Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year. It is so fun to watch the girls enjoying the spirit of the season!

On Christmas eve we headed out for a family outing to the Shark Reef (best annual pass deal in Vegas). Abby and Kera both love looking at all of the sea creatures.

The rest of Christmas Eve we enjoyed our family traditions of Chinese food for dinner...

...cookie making, decorating, and eating...

...watching Christmas Story (good ol' Ralphy), and reading The Night before Christmas.

Finally, it was time for the girls to go to bed but first, we had to hang the stockings and leave a note and treats for Santa and his main reindeer Rudolf.

Once the girls were in bed my not only did Santa make an appearance but so did Pepe and Burrs. When the girls went to bed the tree had no presents under it and the stockings were empty but, when they woke up this is what they saw...

and Pepe and Burrs! They also got a surprise that Santa had eaten the cookies and left a return note. Plus, Rudolf enjoyed the carrot.

It took us 3 different sessions to get through all the great presents!

We had to stop for breakfast!

The mess might be the best part!

Next, more eating. Our Christmas dinners would not be complete without poppers. In a popper you will find a paper crown (that must be worn throughout dinner), and a toy. The best toy of the night was a fake mustache. Everyone had their turn wearing it.

It was a GREAT day!

Birthday Weekend

Unfortunately, my birthday this year was not the best. I had the flu the day before and then Jim had it on my birthday so...birthday dinner out was completely out of the question. The flu was only really bad for 24 hours but we both had residual symptoms for a week or more. We did manage to do a few things over the weekend...

...dress up with princess Kera...

...Jim's famous homemade pizza...

...and the trip to see Santa. As a reminder, here is our Santa picture from last year:

 Well, this year did not go much better, as we suspected from our trip to see Santa at Tivoli Village a week before. Here is our classic Santa picture for this year:

We love this Santa. It is the 3rd year that we have gone to see him. We did take another picture and it was a bit better:

After seeing Santa we attempted to do a bit of shopping but with 2 kids in tow it was not easy. We did end up getting a few things but I had to return them the following week because they weren't quite right...that is what happens when you are distracted. Well, at least dinner was fun, Johnny Rockets, how can you go wrong with burgers and milkshakes.

We were finally feeling a little bit better by Monday that Jim and the girls gave me my very nice presents. Next year's birthday will be better...no flu!

Grandma Gwen's Visit

On December 5th Grandma Gwen came to stay with us for a week. Originally Jim was supposed to be out of town for 2 weeks and Gwen was going to come to town to help me while he was away but, Jim ended up cancelled his trip. Gwen already has her flight plans so she still was able to came for a visit. It was good to see her and the girls loved spending so much time with their grandma. Gwen got to experience a typical week at the Rogers but we also did some special things while she was here.

Tuesday we had dance class.

Wednesday we had our neighborhood friends over and maid snow globes:

Thursday we had storytime...

 ...with Starbucks afterwards of course.

Thursday night was the Steelers vs. Browns football game. Steelers won 14-3.

On Friday Gwen and I took the girls to the Secrete Garden at the Mirage to see the dolphins and the white lions and tigers. Over the last several months there have been 2 baby dolphins born. It was so fun to see them swimming with their mothers.

and the cats are always so beautiful:

On Friday night we planned on taking the girls to Tivoli Village to go on a sleigh ride with Santa but unfortunately his sleigh was a no show. In a way it was actually a good thing because Abby was petrified by Santa. She even had me tell him what she wanted for Christmas, a big Buzz Lightyear like her friend Rohan's.

Well since we were already at Tivoli we still played on the playground...

...and stopped for cappuccinos and hot chocolate.

On Saturday Jim and I had great plans to take Abby to see the live action version of Lion King at Mandalay Bay. The show left town on December 30th and we wanted her to see it before it was gone. Gwen was nice enough to stay home and watch Kera.

 I said we had great plans because we only saw about 15 min of the show. Unfortunately, Abby was too scarred! We even tried sitting in the lobby for a while hoping that we could go back in. A lot of the actors come down the aisles and they wait in the lobby to enter the theater. They are also partially in their costumes while they are waiting so we were hoping that we could show Abby that it was just like wearing Halloween costumes but...no luck. We left...BUMMER!

On Sunday Jim and I headed out to find our Christmas tree. It was not a huge adventure...we drove all the way to Home Depot and picked-up the 2nd tree we saw. Being from Seattle I felt very wrong about all this but, it was a beautiful tree.

Jim put on the light with some help from Abby...

...the ladies put on the ornaments...

...and Jim finished the tree off with the star.

Also while Grandma Gwen was here the girls had a GREAT showing her their toys...

...going on walks...

...and getting many stories read to them.

Thank you for visiting Grandma!