Well of course Art Noel welcomed Grandpa and Grandma Michigan! The kids were so excited to see Art Noel hanging there for Grandma and Grandpa!
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| "Welcome Grandpa and Grandma Michigan" |
First thing we celebrated Birthdays! Jax will be 2 in a few days. And what did he get? A DRUM. ACK! Remind me to thank them later with a sound recording!
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| "Uh is it?" |
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| Oh joy of joys. Yes, we kept hearing "MINE" all night as brother and sister tried to grab it! |
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| Loren got a Skipper doll! She LOVED the bike! |
Loren also got a birthday gift from Great Grandma Burgess!
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| It was hard to get her to play with anything else! She loved this toy! |
And Zach also got a birthday present from Grandma Burgess. He can't wait to play Ninja Turtles with Uncle Kris!
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| He decided to play Ninja Turtles save the Barbies. It was hilarious! I love watching my kids pretend play! |
Afterwards we did one of our favorite Christmas Traditions: Old Town St. Charles. There are Christmas Characters everywhere! They hand out cards to the kids while interacting with them. In total there are 35 characters. We were able to collect 20 of the 35 cards! Their favorite ones were Scrooge ("Why are you smiling at me? Do not wish me a Merry Christmas. Go boil yourself in your own pudding."), Sugar Plum Fairy and *of course* Jack Frost ("Child, do you realize you have a lion on top of your head? What is this sparkly pink stuff on your head? Why is it not blue?"
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| We got so many compliments on our kids outfits! I have such beautiful kids! |
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| The two nutcrackers! |
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| Perre Noel |
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| Frontier Santa |
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| Jack Frost was the favorite! Look at Jack-Jack's face!!! |
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| The Carolers were my personal favorite! The sing the most lovely songs in British Accents. I love it! |
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| The Elf! |
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| The Russian Santa for Aunt Yelena |
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| The Sugar Plum Fairy asked Loren to teach her a dance to turn our dreams into Christmas Treats! It was adorable! |
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| The angle who sits on top of our tree! The kids thought she was just so beautiful! |
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| Zach had a bit of a crush! |
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| The little flower peddler! |
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| These are Mike's Favorites! They are chestnut roasters. You can buy a roasted Chestnut for 25 cents. Let me tell you how disgusting a roasted chestnut is. It has the texture of mashed potatoes and the taste resembles mashed potatoes but is off and just a bit "wrong." It's nasty! The roasters though are hilarious! They love to heckle you and give you nothing but trouble! |
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| Yeah. What are you? Yes, that's the American Santa Claus. Yeah, Jack has the right face "What the heck are you." |
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| Climb the statue. Sigh. |
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| Watching the British drum-line! Piccolos and drums. Amazing talent! |
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| The kids with one of the "boys" :) |
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| Singing Carols with the Carolers! :) |
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| Resting. |
We completely wore out Grandpa!
The next day we had our Rozema Christmas! The kids couldn't find Art Noel all morning! They finally found him in Grandma's Package!
The first gift of Christmas was Jackson's very own BEARS CHRISTMAS SANTA HAT!
And Zach got his double light saber! He was THRILLED!
Loren got crafts, crafts and more crafts!
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| Jax got a Lions hoodie. We love it! Brings out his baby blues! |
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| Our sons playing with his new ramp! |
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| Grandpa loves his magazine! |
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| Grandma got some more of her china! |
We were spoiled and thankful to the Rozema Family for their generosity!
That night we went to our other favorite Christmas Tradition. If you have never done
Journey to Bethlehem I HIGHLY recommend it! Grandma and Grandpa couldn't believe something we had to wait LITERALLY 2 hours in line to see could be worth it. By the end, they were saying "WOAH, WORTH IT!" It truly is amazing and puts the Christmas season into perspective!
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| This is only 1/2 of the line to get in! We waited in 2 one hour lines! |
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| It was a bit chilly at 40 degrees. We snuggled up tight! |
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| Mike held Jax for HOURS. His poor wrists were killing him! |
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| There were tons of live animals. Goats, Cows, Camels, Sheep! It was amazing! |
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| The Three Magi from the East. |
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| Upon arrival we were given "papers" that had our names. Our family was the Eli family. Our names were Mark (Mike), Sharon (Kimberly), Hannah (Loren), Jon (Zach) and Michael (Jax). At all times we had to have our papers as the Roman guard would come and scream at you to show your papers (Which is occurring in this picture.) Then they demanded Taxes from us. Jon (zach) took this very serious and kept trying to keep his grandpa safe! |
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| And in the end, we find baby Jesus has been born to Mary and Joseph. I cry every year. |
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| Then we make it to the promised land where there are over 40,000 homemade Christmas cookies and hot chocolate waiting! |
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| We were all sore and tired from standing 3 hours. It was worth it and it is still Loren's favorite tradition! |
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| Zach didn't make it home. . .he didn't even make it out of the driveway! Wow. |
And Sunday Morning, Art Noel delved into the breakfast donuts! Yumo!
