We started off the first part of December with Malia's annual Christmas Dance party. She did wonderfully. It is so neat to look back at her old videos and see how much she has grown and learned in the last 2 1/2 years. Her dance teacher, Miss Laura, adores her and Malia loves her!
Then each of the kids had Christmas music programs. Last year they got a new music teacher and she feels it's important to show the parents what the kids are learning and to give the kids the opportunity to perform. It's been so fun to see them perform! Last year they did the program for all of the grades all in one night. What a nightmare!!! They had a much larger turnout than expected and the school was filled beyond capacity and you could barely hear or see your child perform. This year she broke it up into 3 separate nights, which was much better. So we saw Malia perform with her peers one night and Mason on another. The shows were fantastic and the kids had fun performing for us! It really brought the Christmas spirit!
Malia's program-she's the short one in the red dress in front
Maiya had her obligatory naked pictures taken. We have a naked picture of each of our children when they are babies. We hadn't had any professional pictures taken of Maiya since she was 5 weeks! With her 1st birthday just around the corner we knew we needed to do it before the time passed us by. It was a fun session and she did so well!
The week before Christmas, Malia got her cast off. She was so happy not to have that on anymore!
Then of course we had our Christmas celebrations! The night before Christmas Eve, Malia, Makai, and I made sugar cookies to frost and decorate for Santa. Mason wasn't interested in helping, he was too busy playing his Nintendo DS. The kids had a lot of fun and didn't make too much of a mess!
Makai cutting out cookies
Malia cutting out cookies
Christmas Eve we sat down as a family and read the story of Christ's birth and discussed the importance of Christmas for each of us beyond the visit from Santa, gifts, candy and food. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to teach our children, especially now that the older ones can really understand. We then continued with our tradition of letting the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve, their Christmas pjs.
Makai loved his new Cars pjs
Mason with his Mario Bros pjs
Malia with her Hello Kitty pjs
Maiya enjoying the box more than the gift!
All of the kids in their pjs
Piggy back rides before bed
It was a practical Christmas for us, and most of it bought with sales and coupons!! The kids did each receive something they wanted, but mostly got what they needed. It was nice not to stress the holiday this year, and I don't even think the kids noticed anything different this year from year's past. We had both of our families over on Christmas Day to help us celebrate. Thad's parents and 2 of his brothers came over in the morning for breakfast and opening gifts. Then my family came over in the afternoon for gifts and dinner. It was fun to spend time with everyone!
Checking out what Santa brought
Maiya's new popper toy Santa brought
Maiya in her new outfit Santa brought her
Love her dark curly hair!
Makai with one of the many cars he got-this kid loves cars!
Claire with Papa Gene
Maiya sporting some shiny bows in her hair
It was an exhausting day apparently
Maiya had a lot of firsts this month! She learned to clap her hands, said her first word "Mama", rolled from her tummy to her back, sat up on her own, then rolled from her back to her tummy, and got her 2nd tooth! She has been a busy little girl!! Happy New Year to everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment