oops!

I somehow missed posting about Hailey's holiday party at school.

The Friday before Christmas break, Hailey's class had a holiday party. It was wear your pajamas to school day, so all of the kids were in the pj's.

They had a book gift exchange.

They made reindeer cookies.

They wrote letters to Santa.Then, Mrs. Hardy read them, The Night before Christmas!

All of the kids were totally wired, and excitement was in the air! It was so fun to be a part of her holiday party, but I really needed some Tylenol when I got home. How do those teachers do it every single day?!

Christmas Time

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Hailey was spoiled by everyone, as always! I took tons of pictures, of course. Here are a few of my favorites...Hailey helping to sort of the presents (& Tory hitching a ride!)

Barbie Dream House

Tony putting together the Barbie Fun Jet

cousin hugs!

Hailey with her Christmas Eve pile!

We spent a lot of the day tracking Santa on the computer, thanks to Norad! Hailey loved seeing his sleigh move across the world, and get closer and closer to the United States. With one last check before bed, he was closing in on the neighboring states, so we had to quickly get up to bed so Santa didn't skip over us! Luckily, we had already left out his cookies and Dr. Pepper (Hailey wanted to leave him the same drink that we always left growing up...we always had plenty on hand, as it was my Dad's absolute favorite drink! We borrowed one from him to leave in Santa's mug Christmas Eve), and the carrots for the reindeer!

Hailey was thrilled that Santa left her a little something extra this year, too! Peppermint, her elf on the shelf, must have let Santa know that her Tinkerbell porcelain doll had been damaged. We had the doll on the counter in the kitchen a couple of weeks before Christmas. I was trying to fix the it, but we were missing part of the arm, so I couldn't get it glued back together. A few days before Christmas, Tinkerbell disappeared, and we weren't sure what happened to her. Hailey was delighted to see that Santa had brought her a brand new one on Christmas morning (along with her requested trampoline!) Then, she recalled that when she visited Santa, he told her that he had some other things in mind for her as well (after she told him her requests). She thinks he must have been talking about bringing her a new Tinkerbell doll! It was a nice reminder for Hailey about Santa and his special magic. And, a nice reminder for us about truly believing in the magic of this wonderful season! It is so amazing to be able to re-live all of the magic through the eyes of our daughter!

When she was unloading her stocking, I asked her if there was anything in my stocking. She quickly got up and checked it, and it was empty. I said to her, "Mommy must not have been very good this year. Santa didn't bring me anything..."

She thought about it for just a minute, and then replied "well, yeah! It's probably because of all the yelling you do!"

I'll try to work on that this next year, and see if I can make back onto the nice list!

Winter Wonderlights 2010

This year we, again, went to the Wildlife Museum for their holiday attraction, Winter Wonderlights. The highlight, as always, was Santa Claus. A close second favorite of Hailey's were the reindeer! She always enjoys seeing them. This year Santa had Dasher and Dancer with him, and Hailey loved spending a few minutes checking them over, and asking me how they fly. She seemed to be looking for some kind of wings, or something. But, I had to remind her that they have special magic, and no one really knows how they are able to fly!

The line for Santa was really long, and Hailey was so excited to get inside and see him.When we finally got into his little house, Hailey went right over to him and climbed on his knee. He whispered little reminders to her, like to always give your Mommy and Daddy hugs and kisses, and to be nice, and good all year long. Then, he asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She let him know of some of her wishes (like a trampoline, and Barbie Dream House). Then, Santa told her that he also had some other special things in mind for her, too!Then, she gave Santa a hug before we left.When we got out of his little house, she was thrilled about seeing him, and getting to talk to him, and hug him! Her eyes were all lit up with excitement. We went inside the museum so Hailey could write out her letter to him and drop it in his mailbox before we left.

Oh, and we had to visit the reindeer one last time before we headed out, as well!

Disney On Ice

We went to Disney on Ice with some friends last week! The girls all had so much watching the show together!

Before the show, we went to dinner at Olive Garden.

The girls all got the same Minnie Mouse light spinner toys.

{Delaney, Kendyll & Hailey playing with their new toys on the way home}

And, of course, they all had to have a snow cone, too!

What a fun girls night we had at Disney on ice!

We love Christmas!

I absolutely love this time of year! I love doing all of the decorating, shopping, and wrapping gifts. I love spending time with friends and family, and participating in all of our seasonal traditions! I love all of the holiday festivities, and the holiday specials and movies on TV!

I love decorating the house, and really getting into the Christmas spirit!

We love decorating our gingerbread house every year. We always did it when I was growing up, and I like passing on that tradition to Hailey. Hailey helped with the design of the house this year, and told me where she wanted certain things. I thought it turned out pretty good!Another thing that we did as kids, was the advent calendar. Ours was a little different than this one when I was growing up, but the same idea. There is a stuffed gingerbread man that we move along from pocket to pocket to count down the days until Christmas! Hailey loves moving him every morning and watching him get closer to that last pocket with Santa on it!

I especially love looking over all of our Christmas ornaments on the tree. Almost all of them have very special meaning to us. We like to pick them up from places that we travel, or things that are meaningful to us. I get at least one new one every year. It is so fun to look back and recall the great times we have had, or remember special moments by looking through our ornaments. I took some pics of a some of my favorite ones that we have collected throughout the years.

-Parents-t0-be 2004

-"Heaven's sweetest blessing" Baby's 1st Christmas 2005

-You can't see it very well, but Hailey's foot print is

stamped in this one from her very first Christmas in 2005.

-The first Hawaii one is from our trip in 2003.

Then, the hula girl is the one Hailey picked out for herself from this year's trip.-These mittens were from 1998

Of course we have a few from the Disney cruise, and various years from Walt Disney World!-This was a special keepsake from Hailey's

very first trip to Disney World in 2006.

This is from 1997. It is the first ornament I ever bought

for Tony and I (while we were in college).

We picked up this hand painted sand dollar

while we were on our honeymoon in the Bahamas.

The one above is from our good friends, The Engens. It is nice to have a visible reminder of our friendship, and a way to keep them in our hearts during the holidays!

-I love this hand painted snowman McGee Family!

{Obviously we have lots more ornaments, but I just felt like sharing some pics of a few of them, and what they mean to us. Mostly just for our personal memory keeping purposes!}