Christmas Continued

After Jennifer left, it was on to Minnesota! We were finally going to get to meet our newest cousin and niece! 

Gotta love that direct flight from Austin to Minneapolis. It's a game changer with kids!

The first time we got to meet Emmy! No one was excited though. ;)

Christmas Eve meal!

Nolan was the official monitor of the monitor. 

"Oh look! LOOK! She moved that foot! That foot right there!" 

Getting ready for presents!

Ain't nobody ever sad about hippo socks. 

Cousin Time!

The whole Christmas crew!

And five full days of fighting over who was going to get to hold that baby next. 

This picture was taking right before she said her first words, "I love you Auntie Joy". No one was more surprised than myself. 

Come on, cuz! Just let me play!

Yummmm!

Emmy must have been napping... time for a puzzle break!

Em and Grandma

Getting allll the auntie love.

Turns out Eli is going through a big time Farkle phase. Who knew?

Who wore it best? Momo or Santa? Perhaps Momo Claus?

Date night with my man. Best present of the year!

Alexa told me I was looking very Minnesota Chic. It made my day. Ha!

Gingerbread house time!

Poor Beaux has been demoted. 

It was too cold to even play in the snow, but Nolan and Jon attempted one afternoon while the majority of us were at the new Spiderman movie.

Sledding down the front lawn

We got some tickets for Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America and had a great afternoon riding the rides. Seth and I even did the big major loop-y one. Ollie said no way. 

This is possibly the best picture ever of my kids. 

Frozen lake exploring

And that gets us to December 30th! I'm gonna get this ol blog caught up if it's the last thing I do!

Thanks to Eli and Alexa for hosting our crew, thanks to Momo, Mimi, Gma, and Auntie M for all the gifts and goodies! We had a great time. 

Jen-ah-fer is Coming to Town

 Hopefully you sung that title to the tune of "Santa Claus is coming to town". (If you didn't now, is the time to go back and try that.) Jennifer came for the first week of Christmas break and it was lovely. We had the perfect mix of down time and adventuring. 

She brought her new Oculus, so we all got to mess around and try VR.

Poor Nolan, the googles weighed down his whole head.

I think Jon said he was sore the next day from all the ducking.

We turned into a cookie factory for a day and made all the neighbors some goodies.

Fake Christmas Eve dinner.

Just about present time!

Everyone getting ready!

Sweet Nolan is in the phase where he found things in his room to wrap and put under the tree. Such a sweet phase! Seems like yesterday that Seth and Ollie were doing that as well.

The face of a woman who has just received a used paw patrol soccer ball. 

Seth and his love for cw flash continues.

Snuggling with puppers and a new blankie.

Hippos with phones. What next?

Hopefully this made you chuckle, like it does to me. Nolan was testing out his new snorkel gear. Our five year old gives it two thumbs up!

Right before Break!

Dominic the Christmas Donkey

Helping Mrs. McGuinn and music club sing carols at central office.

My partner in crime, Tracy, with the Grinch.

HES specials team!

Nolan's class on Grinch day

Nolan's School Christmas Party

 

Advent!

The most wonderful time of the year! Jon and I tried to shop a ton in October and November so we could run around like chickens with our heads cut off in December to every school/church/team/work Christmas gathering without worrying that Santa would miss the Mot household. :) 

We started doing a nightly Bible reading as a family and opening an Advent goodie. Jon also took this super sweet picture of our very first nativity, which was a gift from my Aunt Joyce. I've always loved it and now love to look at it and think about her love of God and collections of creches. 

Ollie's been wanting to do all the Bible reading this year and wants to read the Christmas story on Christmas. This is what Jon's family did every year when Jon grew up, so I think it's super fitting that Ollie came up with this and wants to incorporate it into our traditions. I know grandma and grandpa would be proud.

This is from an Advent Lego box I had stashed away for 4 or 5 years. We work on our Legos before our Bible story and the little figures have been pretty captivating. Nolan is quite the little builder.

Light up the Lake in Round Rock.

Ollie's school choir has had several performances at different events in Hutto. They are a talented crew, with the song "Hot Chocolate" stealing the show.

Here they are at the 9th grade center.

And they had a really sweet performance at Ray.

Nolan even got to meet Santa at Ray. He was pretty nervous but determined to talk to the big man himself. 

I think he asked for a jet. 

Ollie had a final carol session at Hutto's winterfest. It was actually a chilly (for us) day and they even had snow trucked in, which was pretty funny. Or maybe a bunch of snow cone machines were working overtime? They even had one tiny tubbing hill. 

Everyone's school had some kind of Santa Supper/ Christmas Celebration. Here is Nolan and his buddy, Coryn,  playing hungry, hungry hippos. 

That little turkey steals my phone all the time to take pictures and videos of himself. Here's the most recent one that made me chuckle.

Jon was in Corpus for a week and Nolan usurped his spot in bed.

Chili cook off! Our good buddy Victor won with his smoked brisket chili. Soooo delish!

All that merry making plus sitting on my couch with my pups has made up our December. 

We have four and a half days of school left, but who's counting?!