Christmas Festivities

The week leading up to Christmas was very busy for us this year. For whatever reason, I feel like I waited until the last minute to cram in all the fun things I wanted to do with the kids, so we packed it all into a few days starting with Santa's Wonderland the Thursday before. On Sunday, we all went over to my Aunt Vivian's for the Hicks' Christmas Enchilada dinner. I wanted to drive through Pecan Grove to look at lights afterwards, but the kids were too beat. Guess there is always next year! I never got any shots in front of the tree with the boys, so one night I just decided to try and snap a few. Of course, they won't all look in the same direction at the same time

 I think they were more focused on Wes (who was trying to make them laugh)

On Monday morning when Yami came over to keep the boys, they were able to open their gifts from her. Ryan received one of the gifts he was the most excited for, which was Transformer Rescuebots - so he was pretty pumped.

And B received Paint Dobbers and a play Pizza making set - both of which he just loved. Those boys adore her.

Monday evening, we packed up and met Wes at the zoo for Zoo Lights. We had never been before and heard it was pretty cool. It was somewhat of an undertaking considering you can't even go in until 6 pm, but everyone did really well. We met the Correas there, so between us we had 3 strollers, 4 adults, and 5 kids maneuvering our way through the packs. Both babies did so well and stayed in their seats the entire 2 hours. We kept B in for all of 15 minutes before he went crazy and wanted out (but who could blame him?!?). We got them out at the massive train display and they were engrossed.

 B gave Lucia a little love and was quickly back to watching the trains.

Couldn't get all three of them to look, and B was more concerned with Lucia's zipper than smiling for a pic.

He was a wild man - running from display to display and having the time of his life. He would every once in a while stop, look around, and yell MAMA as loud as he could. Once he would spot me, he would breathe a sigh of relief and run off again.

He clearly did not want the night to end. The only way we could pry him away was to put him on Wes' shoulders and you can see how that went over.

All things considered, all of the kids did really well. No one had eaten dinner beforehand, and by the time we got home it was 8:45 - so they were fed dinner in the bathtub! On top of that, Bradley developed a nasty cold over the few days prior and it caught up with him that evening. He didn't end up in bed until after 10 pm that night after having a few setbacks. The next day, after I got home from work, I had the great idea of taking all 3 boys to the mall to get the annual Santa pic. Not really sure what I was thinking. I had made a reservation for 4:45 that afternoon, and with leaving at 3:45, we barely made it. Traffic around the mall was insane. I guess I should have known on December 23rd it would be a madhouse. Luckily, I had my mom meet us there to help wrangle the kids. Surprisingly, the wait, even with the reservation, was not too bad. I think we were taking the picture by 5:10. Tried to snap a few "practice" pics in the tunnel beforehand.

 Charlie was looking rather skeptical of the whole ordeal.

When it finally came time, B was already in meltdown mode. Just looking at Santa made him cry. I quickly put Ryan on first, then Charlie, and finally B last so they could quickly snap a pic before he tried to escape. Despite him being so scared, he actually stayed in his lap for a few pictures. He quickly recovered not one minute after removing him from Santa's lap. Afterwards, Ryan got to go over his list with Santa and then the real wait began. The line to stand in to pick up your pics and pay was an hour long! These poor kids were such troopers though and had fun snacking on cookies and running wild.

Later that evening we went ahead and cut and baked the cookies for Santa. B had more fun playing in the flour and eating it.

It was definitely a busy few days, but Ryan was so excited the entire time partaking in all of the festivities. It's been so much fun watching him take it all in.