Christmas

We had christmas at our house this year and the kids loved it. There were people and dogs and cats everywhere. As always the food was great and it the kids were the focus. Christmas eve was the gift exchange and Natalya handed out each of the presents from under the tree and then Christmas morning the kids got to open their bonus stuff from santa.

Christmas eve gift exchange

It present time

Family enjoying christmas by the warm fire

Christmas morning Santa giftsTrying to eat breakfast with so many new toys waiting

Natalya's 4th birthday

What a fun time!!! We didn't get to go to the Duluth Water Park this year but Natalya still had a great time with heaps of presents and tinkerbell cupcakes.

Tinkerbelle on the cupcakes

The star of the show

Pierce helping his sister celebrate

Opening presents - the best part

Festival or Trees

The biggest fundraising event for Hiawatha Homes (the care facility where Jessica works) is called Festival of Trees. It's a large event where businesses and groups of people sponsor a tree and decorate it to a theme and then they are auctioned off. Before the auction all of the trees are displayed and there are galas and events and one day is the kids day. We took the kids and met up with some friends (Alan and Sumedha with their girls Sonya and Sasha) to check things out. There were games and activities which both Natalya and Pierce enjoyed, although Pierce really just tried to mimic his big sister. There was face painting and a jumping castle and we all enjoyed actually looking at all the trees. It was almost overwhelming being in a hall with so many christmas trees. After a couple of hours though the kids got tired, not to mention I got a headache from all the people and background noise in the place, and we headed home. All in all I think the kids had a good time but we discovered that Natalya really doesn't like clowns.

Meeting SantaChecking out a christmas treeNatalya posingNatalya getting her face painted

Ye olde fashioned christmas