My American Girl

As part of Maggie's Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy, we included a reservation to the American Girl Cafe and store.  Maggie was completely thrilled and has been counting down the days until this visit.  Well, it finally arrived.

Maggie dressed Isabelle {which, so cutely, she still has trouble saying} in her finest and we headed out for a Mommy/Daughter date.  Neither of us had any clue what to expect.  And not surprisingly, we both found ourselves a little overwhelmed but still excited.

I could have kicked myself when I realized I had forgotten my camera.  Lucy was still fighting a terrible bout of tonsillitis, an ear infection and a raging fever.  Upon leaving, my mind was only on making sure she was comfortable.  So I had to use my back up...the camera phone.  

Mags and I had a few minutes to meander through the store before our lunch reservations.  We were just getting the hang of how it all worked when it was time to take our seats.  Pink seats, none the less, with a pink table and pink flowers.  Us pink loving girls were in heaven.  Isabelle had her very own seat next to Maggie.  She was even given her own cup and saucer.

We dined on a less than tasty meal.  The food was certainly not the highlight of our visit.  All the while we chatted it up with other doll owners getting the ins and outs.  Like how to brush Isabelle's hair {something I've been dying to know-sadly, I'm not even kidding}.

After our lunch at the cafe we followed it up with a bit of shopping.  Since Isabelle was the Girl of the Year, her attire and all of her loot was on sale.  I use the term "sale" loosely.  We left with a new outfit, a gym leotard, a sleeping bag, and most importantly an American Girl brush.

Isabelle has surely had her hair brushed 100 times since this purchase and her clothes changed at least as many.

Magpie grabbed an ice cream and, of course, a ride on the carousel before we headed out.  She came home and tucked Isabelle in for a nap in her new sleeping bag.  When Maggie didn't return after a while I went to her room to find her passed out sideways on her bed, lights still on and with Isabelle snuggled close.  Pure sweetness.  It took everything I had not to climb in and join those girls.

It was certainly a lovely {and exhausting} date.  I'm just adoring that I got to make my first American Girl visit with my favorite big girl.  Love my Maggie...oh, do I ever.

Christmas Day

Oh the joy of Christmas morning!  I can't imagine a better way to spend it then with these little ones.  I did, however, warn them that I didn't want to see their sweet little faces until 8:00 am.  And then I made them eat breakfast before they headed down to the kid's tree.  {one of my lovely mama traditions that I'm sticking to}

It just seems to gets better every year.  Watching Lu grow up and get right in the mix of everything was pure excitement.

Check out that face!  Christmas wishes do come true...a new trike! {and a Minnie Mouse helmet was soon to follow}.

Legos are the way to my boys heart.

And this little one?  Adore her!  I mean who gets this excited over a plate?

But, I'm sure Mags would be the first to admit, that her very own Frozen bike is way better.

After an over exhilarating Christmas morning, my kiddos waited anxiously by the window for the arrival of Grandma, Uncle Jon, and {soon to be} Aunt Bailee.

We were loving that it was our year with them.  It seems post wedding day they will start splitting holidays between the families...boo hoo.

Another gift exchange went down while we cooked and prepared for our Christmas dinner party.

Gotta love engineer Uncle Jon, he went to town putting together Daddy's new fabulouso grill!  Remind me not to buy any "assembly required" gifts unless it's our year with him.

Afternoon soon turned into evening and before we knew it was time to eat and celebrate with our Dumbacher side.  One of our favorite Christmas Day traditions.

We spent the evening eating, drinking, laughing and having a very Merry Christmas.  My little Lu was up until 9:00 pm...woah!  {That might explain why she woke up terribly sick the next morning...poor girl}  But, she held on like a trooper.

Merry Christmas to all!  Wishing you and your family a joyous season!  Until next year...

Christmas Eve Traditions

I woke up on Christmas Eve one kiddo short.  Grandma had snuck in on Christmas eve-eve and stole my eldest for the evening.  I pleaded with him that he not go, but there was no way he was turning down a sleep over with the grandest of Grandmas.  I made them both promise that he would be back by  1:00 at the latest.  I've never been without my Jack on Christmas Eve and there was no way I was going to let that tradition get started.

So I started Christmas Eve this year with just my girls.  We didn't waste anytime getting busy on our Gingerbread tradition.  When I spotted men at the store I decided to give it a whirl and forgo the houses this year.  I can assure you that will not happen again.

I removed the poor Gingerbread guys from the packaging only to find dismembered heads and legs. We did our best to "glue" them back with icing.  Luckily, the girls hardly cared, but I was disappointed.

I suppose the dismemberment made the tasting all that much easier.

When Jack returned {a whole hour late}, Lu was tucked in for her nap.  Clay and I used this opportune time to give the bigs their gifts from us.  After much debate, we let Santa know that this year we would be giving Jack his big gift...a mini ipad.  With all the rules, regulations, and restrictions we plan to enforce we figured this was best.

Needless to say, Jack was elated.

Maggie didn't do so bad either. After spotting one of Jill's Steals and Deals on the Today show, I just couldn't pass up an American Girl Doll.  I had all intentions of giving this another year or two {regardless of her insistent asking}, but that deal sucked me right in.  So Maggie is officially the owner of her very first AG doll.  And as her brother was, she was elated too.

We even have reservations to take "Isabelle" to the Cafe next week!

After our gift exchange, Jack took a break from his coveted new screen and got busy on his Christmas Eve tradition.  Intent and a perfecting every detail as usual.

We soon shed our pjs and donned our finest Christmas attire for Christmas Eve Mass.  I gathered my trio around the tree {now that we were all reunited} for a few very fast pictures.  We have learned just arriving on time to Christmas Mass does not cut it.

And sadly we didn't have an extra set of hands this year to capture a Christmas photo of all of us.  Everyone was still heading into town, so we did the best we could.  Me and the kiddos.

And after writing this post, I'm starting to realize our Christmas Eve was much like our Gingerbread men....something missing or unattached throughout the entire day.  Hmmm...?!?!  Even with all that, I must admit, is was a wonderful day before the big day!

We ended it with dinner at Grandma's and way too many gifts for the kiddos.  We came home, left cookies for Santa, tracked his where abouts and dressed up in our Christmas jammies.

All the while dreaming of Christmas Day which was only hours away....

Unrecognizable

My kitchen was near unrecognizable this afternoon after our Christmas cookie baking tradition went down.  I mean flour on the floor, icing all over the counters, sprinkles on the chairs, and a load of dirty dishes in the sink.  But the giant smiles on my little baker's faces made it pretty worth it.

We made three different kinds of cookies.  Our usual sugar batch loaded down with colored icing and every sprinkle known to mankind, chocolate chip {because Santa just had to tell Jack those were his favorite and Jack was not going to let that one go}, and then our newest variety...reindeer cookies.

I could hardly believe it when all three kiddos stuck it out from start to finish.  Everything from mixing, rolling, cutting, and decorating.  They were there.

Still, the decorating remains a fan favorite.  I decided our family has just grown too big for the kitchen counter.  I scoured up an extra disposable table cloth from our birthday bins and set up the decorating at the big dinner table.

It made it impossible to get a picture of all three of them at work. But they loved the extra space and spreading the mess to make the eating area as unrecognizable as the kitchen itself.

I held out hope that they could hang on for one last batch...the reindeer.  I was looking forward to this batch the most.  It was one I might actually eat without entering a sugar induced coma.

Happily they sustained interest and went right to town.

A few of our reindeer {mainly compliments of Lucy} ended up with an extra eye or two.  And given creative freedom, a few of Jack's had chicken pox and a smile.

When we finished and the oven beeped for the last time, I announced "clean up".  They ran like the wind until, I so kindly reminded them that we could each have a cookie once the kitchen was cleaned up.

In no time flat {and one container of clorox wipes later} our dishwasher was full and I actually recognized my kitchen again.

We literally have three large Christmas tupperware bowls filled to the rim.  We decided to share the love {and save our waistlines} and passed out a few to the neighbors and the delivery men.

Oh what will I do with these energetic little elves tomorrow? Christmas couldn't come any sooner.  We need some new toys before these little ones start climbing the walls!

A Stone Mountain Christmas

As if we had room to add anything else to our list of Christmas traditions, somehow we have.  Or maybe I should say, I have.

The kids have actually been going to Stone Mountain with Grandma for a few years now.  This year, Lucy and I decided to join in and see what all the hoopla was about.  We were both newbies to this seasonal field trip and we did our best to follow the leaders.

There was so much to see and do.  The schedule was just brimming with meet and greets and shows.  But, if I had to recommend an order of events, I would definitely say see the mountain first.  We arrived early afternoon while there was still daylight so it was perfect.  Then hit the village come dusk when all the lights come on.  There must be millions and they are just beautiful.

We were able to squeeze in the 4D Christmas movie, a little shopping, and the mountain before night fall.

Without a doubt, the mountain itself, and the Skylift was Jack's favorite.  Although, he still isn't 100% well, there was no way he was going to miss this day.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I have never actually been on the mountain.  It was incredible and quite chilly up there.  I had a few heart stopping "be careful!!"s up there.

After we safely descended, the girls could not wait to meet the Snow Angel.  Naturally, Jack had no interest so Grandma took him elsewhere to try to find some sort of boyish activity.  Lucy was in absolute awe and had no qualms about jumping right on her lap.

We returned to the village before sunset and waited in anticipation to meet Mrs. Claus for story time.  Lucy was not about to miss the opportunity to snuggle up in her lap as well.  Maggie wasn't feeling quite as brave.  So while Lucy took her turn, Maggie waited shyly on the side with me.

Lucy must have chatted her ear off because her visit was rather lengthy.  I did catch Lu asking for a bike and a Minnie Mouse helmet for Christmas.  I love that Santa is already on that!

We spent the remainder of the evening in awe of the beautiful lights, catching a Christmas show, grabbing dinner and watching the parade.

Again, when her two older siblings had no interest in photo ops with characters, Lucy was all about it.  These are a few of the characters from the Toyrific Show {and of course, Lucy wedged right in the middle with a smile}.

But her bigs sure did love watching the parade.  Jack grabbed a spot right here...

And in true Maggie fashion, that was way too much work, so she opted for a cozy view from her stroller.

All in all a great day and evening celebrating Christmas at the mountain.  Now that I've got the just of it under my belt, we may give snow mountain a try next year.  I sure know a certain little boy who is dying to do such.

In the meantime we have a Christmas dinner menu to plan, cookies to bake, and gingerbreads to decorate.  4 more days...