Christmas Day, part 2

Around 10:00 on Christmas morning, we headed over to Grandma and Pa's house, where we had some yummy coffee cake that Meredith made, and exchanged presents.

Grandma and the kiddos

Belle characters!

A Jasmine to snuggle with! (also on Bennett's Christmas list!)

An awesome Sleeping Beauty dress-up from Aunt Meredith!

Pa was a big help with Miles and his new trucks that you can take apart and put back together!

Grandma framed Bennett's Disney World pictures!

Better drill Buzz open!

Buzz Lightyear!

We went home to shower and have nap time, then we headed back over to Grandma and Pa's house at 4:00 for the Rull family gathering and dinner. We had a great time celebrating with all of the Rulls!

Nice bowtie, Dad! (a nifty gift from Papa)

(thanks for the awesome hat, Menard family!)

Stylin' boys!!

Bennett was excited about her stationary set from the Rulls!

Cousins!

Grandma had quite the pile!

Bennett and Miles even got to watch some of the "real people" Grinch before we had to go home! (drill in hand of course!)

Bennett loved her new PJ's to match her Molly doll! (thanks Aunt Kris and Grandma!)

We are looking forward to the Reed family Christmas in a couple weeks!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Morning

Santa came!!

kids turning the corner to unveil the Christmas goodies!

Bennett went right for her princess castle with princesses to go in it. She was in heaven! She proclaimed, "Santa brought just what I asked for!!"

Pure joy on her face when she saw new princesses!

Miles immediately checked out and started playing with his train table.

Such a happy boy!!

Bennett was also extremely excited about her new princess chapter books from Mommy and her glowing and singing Rapunzel from Nana and Papa (next to her). I think we heard that Rapunzel song 9 million times that day!

Next Miles located his work bench from Nana and Papa. It was a big hit, especially the drill!

He proceeded to drill or saw or screw open every other Christmas present. He refused to use his hands, he had to use a tool!

He thought his train table needed a little repair too!

Story writing and princesses combined. What could be better for Bennett??

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent going to Mass at 4:00 at Ste. Gen. The kids did amazingly well considering it was so packed that we had to stand the whole time! Then we headed to Algonquin to have our traditional dinner with the Auffenberg, McCusker and Tessier families. The food was great as usual! Then it was back home to put out cookies, milk and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer. Bennett thought she needed to leave a note with the goodies informing Santa that they were for him and not for kitty! The kids went to bed pretty late that night, and were so incredibly excited for Christmas! It was really fun to experience Christmas through the eyes of a 4 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old!

Family photo op!

Mommy and the kiddos

Cute Daddy and Bean photo

Dr. John was sharing lots of Christmas secrets with Bennett, like how Rudolph has small hooves, and Prancer and Blitzen have really big ones. So if you hear reindeer on your roof, you are probably hearing Prancer and Blitzen. Who knew?!?

Bennett writing her note to Santa.

"To Santa

No Kitty

From Bennett and Miles"

Bennett with her note, milk, cookies and carrots!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Magic House

On Thursday, we went to the Magic House. Bennett's friend Anna was supposed to come with us but woke up sick that morning. Bennett was bummed at first, but quickly realized she could still have a great time with Meredith, Miles and me. We all had a lot of fun there, and the kids loved exploring all of the areas!

Bennett's favorite part was the giant 4 story tall beanstalk. She went up and down it a few times!

Bennett being a librarian and scanning books

There's also a Children's Hospital area where you can dress up like a doctor and take care of babies. Here Bennett is checking the baby's heart.

They were both excellent doctors!

Both kids had a great time playing in the water table, too.

They were pretty funny jumping into the ball pits!

Meredith and Miles decided to build a tower.

Bennett crossing a bridge above us

Miles's favorite part was the sand table. He would have stayed there for hours if I'd let him.

We are touching the electricity ball that makes your hair stick up!

Meredith's turn! (Bennett decided against this activity...she didn't want to mess up her hair!) ;)

Bennett's School show & Beauty and the Beast

Bennett also had a show on the last day of school before break. They sang many Christmas songs and then had some refreshments! She did a great job! After her performance, Meredith and I surprised her by taking her to the Fox Theatre to see Beauty and the Beast! She was in awe of seeing the show with "real people" instead of animation! It was a lot of fun to see how excited she was about it!

Meredith and Bennett during intermission.

In our seats waiting for the show to begin! Bennett asked, "do you think Belle can see me?" Grandma Joje had also given us some binoculars so that Bennett could see Belle up close, and she used them a lot!