Merry Christmas 2014

The Batter family has a tradition of seafood on Christmas eve - we Bunch are happy to continue on with the tradition. Daddy made a ridiculously yummy seafood stew - seriously, I scored a keeper for his culinary skills alone!

Some snapper? Yes, please!

We watched "Santa Clause is coming to Town" for the 30th time this season (no freakin' joke - I can quote the movie from start to finish and so can the children...) and then continued with the Eimers family tradition of unwrapping 1 gift on Christmas Eve. Emma chose the biggest present under the tree and Ben went the conservative route - go figure!

Seriously, hurry up and take the picture!!!

Why yes, that is a $25 dollar stuffed animal (*sigh*) but it is all she talked about for months! Ben got a card game about the United States which we promptly opened up and played. As the game is for 8 and up, it required some manipulation of the rules for Ben to understand, which lead to tension for about 3 minutes between Mom and Dad, but in the spirit of Christmas, Dad zipped it and chose to follow Mom's rules which is really a good life lesson in general (what? I'm OLDER, I have more experience!!).

"Best Christmas Eve ever!" exclaimed Ben.

The kids went to bed around 9 with limited resistance. Abuelita worked her charms and told them stories until they fell asleep. Santa arrived promptly after and Mommy was in bed by 10:30. Unfortunately Mommy and Daddy did not sleep well, I'm not sure if we were waiting to hear a kid sneaking into the living room, or the seafood soup was swimming in my belly, but the kids woke us up at 7:30am and I am feeling sleep deprived! They ran out into the living room and did NOT wait for me and started tearing into their gifts from Santa. This is the only morning madness shot I got and it's all blurry. :)

Ben = star wars lego, Em = walkie talkies

Santa and Abuelita were very generous and that is just Christmas #1. We still have Christmas #2 and #3 on Sat and Sun in PA! Ben received black dress shoes from Abuelita along with a nice outfit. I was VERY surprised when he put the shoes on and wore them all morning with his pajamas. Our creature of habit kid (he wears the same sneakers EVERY DAY) is growing up!

I'm styling!

Ben did not hesitate to dive into lego project #1.

No time for smiles! Build! Build! Build!

He also LOVED the Magformers - hint hint (birthday coming soon) - and has been building non-stop all day.

Don't let this pic fool you - I'M HAPPY!

Emma did not hesitate to dive into her crafts (of course, with her beanie boos watching). She has already completed this cupcake pillow and has moved onto the rainbow pillow.

Why, yes, I was just crying - but we won't talk about that!

Look at sleepy Mommy. I can sleep in 2015, right???

love me this bunch...

What to do?

The kids have been waking up at 7am - Ben's wakes first and because they are sharing the fold out sofa, he wakes Emma up early. Oi! That gives us 14 hours to fill with fun each day!

Emma decided to go to "Midnight Mass" at 5pm with Abuelita tonight in her new dress.

Beauties!

She also decided to wear the shirt Gramma Lou got for Ben as Ben is embarrassed to wear it - he thinks his friends will make fun of him. It's way too small for her, but that didn't stop her today!

Yes, Emma, you are Awesome!

It wouldn't be Christmas without building a Gingerbread house with Abuelita. I was surprised at how patient they were in letting the frosting dry before decorating the roof.

Can I give you a big sticky hug and kiss?

They each got to decorate one side of the roof. Can you guess whose side is whose? Proof positive of their personalities!!

the Boy? the girl?

You guessed it! Ben's is much more precise.

The candies have been disappearing fast. I couldn't figure out why...

Then I caught this on video surveillance.

Good thing there is a whole lot of this park fun happening in order to burn off the sugar calories!! I've been very proud of Ben at the park. He goes right up to other kids and asks them to play making new friends quite easily. There were some hard core games of freeze tag and hide and seek happening in the 85 degree heat. Go Florida!

We've been practicing NFL Play 60. :)

Benisms

Ben says the funniest things - I wish I wrote them down like I used to... Way to many are escaping my brain without me sharing them with the world. I caught a few and sent them to daddy:

I'm hoping for 90.

He has a point:

You know you just said it out loud!

A friend of ours asked Ben what his middle was. He thought about it for a few seconds and offered up, "Jamin"! Hahahahahahahahaha. 

Home for the holidays?

When we moved into the bungalow I was excited to have the space to put up a large Christmas tree and announced we would be spending Christmas in our own home this year to start making our own traditions. Then in early November I realized that our Christmas tradition is to be with family (!) and booked our flights to Florida. :)

Turns out, Florida is warm in Winter! Who knew? It was 84 and sunny when we landed yesterday, unlike the 32 degrees we left behind on the island. We took the earliest flight of the day (it's non-stop, my best friend when traveling with children) so we had to be up at 5am. The kiddos were giddy with lack of sleep and said the funniest things.

Ben told the flight attendant who greeted us as we were boarding that he didn't the the taking off part of flying. She assured him many people feel that way but the pilot was very good at what he does. I am happy to announce he did the take off part quite well, but really needs to practice his landing part! We hit the ground so hard we bounced and I was sure we were going to run out of runway we were going so fast and the brakes were working overtime.

We got settled at Abuelita's house and went out to explore and enjoy the 84 degrees.

Aren't I just the perfect model for 84 degree weather?

We walked to the local park (7 minutes) and they played SO NICELY together - such a rare treat. There was all kinds of animal rescue adventuring going on (thank you wild kratts) and they were mad when I announced we needed to get back to the house to see Grandpop.

The return walk took 12 minutes...go figure.

We had a yummy daddy dinner and snuggled in to watch some tv. The kids crashed with no fight and slept through the night - Ben being the first one up this morning at 7am - surprise surprise.

Abuelitas make great snuggle buddies

Santa's Workshop

Every year the first weekend in December our village hosts the Dickens Festival. You are thrown back in time with characters walking around town in vintage dress singing Christmas Carols and acting fabulously sassy with their British accents. It is always a great time - the only downfall being people come from everywhere to see it and the port gets crowded! We got rained out Friday night and all day yesterday so we were stuck at the indoor activities. Friday night was the lighting of the Hall of Trees (beautiful) and the Frozen sing-a-long complete with a visit from Anna and Elsa - which attracted every kid on Long Island in a very small space. E&B were crowded and cranky and tired and annoyed and the "sing-a-long" was actually karaoke with a three song rotation. OI! We escaped that nightmare and snuggled in at home watching Christmas movies instead. My kind of night!

Today the sun came out so we braved the 40 degree weather with crazy cold wind chills and waited in line outside to see Santa's workshop at the festival and visit with Santa himself. E&B did a great job practicing patience - did I mention wind chill factors in the negatives??

I hope Santa recognizes me under all these layers!

Once inside the tiny building built in 1755 (that is how old our Village is!!!) we warmed up a bit and enjoyed looking at all the displays.

Can I eat that giant Candy Cane?

Then the big moment came! Santa! And can you say "WOW"?  This guy was the real deal! They walked right up to him and he said, "Hi, Emma. Hi, Ben. Nice to see you again!" Wait. WHAT? HOW DID HE KNOW THEIR NAMES??? I'm totally freaked out! HE IS REAL, PEOPLE!

I sure am real!

Ben talked the guys ears off. He was so patient listening to Ben. Then he chatted with Emma about her list and our Elf, Elfelina. This picture makes me so HAPPY.

"I want three Lego Star Wars..."

Emma did an amazing job not interrupting Ben as she usually does! We need Christmas and visits with Santa more times each year! ;)