Friday, January 2, 2009

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Happy New Year . . .

So, it's been a while and we need to play a little catch up. . . Shortly before Christmas we took a little family trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Do you know what is in Hershey? I'll give you one guess. Yep, the Hershey factory. And what better place to have a huge amusement park? Right next to it. We normally wouldn't be able to afford a whole family trip to the park, but in the winter they have it open for fun holiday festivities.





All the rides are operating except the big roller coasters and there are some pretty Christmas lights all over. They have shows and I think you can even visit Santa. The best part is that it only costs about $10 to get in. The worst part : it's cold! We didn't get very many pictures because neither one of us wanted to take off our gloves to operate the camera!

But as you can tell, the kids had a blast! Dallin was really good about staying with us and Sadie was good about not throwing any fits (she tends to do that) even when it was time to leave. Dallin loved the trains and Sadie loved everything. She really liked being the one to take Dallin on a ride. I even took the kids on a Tilt-a-Whirl. Dallin loved it. When it got too scary he would just snuggle up next to me and wait until that part was over. It was so much fun. I think it will become a family tradition.
Another family tradition that I would like to continue is Christmas pajamas. (I know it's kind of silly) I had a roommate whose family did this and I liked the idea. And who wouldn't? Look at how cute my Monkeydoodles are! Sadie especially loves matching with Dallin.


This was the only shot I got of Christmas morning! Sorry! I just got so caught up in the moment. I think the favorite gift has been Dallin's train set. Sadie plays with it almost more than Dallin . . . if he would let her. I think Steve likes it just as much as the two kids. After opening presents and stockings, we had crepes for breakfast. But even with all the new toys and clothes and movies, both of our beautiful children threw fits and cried and fought all day long. Why didn't anyone tell us that this kind of thing happens on Christmas? Children are supposed to be perfectly happy and well behaved on Christmas, right? I mean they did just get everything their heart desired. Maybe it's just our kids who do that. Aside from that, I can still look at the day with fondness. I guess that's a mother's gift . . . we can forget all the miserable times and just remember their looks of delight when they wake up on Christmas morning.

We also celebrated my birthday (not much to report) and New Year's (again, not much to report) Steve will blog later about our Christmas Eve tradition. And I made rice porridge for the first time. It was yummy, but for some reason the kids didn't eat any of it. We thought they would love it. Oh well.

3 comments:

Christina said...

Sounds like our Christmas day also, the girls got all these great toys and all they did was fight over them all day. It was pretty ridiculous. Must have been all the sugar!

Jenny said...

Sadie and Dallin look really cute in their matching pajamas.

Robyn said...

When I was younger, we got to open one present on Christmas eve, and it was always new pajamas. I have such great memories of that.

My mom also tells a story when my brother and I were very young. They didn't have much money, and only gave us one simple gift each, and we were as happy as could be. Then we went to my grandparents, and got overwhelmed with gifts, and were really fussy and ornery the rest of the day. I think it's just a bit much for little ones to handle.

Glad to hear you had a good Christmas holiday.