Christmas with the Fairs: 2016

After everyone left our house from breakfast, we cleaned up - the house and ourselves - and then headed over to Mimi and Pop's house for a little more Christmas. My aunt Pam had brought her Bingo game stuff and everyone had contributed to the prize table. And everyone played! It was so fun. The boys especially loved it.

We used dry beans to mark our bingo cards. The boys had already opened their stocking stuff at Mimi's house...and Elliot the Dragon (from Pete's Dragon) was one of the surprises inside!

Lunch was super-easy, which we've come to love. We have our traditional meal of curried meat pies, toppings, and a salad. It's so nice to spend Christmas actually enjoying family and the day rather than slaving over a meal in the kitchen! The clean-up for this meal is quick and easy too. 

Kevin brought over some of his cider and juices to mix in. Tasty!

There were two small Lego sets as prizes for bingo. They were Ethan's first two choices when he won. He gave one to Logan. Logan's first two prize choices were bags of chocolate gold coins!

Before long, it was time for presents! The boys took the part of the elves and delivered all the packages. 

With a smile!

One of the first ones Ethan opened had money inside! 

Logan got his very own bow and arrow set. And this thing is amazing - now that we've played with it some. It's so fast and goes really far! Let's see if we can be careful not to "misplace" the arrows.

This hovering soccer puck is really fun too! You just turn it on and place it on a hard floor like wood and kick it around. Aunt Pam and Uncle Steve got those for the boys. 

Mimi and Pop got Ethan a real, flying Millennium Falcon! It is so cool. Ethan tore into the box immediately. 

And Logan got a flying X-Wing. Awesome!

We stayed for a while at Mimi and Pop's house but spent the late afternoon and evening back home playing with all our new toys. 

Everyone in our family loves BB-8. When we got back home from the Fair Christmas, they were all charged and ready to go. You control his movements using an app on the iPad. It could not have been easier to get them synced and to start playing. 

Duke is the only one of us that is not sure about the BB-8 robots...he barks at them any time they move! In his defense, he is not used to having something move like that down on his level. And BB-8 makes his little beeping/talking noises too. Haha! Duke will just have to get used to him!

Christmas with the Cookes: 2016

This year we had Christmas at Nonnie and Papaw's house on Christmas Eve. Avery was sick and so only Chelsea and the boys were able to come this year. It stinks to miss Christmas! And Grandaddy and Nana Betty were with other family celebrating that day, so we had a smaller party than usual.

Yes, that is bree cheese baked in pastry dough with cranberries. It was as delicious as it sounds. 

The adults take the folding table in the living room because it actually holds all of us. 

The kids sit at the kitchen table, which Nonnie always dresses so cute!

All the Cooke cousin stockings hung up on the mantle...

Donna always works really hard and makes a wonderful meal for us. But this year, she really wanted to to Beef Wellington, which is no easy feat. She worked double hard on the prep work and here she is making the last scoring marks on the pastry dough before popping it in the oven.

After a lot of prayer, checking the timers, and meat thermometers, she ended up with these beauties. They were delicious!

Ethan stole Uncle Jeff's boots. Aren't they supposed to look a little bigger on him? I remember when he was a toddler and they would have covered his whole leg. 

Boys waiting patiently for lunch...and then presents after (the real thing they're waiting for). 

It's finally time and you're making us pose for a photo? We told them they couldn't open anything until we took it, so...

Thrilled over his Disney gift card. He's saving it for our Disney Cruise next summer .

Ethan is still on his stocking stuff and Logan is starting to tackle the presents!

A small Nerf gun in the stocking was a hint of what was to come in the wrapped gifts...

Logan finally got some Nerf guns. He loves them! 

And Ethan got this cool bow and arrow.

And of course, a Star Wars Lego set.

Nonnie is going to be finding a few Nerf bullets in and around her house because I'm positive we did not get them all when we left...and there was a lot of target practice going on that day!

ICE Exhibit 2016: Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Our "Countdown to Christmas" activity today was a big one...the Gaylord ICE Exhibit featuring the movie, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We have been trying to stick to one or two really special Christmas outings or activities and this is definitely one of them...and it happened on Day 2!

Mimi and Pop graciously treated us to this experience. The last time we went to the ICE Exhibit, it was crowded. So crowded. I was hesitant to ever go back because of our experience last time. But since the boys had an early release day today and supposedly weekdays during the day are slower, we decided to give it a try. Well, it worked. There was no one there. Ok, hardly anyone there. It was so perfect. And so much fun.

We drove separately, so while we were waiting for Mimi and Pop to arrive, we took a look around the atrium at all of their fun Christmas decorations. 

We only had to wait a few minutes because Mimi and Pop are nothing if not punctual! Then, the boys led us to the ICE Exhibit following all the signs in the hotel.

And unlike last time, we walked right in. We were smart and brought hats as well as gloves this time - something we learned to do when we did not bring hats last time. 

First, a note on this theme: the boys LOVE this movie. I do too. It's a Christmas classic and one of our very favorites. It's up there with Rudolph for sure. So, this exhibit was all the more fun because the boys know this movie backwards and forwards, although I made sure we watched it two days ago so it would be fresh on their minds!

This is my third time to visit an ICE Exhibit here at the Gaylord and every single time I am blown away by the sculptures...they are perfect and amazing. 

There were only a handful of people in the entire exhibit at the same time as us so we were able to really take our time and enjoy it. Night and day difference from two years ago. Am I harping on that too much? That's because it really, really makes a difference in the experience. Especially with kids. 

My favorite part of the exhibit was Sombertown. They had it set up just like a town square with the fountain in the middle and the town hall at one end. And all the shops were around it. It was so cute!

The boys were not mad - just imitating the Bergermeister's expression in the sculpture behind them. Haha!

There was a place for the boys to join the Winter Warlock in jail, which they thought was fun.

Then came the boys' favorite room...the North Pole and home to the ice slides! 

This section was adorable...and look how many people are NOT in here! It was amazing! Last time the boys got to go down the slides once. One time. That's it. This time, they went down them until they were frozen. Literally. More than a dozen times each. 

They loved the slides. The attendants were trying to remind them to have their coats under them so they would really slide, because jeans can make you stop. Once they got that down, they were flying!

Like I said, they did these over and over and over again. So. much. fun.

The whole slide area was themed like Santa's Toy Shop. So cute.

After the boys were too frozen to slide any more, we finished the last little bit of the exhibit. 

The last part is always the crystal-clear nativity. Of course, everyone is always so cold by this point, we never stick around to enjoy it for very long. 

After turning in our blue coats and storing our hats and gloves, we visited the gift shop. Mimi and Pop treated the boys to one stuffed animal each, which totally made their day. And then we had one surprise left...snow tubing!

We had bought combo tickets for the boys and they got to go down these snow slides on tubes 12 times each. They loved it so much. 

Here's Logan...again, holding nothing back. He might have enjoyed this a little bit. What a great experience this whole afternoon was. I would definitely come back again...now that I know when to come!