The Kellogg Family Christmas 2008
It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like ChristmasAround Thanksgiving time, Nana and Papa began pulling out all of their wonderful Christmas decorations. They really do an amazing job on their yard so it takes a couple of weeks to get all of the outdoors and indoors holiday ready. The kids and I went over for a walk and Papa and Uncle Michael were decorating the yard. Both kids were in the middle of everything! 
So very excited to help get ready for Christmas. I'm not sure if Papa and Uncle Michael felt quite as helped as the kids thought they were being. LOL 
Dallin was bouncing up and down - "look mommy! reindeers! look it's christmas eve!" I help! Let me help" 
It was magical to them to see it coming together.
It was of the utmost importance to Dallin this year that we have a tree right away. Apparently "Santa can not come without a tree and snow". We were able to con our way out of the snow part, but the tree was VERY important. Dallin was so into it, that we actually went out and got our first REAL Christmas tree. We really enjoyed it. It was sooo beautiful and smelled great the entire holiday. Plus Dallin had watched the Caillou holiday movie and wanted to be able to pick his tree out. Fortunately, we were able to guide him towards the cheapest real tree at Wal-Mart. Then we bought a few red plastic bulbs and some silver jingle bells (aka kid alarms! LOL) and we went home to being our first real tree trimming.
The kids were so excited. Dallin insisted that we sing "all together" Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad over and over. Surprisingly, he knew most of the words! He bounced back and forth decorating the tree with the pure joy and magic of childhood Christmas shining in his eyes. 
I wanted to hold onto this year's magic forever. Kate helped decorate the tree too, although most of her ornaments were simply shoved between two branches. 
We got them all up and Dallin put the angel on top. 
When we turned on the lights, it was truly quite beautiful. The kids DID move some of the ornaments, but we soon enacted the "if you touch the ornaments you are in the corner" law and it soon ceased. Dallin, very protective of his tree, was sure to tell me every time Kate touched the tree. (Although a couple of times, I did catch him coaxing her over to do it....and then he would tell on her...what a turkey!)
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Lean Your Ear This Way
We celebrated the traditional German St. Nicholas day on December 6 by having the kids put their shoes outside their bedroom doors before bed. Christopher's great grandmother was from Germany so we like to keep some of that tradition going. The kids were very excited. Dallin thought it was Christmas Eve (AGAIN). Even Christopher and I put our shoes out. We told the kids that St. Nicholas was going to come and check on them before Christmas Eve and that if they were good he would leave a treat in their shoes. Dallin thought that was "so silly!". We read the story of St Nicholas, made cookies for him, placed them by the shoes(Dallin wanted to leave him all 24 cookies the kids had decorated and insisted that he WOULD eat them ALL...luckily I convinced him that 3 was enough so we could keep some too) Then they were off to bed. I thought Dallin would NEVER go to sleep! The next morning, they each got a Christmas ornament and a couple of small trinkets. They were soooo very excited.
Feliz Navidad ("Fleece Navi gog")
We also had a lot of fun getting together with my family and doing things like decorating sugar cookies, making snowflakes, driving around to see Christmas lights, and singing Christmas carols.
Dallin LOVED singing Christmas carols this year. His Favorites were Jingle Bells and Fleece Navi gog (Feliz Navidad). He actually knew most of the words and would spontaneously break into song and ask everyone to join in. It really kept the Christmas spirit burning bright and brough a lot of joy into the holidays. Dallin would sing and dance (even with baby Maddie..who was very happy to do it with her Daddy's help) Whenever we would all sing together, Dallin just beamed and relaxed so completely. 
He actually sat there one night and almost fell asleep after singing carols for an hour (and still didn't want to stop) It was fun letting the kids decorate cookies this year. Kate usually ended up more frosted than the cookie and ALWAYS frosted her cookie with the wrong end of the knife and POURED on the sprinkles. 
Dallin used EVERY color of frosting on every cookie and tons of sprinkles as well. 
The kids weren't really into the "snowflakes" but enjoyed going after a pieve of paper with safety scissors. 
The grownups made some cool ones though with Santas and snowmen and candy canes. We even made gingerbread houses together out of graham crackers and candy (which my kids feasted on through the month) 
We also got to go to our first Christmas parade in Pflugerville. It was hard to wait for it to get dark enough (it was a light parade), but once the parade started and the candy started flying...my kiddos were mesmerized. Uncle Willie even fought a pack of little girls to get a necklace for Kate. My favorite parts of the parade were when the police escorts came with their sirens to start the parade right in front of the float with Santa on it and Dallin said "Santa is being ARRESTED!!??" LOL and the last float of the parade that said "Keep Christ in Christmas" and then had a big Santa and sleigh theme...hmmm...lol
O Little Town of Bethlehem
We went to Burnet Texas and saw a live nativity (Main Street Bethlehem). They had actually recreated what Bethlehem was like with costumes, buildings, actors, animals, food. It was quite amazing, but WAY crowded. Dallin was a man on a mission. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only...to find Baby Jesus. It was so precious. He kept asking "Where is baby Jesus? Are we almost to baby Jesus? Baby Jesus, where are you?" We followed the star
and after some time, found baby Jesus in the stable. After he shouted "There he is!!", Dallin took Kate and they ran over to the stable scene. Then kids both knelt down by the hay bales and looked on silently only occasionally would Dallin look at me and say "look mommy it is baby Jesus...shhh...he's sleeping!". After that, he was satisfied and we went home. I was very impressed by how reverenced my kids were. 
I half expected Dallin to go crawling over the hay bales and ask Mary to hold Jesus or be jumping up and down yelling, but he was so still. It really touched my heart how much this meant to him.
Silent Night, Holy Night
After much waiting and anticipation, Christmas Eve finally arrived (the REAL Christmas Eve...not the one Dallin thought it was every time we did anything for the holidays). We had our traditional Subway sandwiches and we acted out the Nativity. I read this year. Dallin was a shepherd (with a candy cane), Christopher was a donkey (LOL), my dad was a shepherd, my mom and Michael were wisemen, and Tammy Will and Maddie were Mary Joseph and Jesus. Kate was nothing as she was rolling on the floor throwing a temper tantrum.
It was funny (as most family pageants with small children are) but also spiritual and reminded everyone of why we were celebrating to begin with. We all got to open a gift--new pjs for Christmas day! Then we made some cookies for Santa and left them out with some milk (and some carrots for the reindeer by the fireplace) We slept at my parents' home and it took the kids FOREVER to fall asleep. Dallin finally crawled in and fell asleep with Kate...
you could almost see the visions of sugarplums.
So very excited to help get ready for Christmas. I'm not sure if Papa and Uncle Michael felt quite as helped as the kids thought they were being. LOL 
Dallin was bouncing up and down - "look mommy! reindeers! look it's christmas eve!" I help! Let me help" 
It was magical to them to see it coming together. Also my parents put up a BIG Santa looking at his list in the entry way. He is about as big as Dallin. First thing, my kids did was to try and pull off his glasses. We quickly explained that Santa couldn't bring toys without his glasses---that put an end to it VERY quickly. My kids kept hugging on and talking to the big Santa all through the holidays. "Are you ok Santa? Hi Santa! I be good Santa", 
but I have to say that my favorite was on Christmas day when Kate kept quietly going over to Santa in the middle of all the hustle and bustle to put her arms around him and say "Thank you Santa!" and plant a kiss right on his cheek. 
What a sweetheart!
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
but I have to say that my favorite was on Christmas day when Kate kept quietly going over to Santa in the middle of all the hustle and bustle to put her arms around him and say "Thank you Santa!" and plant a kiss right on his cheek. 
What a sweetheart! It was of the utmost importance to Dallin this year that we have a tree right away. Apparently "Santa can not come without a tree and snow". We were able to con our way out of the snow part, but the tree was VERY important. Dallin was so into it, that we actually went out and got our first REAL Christmas tree. We really enjoyed it. It was sooo beautiful and smelled great the entire holiday. Plus Dallin had watched the Caillou holiday movie and wanted to be able to pick his tree out. Fortunately, we were able to guide him towards the cheapest real tree at Wal-Mart. Then we bought a few red plastic bulbs and some silver jingle bells (aka kid alarms! LOL) and we went home to being our first real tree trimming.
The kids were so excited. Dallin insisted that we sing "all together" Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad over and over. Surprisingly, he knew most of the words! He bounced back and forth decorating the tree with the pure joy and magic of childhood Christmas shining in his eyes. 
I wanted to hold onto this year's magic forever. Kate helped decorate the tree too, although most of her ornaments were simply shoved between two branches. 
We got them all up and Dallin put the angel on top. 
When we turned on the lights, it was truly quite beautiful. The kids DID move some of the ornaments, but we soon enacted the "if you touch the ornaments you are in the corner" law and it soon ceased. Dallin, very protective of his tree, was sure to tell me every time Kate touched the tree. (Although a couple of times, I did catch him coaxing her over to do it....and then he would tell on her...what a turkey!)Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, Lean Your Ear This Way
We celebrated the traditional German St. Nicholas day on December 6 by having the kids put their shoes outside their bedroom doors before bed. Christopher's great grandmother was from Germany so we like to keep some of that tradition going. The kids were very excited. Dallin thought it was Christmas Eve (AGAIN). Even Christopher and I put our shoes out. We told the kids that St. Nicholas was going to come and check on them before Christmas Eve and that if they were good he would leave a treat in their shoes. Dallin thought that was "so silly!". We read the story of St Nicholas, made cookies for him, placed them by the shoes(Dallin wanted to leave him all 24 cookies the kids had decorated and insisted that he WOULD eat them ALL...luckily I convinced him that 3 was enough so we could keep some too) Then they were off to bed. I thought Dallin would NEVER go to sleep! The next morning, they each got a Christmas ornament and a couple of small trinkets. They were soooo very excited.
Feliz Navidad ("Fleece Navi gog")
We also had a lot of fun getting together with my family and doing things like decorating sugar cookies, making snowflakes, driving around to see Christmas lights, and singing Christmas carols.
Dallin LOVED singing Christmas carols this year. His Favorites were Jingle Bells and Fleece Navi gog (Feliz Navidad). He actually knew most of the words and would spontaneously break into song and ask everyone to join in. It really kept the Christmas spirit burning bright and brough a lot of joy into the holidays. Dallin would sing and dance (even with baby Maddie..who was very happy to do it with her Daddy's help) Whenever we would all sing together, Dallin just beamed and relaxed so completely. 
He actually sat there one night and almost fell asleep after singing carols for an hour (and still didn't want to stop) It was fun letting the kids decorate cookies this year. Kate usually ended up more frosted than the cookie and ALWAYS frosted her cookie with the wrong end of the knife and POURED on the sprinkles. 
Dallin used EVERY color of frosting on every cookie and tons of sprinkles as well. 
The kids weren't really into the "snowflakes" but enjoyed going after a pieve of paper with safety scissors. 
The grownups made some cool ones though with Santas and snowmen and candy canes. We even made gingerbread houses together out of graham crackers and candy (which my kids feasted on through the month) 
We also got to go to our first Christmas parade in Pflugerville. It was hard to wait for it to get dark enough (it was a light parade), but once the parade started and the candy started flying...my kiddos were mesmerized. Uncle Willie even fought a pack of little girls to get a necklace for Kate. My favorite parts of the parade were when the police escorts came with their sirens to start the parade right in front of the float with Santa on it and Dallin said "Santa is being ARRESTED!!??" LOL and the last float of the parade that said "Keep Christ in Christmas" and then had a big Santa and sleigh theme...hmmm...lol
O Little Town of Bethlehem
We went to Burnet Texas and saw a live nativity (Main Street Bethlehem). They had actually recreated what Bethlehem was like with costumes, buildings, actors, animals, food. It was quite amazing, but WAY crowded. Dallin was a man on a mission. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only...to find Baby Jesus. It was so precious. He kept asking "Where is baby Jesus? Are we almost to baby Jesus? Baby Jesus, where are you?" We followed the star
and after some time, found baby Jesus in the stable. After he shouted "There he is!!", Dallin took Kate and they ran over to the stable scene. Then kids both knelt down by the hay bales and looked on silently only occasionally would Dallin look at me and say "look mommy it is baby Jesus...shhh...he's sleeping!". After that, he was satisfied and we went home. I was very impressed by how reverenced my kids were. 
I half expected Dallin to go crawling over the hay bales and ask Mary to hold Jesus or be jumping up and down yelling, but he was so still. It really touched my heart how much this meant to him.Silent Night, Holy Night
After much waiting and anticipation, Christmas Eve finally arrived (the REAL Christmas Eve...not the one Dallin thought it was every time we did anything for the holidays). We had our traditional Subway sandwiches and we acted out the Nativity. I read this year. Dallin was a shepherd (with a candy cane), Christopher was a donkey (LOL), my dad was a shepherd, my mom and Michael were wisemen, and Tammy Will and Maddie were Mary Joseph and Jesus. Kate was nothing as she was rolling on the floor throwing a temper tantrum.
It was funny (as most family pageants with small children are) but also spiritual and reminded everyone of why we were celebrating to begin with. We all got to open a gift--new pjs for Christmas day! Then we made some cookies for Santa and left them out with some milk (and some carrots for the reindeer by the fireplace) We slept at my parents' home and it took the kids FOREVER to fall asleep. Dallin finally crawled in and fell asleep with Kate...
you could almost see the visions of sugarplums. We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Christmas morning came early...about 4:45 am. Thanks to Netflix streaming movies, we were able to keep the kids in our room watching Rataouille ("Rata tootie") until 6am when the missionaries arrived and everyone was ready to go out. We ran out and Dallin checked to see the carrots and the cookies...yep...both eaten...amazing! Then on to see what Santa had left. What a HAUL!
We were all VERY spoiled and had a great time playing and opening gifts. Dallin got a scooter and the roller skates 
and Kate got her own (mom powered) bike complete with helmet. 
They were VERY excited! They rode around and around and around the house all day. Kate and Maddie got long pretend hair and it was funny to see them running around with long pink/purple hair all day. 
Dallin and Kate also got lots of other fun toys and nice clothes. They were especially excited about their new cooking set from Grandpa and Grandma...yes, we are playing "food" much more often now. 
We had a beautiful Christmas dinner and then hauled all of our things back over to our house.
It was a wonderful holiday season for us and we hope you all had wonderful holidays too. It was amazing to be with my whole family and see Maddie's first Christmas. You could see the magic and the joy of it all on Dallin's and Kate's faces and it really made me feel the spirit of what Christmas is about even more this year. I look forward to many more years of magical Christmas seasons and memories.
Christmas morning came early...about 4:45 am. Thanks to Netflix streaming movies, we were able to keep the kids in our room watching Rataouille ("Rata tootie") until 6am when the missionaries arrived and everyone was ready to go out. We ran out and Dallin checked to see the carrots and the cookies...yep...both eaten...amazing! Then on to see what Santa had left. What a HAUL!
We were all VERY spoiled and had a great time playing and opening gifts. Dallin got a scooter and the roller skates 
and Kate got her own (mom powered) bike complete with helmet. 
They were VERY excited! They rode around and around and around the house all day. Kate and Maddie got long pretend hair and it was funny to see them running around with long pink/purple hair all day. 
Dallin and Kate also got lots of other fun toys and nice clothes. They were especially excited about their new cooking set from Grandpa and Grandma...yes, we are playing "food" much more often now. 
We had a beautiful Christmas dinner and then hauled all of our things back over to our house.It was a wonderful holiday season for us and we hope you all had wonderful holidays too. It was amazing to be with my whole family and see Maddie's first Christmas. You could see the magic and the joy of it all on Dallin's and Kate's faces and it really made me feel the spirit of what Christmas is about even more this year. I look forward to many more years of magical Christmas seasons and memories.
4 comments:
Wow! What a Christmas! We had so much fun enjoying the season with you guys! I like the first photo of Dallin and Kate by the tree (so cute) and the one on Christmas Eve, where they crawled into the playpin together to sleep. (adorable) I'm glad you decided to post! Happy late Christmas!
It was so fun to re-live our Christmas adventure. It was so much fun wasn't it? And a blessing on its' own...no one got sick until AFTER Christmas. Thanks for sharing all the memories and special Christmas pictures! Love you all!
That's a wonderful Christmas!!! I really enjoyed that! The pictures are so adorable!!! CUTE KIDS!!!!
And yes, we do have a place. So far our only plan is to work. It has all happened rather quickly.
I just love big ol' Christmas posts! Very fun :) We bought Emma a very similar tricycle for Christmas and she loves it.
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