish I could have set up the tripod to catch his little face when he saw his little mountain of gifts.  He stood pointing at the tree with his mouth open and then said "Santa came, he did!"  Then Sam checked the cookies and sure enough they were also missing.  Another surprised face!  He worked hard to open all the gifts.  He said many things were "so cool."  We ate a family breakfast, packed ourselves up and headed towards our hometowns.
We arrived at my Mom's for a delicious brunch with my parents and siblings (along with Sammy's crazy Serry!)  Millions more lovely gifts.  Next stop was to Shaun's parents' place for another amazing meal with the in-laws.  I'm blessed that I have a wonderful set of in-laws that treat me like gold, stuffed my tummy and spoiled me rotten.  In the morning we headed out to Kane Acres for my family tradition (something that I wait alllll year for!) to spend the day with my extended family.  Lots of brilliant gifts of giving, yummy lunch, laughter in games and chats and ended the night with a boom (some cute little fireworks!).  Back to the Connolley's to see cousin Kaili, MORE gifts and family time.  We spent our last day down visiting, building lego, playing in the snow on the most perfect toboggan hill and eating.  It was an absolutely awesome whirlwind tour of 'home'.
Though the number of photos I took this Christmas do not do justice to the amount of fun we had and love we felt, we captured a couple moments.  Truly, I think Shaun took more photos this Christmas than me!

Sam with his Santa letter.  It says "Dear Santa, I love Christmas and summer.  Please have a treat.  Me and Mommy made these cookies.  Reindeers love carrots.  Stay warm in your sleigh.  Fly safe.  Love Sam."

Christmas morning gift unwrapping injury.  It may or may not have been a pre-existing basement renovation injury, but he was very concerned the the wrapping paper was cutting him.

Using his new snowball makers to transport gifts!

Snowboard goggles!

Snorkle!

Sam and his Godparents with the gift Sam made for them.  Love love love these two!

We had a whole bunch of winter fun activities planned but it was just too darn cold out to be outside for more than a few minutes.  We did go ahead and make our bird feeders though.  Lots of stinky-sticky fun!

Sam and Great Auntie Bobbi checking out one of the feeders we put up.

Like I said, weak attempt at capturing this beautiful holiday season but I did enjoy ENJOYING it instead of watching it through a camera lens.  Thank you to all the people in our lives that were so absolutely generous with gifts and time and food and love.  We are so lucky.  I enjoyed every speedy second of it.
Now off to make watch magic come alive... see you next year!!!

3 Sleeps until Christmas - 3rd Annual PJ Party

We've a wonderful annual event with some of my friends and their kids.  Most these families are from my CMAC 'family' as well as a few other very special people in our lives.  Now that we don't all work together anymore, it was even more awesome for us to get together and spend some time catching up after the first 4 months of school.  It's pretty cool to see our kids continue to love the time they spend together and make memories together.
The party started with the kids making wooden tree decorations.  They LOVED building and they made some beautiful creations.  It was a little busy so I didn't get a single picture of these artists at work.  We had a supper of yummy finger foods and Christmas treats.

We sat for a bit to watch a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie.  The boys cuddled on the couch...

and the girls found some chairs for up front.  Suddenly we heard a clatter out in the street and we sprung up from our movie to see what was the matter!!!

Much to our surprise, Santa had heard Sammy was having a Christmas party and he took a little moment to stop over to see the kids.  Everyone was sooooo excited (including the Mommys!!!)

Santa chatted with each kiddo.  Smith told Santa he had been a good boy this year.

Lindsay worked very hard to distract a distraught Avery.  I think it was a little too surprising for this peanut!

Sam let Santa know he wanted another Lego Box for Christmas.

Mac got a little shy, but chatted with Santa for a minute.

Payton just couldn't get enough Santa snuggles!

Little Miss Logan just couldn't believe her luck, HUGE SMILE the whole time!

Andreas made sure Santa knew he was wishing for a batman action figure.

Avery got up the courage to sit on Santa's knee for a minute.

Sam and his crew

Good bye Santa, thank you for the quick visit!

Everyone waving good bye to Santa

There was only one last thing to take care of... DANCING!

Bustin' moves all over the place!

CRAZY dance moves!

Taking a quick dance break.

Right back at it and more wild than ever!!

And somehow, after all the sugar and Santa excitement and crazy dancing, their energy was channeled into chasing me.  It was a perfect ending to a amazing night of friendship and love.

Merry Christmas beautiful friends.   Merry Christmas beautiful young people.  You are the reason Christmas is magical and wonderful.  Best Christmas holidays kick-off this mommy could have ever asked for!  It's going to be a wonderful couple of week.

Just a little live footage of the dance party... love these little monkeys!

3 Days Until Christmas - Supertot Graduate!

Sam has taken the Supertot gymnastics class many times.  Not that he's 'failed' or something, it's just there is only this level of gymnastics available.  Today he had his last of 14 weeks of class.  He's loved this session so much and is quite talented (though I may be biased!)  The next time we sign him up, it will be in the next level up (Wooohoooo!) and I know he'll be amazing.  I want to get at least one more round in while Mommy is still in charge of his extracurricular activities and he discovers there is a world of sports out there just waiting for him!

Double-mini hop, hop, hop! 

We have been so grateful to have Coach Chelsie for this round of gymnastics.  She constantly challenged Sam on the trampoline giving him extra tricks and tasks to try.

The rings

A CRAZY slide into the pit!  Highlight of Sammy's class!

Straddle hang

Drop into the foam pit!

Yay!!!  Our Supertot

Sammy had a super fun PJ Party today with some of his best little buddies... stay tuned for this post!  It just got too late tonight for this mommy to keep computing!

5 Days to Christmas - Munchkin Academy Christmas Concert

Just when we thought we couldn't love Sam's dayhome any more than we already do, we went to the Christmas Concert and were blown away.  Though only 5 songs long, it was so cute and so organized and absolutely perfect!

My beautiful boy getting ready to head over for his singing debut! 

Most of Sam's school friends getting caught by Mom and Dad paparazzi! Such a cute little crew!

"Jingle Bells" prop

Little Rudolfs!!!

Collecting his star from Jenny to get ready for Twinkle, Twinkle.

Here are two videos from the concert... the first is awesome because it's their school theme song written by David and the second is the one that Sam seemed to enjoy most.  Enjoy!

9 Days to Christmas - WestJet Xmas Party!

Shaun's company throws just the best kids' Christmas parties ever!  This year is as once again at Spruce Meadows.  With so much to do and a tot that is much more capable than last year, we had a complete blast.

Before we left for the party we dropped off our donations for the Airdrie Lionesses.  Three turkeys... we decided to keep the one in the middle and donate the other two!

As soon as we got to the party we hit the booths... an excellent strategy that we've learned over the years.  Here is Sam getting his batman tattoo.  He took it very seriously and it's SWEET! 

Enjoying our chicken fingers at lunch waiting for the clown to do his show.

After Rainbow the Clown finished his gags and magic, Sammy got a horse ride.  Like a pro!

Sam asked the reindeer if they'd like a treat on Christmas eve... he asked if we had reindeer food at home, so I said we could leave carrots.  After some thought, he and the reindeer agreed that would be ok.  He told them to drive safe.

Santa Claus

Photo opp on our way out.  Happy, sugary, little boy.

16 Days to Christmas - Homemade Decorations

This afternoon Sammy and I did a little crafting to get into the holiday spirit!  A little sticky and a little messy, but a cute result.

String, tin foil, tissue paper and LOTS of glue.  Oh and one beautiful boy!

Found a cute website to add Santa to photos.  FUN!

Santa checking out our decorations... so nice of him to stop by a few weeks early to make sure everything is in order! :)