It's Christmastime In The City.....Err I mean MA!!!

We had our Watson Christmas in MA over the weekend. It was so much fun!! Mom and Dad always go all out and Dad spends way too much time shopping for just the right gift, baking all the holiday cookies, wrapping presents, etc!! ha ha! Seriously, it is always a fun time and many memories are made. The kids were excellent! They are at the age now that they pretty much entertain themselves. I've noticed that lately Haydn and Porter play a lot together and Stella and Hannah have always played great together. Haydn really liked the tool set that Porter received from Vada. That was the only downer, the Cunninghams were not able to be "home" for Christmas, but hopefully we will see them soon!! *hint, hint* Get your hineys back to IA, Cunninghams!! :)
We let the shorties open up the gifts from the cousins on Saturday morning. Porter got a power tool set from Vada---he is obsessed with it!!

Oh and these photos are totally out of order by the way! Sorry! Santa Claus made a special appearance on Friday evening! Mom and Dad had a little party and lo and behold Santa showed up after a bit! :) (For those of you wondering it was Lynn R.)

Santa brought a special "adult" gift for Dad. It was something along the lines of a Tiger Woods Viagra??? Not sure about all of that! :) The annual reading of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas before heading off to mass on Saturday night. Only missing Vada Rose!

Papa always is great about taking the kiddos in the hot tub. They LOVE the hot tub!

Before church on Saturday night. Doesn't Hannah look excited! LOL!!!!!!!!

Sunday morning we opened gifts. Porters favorite was his Batcave! He's played with it nonstop since we got home.

Stella's favorite was her make-up!! The Little's on Saturday night.

Us on Saturday night.

Christams Concert

Stella had her Christmas concert today at school. They sang around 10 songs and she did a great job remembering all of the words and motions! She was excited about her concert!
Here she is walking into the church with her classmates. Porter didn't want his photo taken!

Singing away! She's in the second row, second from the left.

More singing!

Dad and Mom were able to come up to watch her concert. Stella thought that was pretty cool!!!

Santa also made an appearance at the reception after the concert. Today Stella asked him for a trampoline!!! I have no clue where that came from, she has never once mentioned a trampoline. So now she wants a hot tub and a trampoline.....glad she doesn't have expensive taste or anything! :)

Cookies, Frosting and Frosty!

Last week Mike was out of town all week and we were snowed in a most of the time he was gone!! We found ourselves staying entertained with lots of Christmastime activities. One morning was spent rolling out cookie dough that we made the night before, cutting out cookies and frosting them.

Some of the finished products!! Now, don't be beating down my door trying to be the first to gobble up these beautiful sugar cookies!

How I found them hiding after making the cookies! Thankfully the bookcase is screwed into the wall so it won't fall over on them!

Today Porter kept asking to go outside and build a snowman. When I took them out earlier in the week the snow wouldn't really stick together well for a snowman. Stella was pretty sure that since Daddy was home now HE'D be able to make one!!!

Here they are in front of the pile of snow in front of the neighbors house.

On top of the snow mountain!

Porter helping Mike out.

With Frosty! And for the record, the snow still isn't very good for building a snowman which is why he is so small! And we didn't have a big carrot for the nose, so we used orange sidewalk chalk! :)

Holiday Party

I'm fortunate enough to belong to a stay at home mom group with a great bunch of mamas! There are 13 of us that created this little group and we always have lots of fun together. The kids have grown up together and the hubbys even have gotten to know each other well. Last weekend we hosted our annual Sassy Mama holiday party. All but one member was able to make it, so needless to say it was a full house at our casa! The kids had a little gift exchange which was a lot of fun.
Here are the ladies that keep me sane most days! :) I didn't get a group shot of the kids, but I really wished I would of! Stella and Berlin

Chit-chatting

Some of the guys Playing

And the aftermath!!Stay-At-Home-Moms with a drinking and eating problem?!?!?! ha ha!!!

Toys....................

Winter Wonderland

We received our first snow of the season yesterday. The kids were dying to out in the white fluffy stuff and play.
Porter wanted to get out his shovel and help mommy! They both LOVED eating the snow....don't worry it wasn't yellow snow...ha ha!

Snowball fight! Look at that fierce face!

Snow angel

Mr. Rosy Cheeks was ready to go inside by this point! :)

During the night the wind picked up and we are now in a blizzard warning so no playing outside today.....actually probably no leaving the house today! Here are a couple pics of the drifting snow on our deck area.

Santa Claus!

Today Stella, Porter and I headed to the mall to see Mr. Claus!!! :) They were excited and wore their Christmas outfits. I actually got a little shopping done, too!
They saw this reindeer right away when we walked in and thought he was so funny. Stella was climbing all over him! Running up to Santa to give him their lists. I meant to take a pic of Stella's list and now I'm too lazy to upload it! She wrote it out all by herself (I had to tell her how things were spelled). She asked for 5 things: Connect 4, a doll, make-up, wrapping paper (not sure why she wants this!!!) and a HOT TUB!!!!!! (I think that is a good present for Uncle Chris to give her!!!!!! :) Porter also asked for 5 things: blue cowboy hat, blue scissors, movie with spider, frogs and tigers in it (he means the Planet Earth box set, they are obsessed with this movie each time we are at Costco and Santa already has that picked up for him!), Batman, blue water gun and he added All Of Them! (which I guess means he wants every blue water gun on earth!) It was fun to hear what they wanted for Christmas and their crazy requests!!

Going over their lists.

Porter buttering up the ole jolly guy.

Stella making sure that Santa understands everything on her list.

Group photo!

Of course you can't go visit Santa and not ride the train!! Here they are waiting to buy their train tickets.

Choo choooooo!!!

Stella and Porter fight a lot lately! Today I was cleaning the house like a mad man and Porter didn't want a nap. We got the Pinocchio DVD a few days at the library so I let them watch that while I was cleaning. I came downstairs to find them on the couch like this. I about fell over, they were being so nice to each other! But as soon as the movie was over the bickering started up again! :)