We had a nice family Christmas at home, which is my favorite kind. Santa brought the kids a lot of great stuff plus E and I bought the kids a Disney Infinity so there was plenty to keep everyone busy all day (and hopefully for many many more days).

We walked to the 4:30 family service at our church. Caroline wore one of my Christmas dresses.

 Before bed we put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer with a drawing Caroline made and put in an envelope she borrowed from church. Then we sprinkling the lawn with “reindeer food” that Caroline made at school (oats + glitter).

We open one present each on Christmas Eve.

And then we tried to get some photos in our matching jams.

And then after the kids went to bed SANTA CAME!

And then Christmas was chaos. With bacon and waffles.

It was a very Star Wars Christmas.

Caroline is SUPER excited about her first graphic novel.

Christmas happened last week and it already feels like it was a super long time ago. I am NOT looking forward to putting all of it away.

Sunday:

Pretty sure she insists on church JUST for the cookies

Shopping assistant

Dropped the kids off for FOUR HOURS of art (clearly they did not make these)

Monday:

Toddler playdate

Warm enough for a nap-walk

This free-from-the-trash coupe is working out well

Tuesday:

ALOOOOOOOONE shopping

Good dog

Good Daddy

Wednesday:

Blech

How Linc feels about the weather

Side-eye master

Thursday:

Bare feet on Christmas Eve

Last minute Santa cookies

An angel got her wings

Friday:

The only shot I got where they are all in the matching jams

Disney Infinity for 8 hours straight

Sticking to the 4 main food groups

Saturday:

Soooooo much of this

HEY GUYS THEY HAVE CHRISTMAS HERE TOO!

Borrowing toys from his cousins

After that week of super crazy warm weather mother nature is getting us back with rain, freezing rain, more rain, and ice. It’s unpleasant. I’m REALLY wishing I had brought my Vitamin D with me on our trip, because I’ve completely forgotten what the sun looks like.

I have a hundred Christmas photos to post but by the time I do it no one will care about Christmas anymore. Hopefully they are quickly followed by a very interesting recap of my completed 365 photo project, which I am probably never going to shut up about. ALMOST DONE!

We did the Essex Steam Train North Pole Express (it’s basically the Polar Express without the trademark) two years ago and it was great. I skipped it last year because we have to buy tickets in August and last August I had a 1 month old and couldn’t get my act together. Plus E was gone that whole summer/fall and I was VERY sure I couldn’t take 3 kids on a magical nighttime train ride alone. But this year I planned to stay home on ticket day and got my fastest fingers ready and bought tickets for the last train on Caroline’s actual birthday day so we could all go. I think next year I’m going to spring for the first-class tickets. They’re a ridiculous amount of money, but I’m not throwing Caroline a big party next year so I feel like we can swing it. Plus I saw one of the elves who host the first class cars and she looked like a legit magical snow queen. Caroline would lose her actual mind.

It is a wonderfully done event full of good cheer – it’s well organized and everyone goes out of their way to make the kids feel special and really believe in Santa magic. The cars are decorated, there are special songs, they give you cookies and hot cocoa, and the whole last 20 minutes is a big dance party where the kids just go crazy in the aisles. All three kids had a blast.

p.s. In case you were wondering, the pajamas are from Hanna Andersson.

This girl worked at the station and I am not sure if she was an extra elf or a fairy or a snowflake or what, but she chatted with Caroline and it was SO adorable. She told her she peeked at Santa’s list and Caroline was definitely on the nice side. Caroline squealed she was so excited.

Hey look! My blog is working again! It is no longer infected with vicious malware because my host company fixed it. Which is good, because I have literally no idea how that happened OR how to fix it. So here’s last week’s post, late but done.

Sunday:

Nutcracker

Very excited

Luke and Yoda

Monday:

Very scenic view of Groton Long Point

My UPS guy is very busy

Warrior baby

Tuesday:

Santa is delivering these to Linc and Caroline

Helping wrap presents, because babies should totally have scissors

Evan’s “can” sentence: “She can be a superhero”. THAT’S RIGHT SHE CAN.

Wednesday:

Seriously in love with my Rocksbox this time. I might keep the necklace.

This is their favorite game

Sleepy baby

Thursday:

That’s not my fairy!

Twinning

Fish girl

Friday:

Surprised face

Destroyer of worlds

Grown up cards night

Saturday:

Caroline really thought we should keep them

Polar Express train at bedtime = tired baby

But he woke up for the cookies and Santa

Three more days until Christmas and it’s currently 60 degrees outside. We might go to Boston on Christmas Eve because it will be warm enough not to bring coats for walking around. I’m still not complaining, because I am sure we’ll be burried in snow before spring.

The rest of my plans for this week include making fudge and cookies and letting the kids eat as many sweets as they want because Christmas. I love Christmas.

Welcome to Caroline’s Nutcracker Birthday Party! As always, this will be super long and picture heavy.

This is Caroline’s 5th birthday, which means it’s her last big everyone is invited party before we switch to family/special day/maybe a couple friends/sleepover parties. I can’t say she’s quite accepted that fact, since she told me today she wants an ice skating party next year, but I’m pretty happy I only have one kid to plan huge parties for (at least for the foreseeable future). I really do love throwing these huge birthday events but fall is my busy season for photography so doing a birthday on top of that is a tiny bit overwhelming.

With a December birthday and a daughter who has been in ballet for several years already, I’ve been dreaming of a Nutcracker Birthday party for a while. For those who haven’t been reading my blog for 5+ years, her previous themes were: Winter Sparkle Snowflake, Woodland Fairy, Princess and Mermaid. They were all really fun, but this year was the best.

I’m going to put in a page break after a couple of pictures because I just looked and I have 177 edited photos from the party and I’m going to have a hard time cutting that down to an acceptable number. I’ll round up sources at the end and link recipes in the food section, although a lot of the recipes are stuff I’ve linked for every party since her first (because I cannot have a party without thumbprint cookies).

Despite the fact that it is December in Connecticut, the weather was in the mid-60’s for her party. I would have done a lot more outside decorating if I had known the kids were going to spend ALL DAY in the yard or on the porch, but at least I got lights on the house and a couple of Nutcrackers for the planter boxes. I found those at Lowe’s. The sled and wreath are just my standard Christmas decor. It’s really nice that the first act of The Nutcracker is just a Christmas party, so all my decorations were already on theme.

Decor:

I made the wreath using Jill’s tulle wreath tutorial. Super easy and super cute, although glitter tulle is the fabric of the devil.

PINK five balloon from Party City.

Candy cane garland from Oriental Trading, who was kind enough to give me a party budget and send me some of my decor for free because they’re awesome and I am a very, very loyal customer.

Little house from Ikea, circa 2012

Christmas card holder made by my very talented husband. You can see a bunch of Caroline’s invites I used to fill it in until it gets full of holiday cards from friends. Those invites were done by the AMAZING Becca of Jumping Jax Designs. I cannot recommend her more highly – she is creative, talented and so fun. She turned my very vague ideas (“I’m doing sort of all the colors, but girly? And a little vintage? But not too cartoony, still classy. But good for a 5 year old?”) into the CUTEST invitations. The ballerina in the middle has red hair and glasses. I mean.

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