Christmas Traditions

We celebrated our second Christmas with Bryce and Benjamin this year with a few Christmas traditions! First off is our 2nd annual Christmas card displaying a picture of the boys...it's amazing how much they've grown since our 1st card when they weren't able to sit up on their own yet!

And, here was last year's card :)

This year, we almost decided not to put up a Christmas tree because we feared the boys would keep pulling on it. But, then, we came to our senses and about a week before Christmas, we decided to put up our smaller tree that's white and usually sits at the top of the stairs. We placed it in the only "safe" spot we could find in the corner of our living room with no ornaments to entice the boys!

Here are our two silly monkeys checking out the tree...

And, here they were last year :)

My mother-in-law gave us these adorable frame ornaments last year, and after putting up our white tree, I printed a picture of each of the boys from last Christmas to fill the frames. This is a tradition that my mother-in-law enjoyed doing with pictures of her kids every year, and I'm excited to start doing the same thing with our boys...

I thought it would be fun to also do one with a picture of the two of them together every year...

We also created these ormanents last year of the boys' hand print...



I had Evan hold their hands next to their ormanent so we can see how much they've grown in one year...



These five ornaments were the only ones we hung on the tree this year...high enough where the boys couldn't reach them! We decided, starting this year, we'll use the white tree to hang all the picture ornaments and our big green one will remain our main tree for all the other ornaments. It will be so fun to watch the white tree get covered with more and more pictures every year!

This year, we also hung new stockings monogrammed with each of our names...

Our good friend, Brach, sent the boys The Elf on the Shelf, and we're so excited to start this new tradition with our boys!  Incase you don't know the story, here is the gist of it: The Elf will be sent by Santa every year on Thanksgiving Day to sit on our shelf to watch over the kids. And, each night, after the boys go to bed, the Elf will go back to Santa to report if the boys have been naughty or nice. Then, the Elf will return every morning before the boys wake up, and he'll sit in a different location. So, the boys will have to look for the Elf every morning to see where he'll be sitting that day. Santa has just one rule and that is the kids can not touch the Elf because it might take away his Christmas magic. The Elf will return every morning from Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, and he'll go back to the North Pole on Christmas Day until he returns to our house the following year. The boys are supposed to name their Elf, but since they're too young this year, we decided to wait until next year to name him. :) What a fun tradition! Thank you, Brach!

Another tradition that my in-laws enjoy doing every year with their grandkids is making gingerbread houses. The boys were way too little last year, so this year they each got to decorate their very first gingerbread house! Here's Oma showing Bejamin how the process works...

Bryce much preferred to eat the decorations...specifically, the marshmallows!

Looks like he's saying, "This is good stuff, Oma!"

Benjamin enjoyed the Fruit Loops...so much so that he pushed away his gingerbread house so he can just eat!

Bryce quickly learned that if he brushed the marshmallow against the gingerbread house, he can scoop up some of the sugar to eat with the marshmallow!

He's thinking, "This is the best lunch I've ever had!"

With Opa's help, Benjamin finally catches on and starts sticking Fruit Loops on the roof of his house...

He clapped after seeing his creation...

I think Oma, Opa, Gabrielle and Grant had as much fun as the boys...

Bryce giggling during his sugar-high...

Benjamin started pulling off and eating the Fruit Loops that he had successfully stuck on his roof earlier...

With Gabrielle's help, Bryce also managed to stick a few decorations on his house...

Now that's one content sugar-coated face!

The decorating crew...

I think Bryce was very happy with his work...

The final products...

Going to See Shamu!

Last weekend, Evan and I took the boys to Sea World in San Antonio.  It was our first road trip, so we were very scared to see how the boys were going to react to sitting in their carseats for that long!  On a regular day, they often get antsy after only 30 minutes!  We armed ourselves with dvd players and a stack of dvds and cds of their favorite shows (Yo Gabba Gabba, Jack's Big Music Show, and The Laurie Berkner Band).  We got on the road around 10:30am and the boys fell asleep about 30 minutes after we left...so we were optimistically off to a good start!  Here is Benjamin sweetly napping with Bear...

Unfortunately, the nap only lasted about 30 minutes.  And, shortly after waking up, the boys started getting restless, so we decided to try out the dvd players (even though I was hoping to hold off from using our biggest weapon until at least the second half of the road trip).  Here are pictures of their initial reactions of seeing "tv screens" in the car...Bryce (left) was mesmerized from the get go and Benjamin (right) pointed excitedly at the screen.

A few hours into the drive, we stopped to get gas and let the boys walk around the car to stretch their little legs...

About an hour after that, we stopped again at the Round Rock Outlets to feed the boys lunch and let them run around.  As you can see, they were very happy to do so...

They were quite intrigued by the candy machines, but, luckily, they're still too young to ask for quarters!

By the time we hit the road again, the Friday rush hour had already begun.  And over five hours into the drive, the boys had just about reached their carseat limit!  After much crying, whining, screaming, and deliberate dropping of their bears, pacis and cups (for mom to retrieve everytime), Bryce finally fell asleep.  However, if I remember correctly, Benjamin never did.

Seven hours after leaving the house, we finally made it to our hotel in San Antonio!  I'm not sure who was happier...me or the boys!  After Evan checked us in, we immediately took the boys to our room.  And, while Evan went back outside to unload the car, I watched our two happy little monkeys explore our home for the next two days...

It only took a few minutes for a fight to begin...

And a few seconds more for one of them to knock something off a table...

As soon as Evan came back with all our stuff, we cleared out the living room floor, layed down a big blanket, and brought out their box of toys...

We quickly discovered the need to create a makeshift baby gate...

We purposely got a hotel suite that had a bedroom with a door, so that Evan and I could still watch tv and hang out in the living room after the boys go to bed at 8:30pm.  The sad part is that while the boys slept in their pack 'n plays next to a big unused bed, we slept on a fold out couch in the living room!

Knowing that we were going to be stuck in the hotel after the boys go to bed, I packed a small suitcase of munchies...my, how our travels have changed since having kids!

After a full night's rest, it was time to go see Shamu!  We made a big mistake that day by not checking the time the park opened.  For some reason, we thought it opened at 10am, but, when we got there around 10:30, we discovered it did not open until noon.  We found out that we can enter the park an hour early if we bought tickets to eat lunch with Elmo and his Sesame Street pals.  So, 30 minutes and $70 later, we entered the park...so much for our free Sea World admission tickets!

On the way to our Sesame Street lunch, we stopped to say hello to the dolphins...

The kids absolutely love Elmo and Cookie (that's what they call Cookie Monster), but we quickly found out they much prefer these lovable characters on tv, in books, and as little toys...not live size and in person!  Our poor boys were terrified!

We sat down at our reserved table, and the boys were happy to watch Elmo, Cookie and the rest of the gang from a distance...

But, as soon as one of the characters came by the table...

...the terrified screams began!

They kept pointing at Elmo and Cookie from our table, so we decided to take another stab at introducing the boys to them.  We slowly walked towards Elmo and Cookie...

You can't really tell by this picture, but the boys wanted nothing to do with them and started crying and chanting, "No, no, no, no, no...!"  I turned around and asked Evan to take a quick picture of us with Elmo and Cookie in the background.  I had no idea until seeing the picture that Elmo and Cookie had actually walked over to pose for the picture behind us. :)  They were so cute!

Last attempt to get the boys to warm up to their favorite characters...however, if you look closely at Ben's face, you will see it wasn't working! :(  Elmo and Cookie were sure trying hard though!

No luck with Bert and Ernie either...I don't know who looked more scared, Bert or Ben!

I can't believe they were even scared of adorable Abby Cadabby!  (Confession: I didn't actually know this character's name or any of the other ones until I googled them, except for Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie!)

Zoe tried hard to win the boys over, but still no luck...

"Now, this is what I'm talkin' about! Just leave me alone with my raisins."

"Hey, blue monster, do you want some of these raisins?"

"Never mind, never mind!"  (I must admit, Rosita does look kind of scary here!)

Even cute pink Telly terrifed them...

We finally finished tormenting our poor kids with the scary Sesame Street characters and finished lunch to walk around the park.  We stopped to say hello to the dolphins again...

We nearly got splashed when one swam right infront of us...

Such beautiful creatures!

I think this sweet dolphin was staring right at one of our boys...

Next stop was the beluga whale and dolphin show!  Here we are waiting in line...

Both Bryce and Benjamin were mesmerized by this show...

I don't think Benjamin took his eye off the show for even a second!

Our next stop was the Shamu show!

Before the show started, we asked someone to take a picture of the four of us.  It looks like Benjamin was trying to strangle his momma!

Unfortunately, the Shamu Christmas themed show was really slow and boring, and during the show, the boys were already very tired and cranky.  Afterwards, we bought each of them a stuffed penguin to hold and hoped they would fall asleep in their stroller while walking through the dark penguin exhibit...

Benjamin eventually fell asleep...

But, Bryce got his second wind while we walked through the aquarium...

The boys absolutely love aquariums!  They visited aquariums in three different states before they even turned one!  Poor Benjamin slept through this whole part of Sea World...

Before leaving the park, the boys got their first taste of a delicious churro!  This definitely made two tired and cranky little boys very happy temporarily...

Yummmmy!

It looks like Bryce is asking, "What do you call that yummy thing, mommy?"

It was supposed to have been mommy's churro, but I think mommy only got one bite...daddy got none!

Now, that's a serious churro face!

"Hey, why did you stop feeding us?!"

We barely made it out of the parking lot before exhausted Bryce fell asleep!

Benjamin made it clear that he did not want any more pictures taken of him!

We got back to the hotel and the boys got a bath before going to bed...

Before going to bed, they also discovered the A/C unit and was having a ball running through the curtains and having the cold air blowing on their faces...

The next day, we packed up and headed out early to make it home in time for cousin William's birthday party.  Wow, that's a lot of stuff for a weekend trip!

On the way home we got stuck in standstill traffic to discover a line of police cars and officers all pointing their guns at a vehicle parked on the side of the highway!  As you can see, from where we took this picture, our car was pretty much in the line of fire.  Which reminds me, this past summer, while we were in New York, we found ourselves in the middle of an attempted terrorist bombing on Times Square...and, now this!  Maybe we shouldn't take anymore family trips!

It was exhausting, but we had a great weekend.  We hope to take the boys to Sea World again next year!