Ho-Ho-Ho The Holidays

The last month has been a busy one with Bryan succeeding in finalizing joint custody of his daughters, Allie and Lina, moving the girls in, and preparing for the holidays. It's been a whirlwind of change but we have enjoyed every minute of it.
I have forgotten after all of those years of babysitting, how much there is to do but also how much fun it can be.

We had a 12 Days until Christmas countdown this year where the girls had a chance to open a new stocking each day filled with a tiny ornament for their tree. At first it was Allie that would be really anxious to open the next gift that she could hardly stand waiting until the next day but soon Lina caught on with the excitement saying "Kissmas, Kissmas" and pointing to the stockings.

My family decorates gingerbread houses at Christmas time so we decided to make one of our own this year. I didn't realize until the last minute that I didn't have much cookie dough to work with so Bryan had the innovative idea to make a Gingerbread Castle. We made a mess but it turned out really cute.

Allie often reminds people that she really lives in New York (that's where she was born). She was telling us that she really misses the snow. With this is mind, we took the kids to Town Square where it snows every night at 7 and 8pm. Town Square has a labrynth maze and little play houses all over. We had a great time playing.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Bryan's parents, Marshall and Deborah. Trying to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas, we continued old traditions and started new ones. As an Edwards family tradition, we sang Christmas carols, Happy Birthday to Jesus and each wrote down our gift to Jesus for the year. Bryan started the tradition of buying Christmas books to read to the girls during the holidays. Marshall read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the girls before putting them to bed to wait for Santa.

Christmas Day the kids opened all of their presents with their big present being scooters. Bryan, the big kid at heart, got a new skateboard. Every spare minute, we spend the afternoon at the park skating around. Merry Christmas everyone.