Christmas Day

I woke my kids up after 8:00 Christmas morning - what's up with that? But, after they realized what was going on, they were super excited!

We finally have stairs to take the annual "top of the stairs" picture before we headed downstairs.

Rebekah got a stroller and high chair for her babies - which both the girls fought over. It was definitely the highlight of present opening. Bethany got lots of playdough tools, and beads to make herself jewelry. Lots of creative time in our future!

And, my amazing husband had the girls make these awesome Christmas trees for me with their handprints. LOVE THEM! Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas with friends and family!

PreK Christmas Song

How cute are Bethany and Jonas??

Christmas Cookies

Gotta have some Christmas cookie making!

Laff Christmas

Our first Christmas celebration was tons of fun. Bethany is using her new fancy camera like crazy, and Rebekah is "cooking" up a storm. The kids are so much fun this year!!

Train to North Pole

One of our Christmas activities this year was taking the kids on a Christmas train to the North Pole. They decked out in PJs for the trip, Polar Express style, and stocked up on popcorn. Everyone loved the train ride - even Rebekah!

Ready for Christmas

This tree took a lot of doing to put up! Once we finally located our tree (in my parents' garage), we opened the box, only to discover that somehow the entire base of our tree was missing. So, Matthew headed off to the store and bought us a new one. Then we went to put up the lights, and only 1 of our 3 strands worked. Off I went to the store to buy us new lights. Finally, we got to the ornaments! All the expense was worth it though, look how much fun we had!

Sirgey Christmas!

We went over to Grandma and Papa's on New Year's Day for Christmas! Bethany and Rebekah got lots of presents and had a great time hanging out with everyone! Bethany is a Christmas pro, she posed for a picture after every present she opened!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your Christmas is wonderful and filled with love! We'll share ours in the New Year!

Christmas in Clarence...

... was a bust. It's a good thing the kids are 2 and had no idea how not worth it it was! They enjoyed the carousel, the car ride, and the bounce house! The gift shop had this crazy singing Santa, which for some reason didn't bother Bethany in the least. Believe it or not, that was probably the highlight of the trip! We walked through the light show before it got dark, and decided it wasn't worth seeing at night - so we went home and made more cookies instead! Fun!

Cookie Craziness

Decorating cookies was tons of fun today. Bethany helped with everything, and was very proud of herself. If it were up to her, I think all cookies would be cut-out cookies. We're going to be enjoying eating these this next week!

Santa's Coming to Town

Santa came over to visit the other day. Rebekah loved him, and sat with him the whole time. Bethany, on the other hand, did not want to go anywhere near him. This is the only picture we got of her with him.

Another Christmas Tree

Bethany and Rebekah got to decorate another Christmas tree today! Bethany helped Grandma sort out all the ornaments, then put them all on her favorite branch. Rebekah tried to eat a few of the ornaments, then settled for trying to attack the tree. They both loved it!

Christmas is Starting

I am super excited for Christmas this year. We started celebrating the season by decorating - a task which Bethany loved. Rebekah didn't really get it, but loved all the new stuff to play with!

The 23rd

This year was a Buffalo Christmas, so we saw lots of family. Check out all the cousins together! No one was missing, except Claudy, who had a valid excuse being 8 months pregnant and all.Bethany loved her cousin, Heather. It's not often they get to hang out together!
And, of course, my daughter is always the entertainer.

Decorating!

Believe it or not, I'm going to finish the putting up the tree posts in one sitting. Bethany was the "light master" in our tree decorating. She was awesome at untangling them, and then holding them up to Daddy to put around the tree. The ornaments didn't go quite as well, mainly because I was paranoid and didn't want her breaking any!

Assembling the Tree

I know there's a lot to be said for a real tree, but I wouldn't have had one this year for $1,000,000. Bethany loved helping us get the branches ready, and then handing them to me to put together. She is getting to be such a good helper.
Look how proud she is of her work!

Last Day of Christmas

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with my family. Bethany was much healthier, so had tons of fun opening presents! Her grandpa and grandma gave her a fun toy to put on her high chair, and this really cute dress, which she really liked, despite the look on her face.
Uncle Mike drew Bethany's name in the exchange, and got her musical toys! They were playing music the whole way home in the car!

Green Christmas

Christmas morning began with a long running Sirgey tradition - a picture at the top of the stairs!I think this is the longest I've ever spent opening presents. Bethany took her time helping to unwrap and inspect all of her presents. She got a lot of cool things, including her own cell phone, fun toy shelves (although that may be more fun for her mom!), and blocks that do all kinds of crazy things.
She also got "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and her own Max stuffed animal!
Finally, her one good present from her mom and dad - a build and spill musical turtle. She loved it!