We started off our Christmas celebrations with an adult scavenger hunt with our friends PJ and Anais. It was organized by a friend of theirs - and, as it turns out, WE WON!!!
This picture was from one of the picture challenges which was to get a picture of the whole group in front of a community tree. This tree was in the Mercato shopping center! One of our last stops!
We then had our annual Wyss Family Breakfast with Santa. Brian's dad makes us reservations at their club and they have such a great Santa! He brings jingle bells around with him and visits all of the children a few times. Caidyn was not super into it, but eventually warmed up enough to give him a hug! It was extra exciting knowing we will have 2 more babies with us next year - Nate and Bridget's son, Nathan, will be almost one and Ellie will be almost 6 months old! Eek!
The following weekend we went to the Naples Botanical Garden's Night Lights in the Garden event! We went for the first time last year and just had a blast. We went again this year and it did not disappoint! The highlight was Caidyn caroling with their carolers singing Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town - her two favorite Christmas songs!
The next morning we ran the Marco Island 5 Miler! Greg, Lori, and Teagan all ran it this year and Haley watched Caidyn! Both of our stomach's were bothering us so we didn't end up getting any good pictures...
Later that afternoon Caidyn's school had their Christmas party! The students got to meet Santa and surprised us with a little show - some carols they sang and danced to and then some ornaments and pictures they made for the parents! It was so sweet! But by then our stomachs were really uncomfortable.
We went home and as it turns out both Brian and I ended up with food poisoning. Mine was much worse than Brian's, who ended up with Mom that afternoon picking up her new 5th wheel she is staying in while her addition is being built. They brought home some gatorade and such for both of us and we took it easy that night and the entire next day. It was rough, but luckily Caidyn didn't get it!
Monday I rallyed hard because Caidyn and I had a big day planned! Our Christmas Crafting Party was happening! We ran all sorts of errands prepping for that, Christmas breakfast, and the Fiesta! Our friends Robyn with Addison and Matthew, Amy with Brooks, and cousin Sarah with Beau and Adrianna came and we had such a great time painting frames and playing!
On the evening of the 23rd we took our annual drive around Victoria Park in our PJ's with Hot Chocolate to see the lights! We left the doors open this year on my new van and Caidyn loved it so much! She is such a big girl in her forward facing car seat and regular hot chocolate cup!
On Christmas Eve we started a new tradition of decorating cookies and building a gingerbread house. It was a mess and so much fun! I can't wait to get better at decorating and baking together since this was such a fun activity!
Daddy was in charge of Christmas PJ's this year and had us open before Church so we could make sure we had them all set for when we got home from dinner.
Don't mind my started makeup hair not done self - Caidyn said it was time so we went with it!
We took some family pictures all dressed up for church in front of the tree and then went to service at Living Word church. We hadn't been before but are still searching for a church home and heard good things. Caidyn loved it and asked every day for a week if we could "go to church now?". Needless to say we will be back :)
Christmas Eve dinner was hosted by my Grandpa. He did a wonderful job and I know it was so hard for him on his own without Grandma this year. He is such a special man.
We got home from dinner late, put our little girl to bed, and got to work being Santa's elves! It was the most stress free experience we have had! Our wrapping was done, toys were put together already - it was PERFECT! We had a pretty small Christmas (for us). Santa brought Caidyn some doll playing accessories, and we got her a duplo train and some coloring books. Brian and I called each other's gifts the home reno. But we have a lot of family members so even on a small year our tree is very full :) In our house the presents from Santa are unwrapped, and the ones wrapped are from someone. We like that the Santa experience still happens, but we can also appreciated gifts from each other, too.
Our girl loved her toys and played all day with her new baby doll from her MN family. She had such a fun Christmas morning! The Block family came over for breakfast and fun and we just had a nice relaxing morning together!
We spent the afternoon and evening with the Wyss family at Tom and LuAnn's. Our potty training girl stripped down about 2 presents in and spent Christmas in her birthday suit! It was fun a definitely a "two year old" thing!
We were surely blessed by the family with many fun gifts. But the most fun was being pregnant over Christmas with our siblings! It will be so fun watching all the kids grow up together and spend holiday's together - and this was the first!
That is a wrap on all our Christmas festivities! We had an amazing Christmas season. The 26th was our big Fiesta and I can't wait to recap that!!!
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