Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Cronk family!

We started Christmas Eve by preparing some of the food for Christmas dinner.  We made a Candy Cane Pie, and Trevor and Sarah were very excited to lick the spatula afterward.

Then we got everybody dressed up for Christmas Eve Mass.

This is, of course, how pictures go with these 3 - Sarah being her photogenic self, Trevor giving her bunny ears, and Austin wondering when we can be done with this (aka when will Trevor look at the camera and smile?). 

I'll count this one as a success.

We celebrated Christmas by starting with Christmas Eve Mass.  We are the churchgoers that go to Mass (almost) every week and have a regular spot we sit in.  We typically sit over by the choir, a few rows back. We discovered back in Rochester that the kids are better behaved when they can watch the musicians and we just carried it over to our church here when we moved.  Anyway, we always get a bit annoyed when everybody shows up for Christmas and Easter and we have to go really early to get a seat due to the massive influx of "Holiday only Catholics".  In the past, we tried going to the Children's Mass, but there were people getting there hours early to get a seat and we were not up for that.  We started going to the Mass right after the Children's Mass, because then that Mass had to let out before people could start arriving for the next Mass.  Last year, we got there about 30-40 minutes early for our Mass and there was almost nobody there.  This year, they moved the Children's Mass up to 2pm (from 4pm), so we went to the 4pm instead of the 6pm this year. Steve figured the same would apply, and it wouldn't be very busy for getting seats ahead of time. We planned to arrive around 3:30pm, but we got out of the house a little late and ended up getting there at 3:40pm to find there were NO seats left anywhere in the sanctuary or the Dorothy Day Hall, where they put chairs and screens to see into the main sanctuary. We plopped down our coats along the wall in the Dorothy Day Hall right by the door to the kitchen. One of the choir members came in there to get a pitcher of water for the choir, saw us there, and commented, "For how much you guys come, you should get reserved seats!"  A few minute later, one of the ushers came in and said, "If anyone needs a seat, there are open seats in the choir."  We hustled right down there and sat in the back row of the choir seats!  We had better spots than if we had sat in our normal pew. The seats were really cushy padded seats and we had the whole row to our selves.  I guess this the one time we actually got better spots by being late!

After Christmas Eve Mass, we went out to dinner. We decided we'd try out Cheesecake Factory, but we had called earlier in the week and they didn't accept reservations or call aheads, so we tentatively figured we'd go there if there wasn't a long wait.  When Mass got out, I called to see what the wait was and they said there was no wait at all.  We headed over there, and it took about 20 minutes to get there and park.  By the time we checked in, there was a 50 minute wait!  We decided to stick it out since we were already there and we were glad we did!

While we waited (only about 30 mins actually), I checked out the display case full of incredible cheesecakes and the kids followed the NORAD Santa Tracker on Daddy's phone. 

Dinner was delicious!

And the cheesecake was fantastic!

Sarah and Trevor split a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cake Cheesecake (it has layers of chocolate cake, cheesecake with peanut butter cups in it, and peanut butter and chocolate on the top). Yum!

Austin had a salted caramel cheesecake!

This is Trevor rubbing his tummy and making "mmmmm" noises.

Then we headed home to prepare for Santa's arrival.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

We set out some cookies and milk for Santa.

Said goodbye to Mr. Elf, who heads back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve until he comes again next December to keep an eye on the kids for the Naughty List vs Nice List report to Santa.

Excited for Santa to come!

Then they were off to bed.

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds..."

We interrupt this commercial programming to remember the reason for the season...

Nanny made each child one of these gorgeous pop-up, multiple layer cards of the nativity.

The kids were very excited on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought them.

Coming around the corner and seeing their full stockings.

Trevor immediately saw Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sticking out of his stocking and he didn't let go of him for hours, it seemed.  He even opened his other presents that day while holding him in one hand.  He has been playing with him, holding him, and snuggling him at bedtime ever since.

Sarah was hoping for "Little Woodzeez" toys for Christmas and she got a "Little Woodzeez" bobblehead in her stocking from Santa.

 Austin discovered a big chocolate Santa and Trevor was checking it out...

Then Trevor found his own.

Looks like they just barely made it on the nice list this year, because they had lumps of coal in their stockings.

Daddy got some Milano Cookies in his stocking that the kids picked out for him.

 Christmas with my babies!

When we were done emptying our stockings, I made everybody big Belgian waffles for breakfast!

 The tree was surrounded by gifts and the kids waited patiently until it was time to open presents.  We got everybody dressed first and, by then, Nanny and Grandpa had arrived to enjoy Christmas morning with us.

The kids were pretty excited to give Nanny and Grandpa their gift first.

Then Austin opened this huge one so we could get the big box out of the room!

It was a pair of pop up soccer goals!

Santa got the kids each a game.  Here is Trevor cracking up about his game "Riddle Moo This!"

 Austin was excited that we got him a Harry Potter wand and a spell book.

Austin has some big super hero figures, so Trevor really wanted the Captain America one!

Sarah got gorgeous pearl earrings from Nanny and Grandpa.

 Trevor thought the long tall shape of this one was hilarious!

 And he LOVED the gift inside...a pirate rug (that matches his school backpack too). 

Sarah got lots of the "Little Woodzeez" she was hoping for, and now she has a whole little town set up in the playroom.  (Nanny spent hours getting each little tiny piece out of impossible packaging. Thanks Nanny!)

Trevor was very excited to receive more pirate toys!  He is still really into pirates (about 2 years running now).  Here he is showing Austin his new pirate hideout.

And despite having more pirate ships than I care to count, we got him 1 more. Trevor was really hoping for the Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship and it was the only thing that he consistently wished for on his Christmas wishes, so we got it for him.  We are actually quite impressed at all the things it does and ways it works and opens and moves.  He loves it!

A fun book from Aunt Kathy for one of our little bookworms.

And a personalized dance team jacket (with the name of her studio in sequins on the back and her name in sparkly thread on the front) for our dancer.

I stumbled on some fun Look and Find books for Christmas (Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) at the library a few weeks ago and Trevor was wild about them!  I figured he might like some more Look and Find books fro Christmas.  Well, as soon as he got these from Nanny, he plopped right down in the middle of the floor and started checking them out.

Sarah and Austin both made Mommy and Daddy some beautiful gifts at school (packaged in bags they had colored for us too)!

Sarah made us some ceramic tile coasters.

Austin made us a flower pot painted to look like Santa's suit.

The kids were excited to get Daddy an M&M dispenser (though we're not sure if it will fit the larger M&Ms that Daddy likes).

Steve had worn through the sleeves on his favorite shirts, so I got him some new shirts and sweaters that hopefully he likes and wears.

After all the gifts were opened for the morning, we had some playtime before it was time to start cooking.  Trevor and Grandpa got in some pirate play time.

I actually threw a table cloth over the table this time and Nanny brought over a festive centerpiece.

And a new addition this year...I got an banquet table to set up for the kids' table!

We had family over and enjoyed time together and some delicious food.  We made ham in the crock pot, cheesy potatoes, Italian broccoli, salad, orange cream jello, garlic cheesy bread, rolls, and a bunch of desserts - pumpkin pie, candy cane pie, cinnamon bread (with buttercream frosting on it, of course), ice cream, and Christmas cookies. Yummy!

After dinner, we gathered again for the kids to exchange gifts.  Theo and Austin had fun with Theo tackling Austin.

Alexis was very excited to receive a gift card to her favorite store.

And she liked the Lego set I picked out for her!  Yay!

Sarah has some fun art projects ahead!

And rounded out her new collection of Woodzeez!

Last year, we got Theo the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" book and mouse stuffed animal and I heard he really liked it, so this year, we got him the "Corduroy" book and stuffed animal.  I think it was a hit!  He plopped down on his momma's lap and snuggled the bear while they read.  He wanted it read multiple times until he was persuaded to open the rest of his gifts.  I'll count that as a win!

We had a busy, wonderful, family filled day!

The next day, the kids relaxed and had a jammie day, while I headed to work for a half day.  I was able to be home in the afternoon to play games with the kids and check out their new toys with them.  They love the game we got for Austin called "Cauldron Quest."  It is a cooperative game in which the players work together to try to beat the game.  We thought this would be a great one for Austin because he has not only been into the wizarding world of Harry Potter recently, but he also struggles with being too competitive at times and getting upset when he doesn't win a game.  This game is great because they still have fun playing the game and working on strategy, but they either win together or lose together.  So far, it is a big hit!

We also got all 3 kids Osmo.  It is a system that makes the iPad interact with the physical space outside the screen.  The kids move game pieces on the table (or floor) in front of the iPad (on the Osmo base) and they see what they are doing interact with the screen. In this photo, they are trying out the learning game "Numbers" which as games about math skills (counting, addition, multiplication, etc).

There is also a game with tangram shapes that you apply to puzzles of increasing difficulty.  There is one with a cute monster who takes what you have drawn on the white board in front of the screen and pulls it into the screen to interact with it on an adventure. There is a words game that Trevor can play on the easy mode by filling in the first letter of words that match the picture on the screen; the big kids can play on harder modes individually or competing against each other to see who gets the letters placed the quickest.  There is also the "Masterpiece" game in which you can free hand draw any picture (or photo) you want by watching where your hand and pen are tracing on the screen while you are actually drawing on a blank sheet of paper.  There is also a game about physics called "Newton" in which you try to get falling balls to roll or bounce to certain targets by using either lines you drawn on the board in front of it, or objects you place in the field (like a marker or a toy).  We got Austin the coding game to learn computer coding and he thinks it is really fun!  Fun and learning together!  So far, I'm pretty impressed with this system and the kids love it!  Yay!

The kids are off school the rest of the week and Steve is off work this week too.  Austin had a 6 hour long basketball camp today.  We have no more sports or activities until next week, but we are looking forward to going to Children's Theater Company with Alexis and Auntie Trish to enjoy the highly entertaining stage production of Cinderella.  We saw it ~3? years ago and it was so fantastic that we are going again! Now Trevor is big enough to come too!

That should round out our crazy holiday fun!  The kids are back to school next Tuesday and we jump right back into our busy lives - dance, end of season basketball tournament, soccer winter training, swimming for Trevor, school for the kids, cold and flu season at work for me, and tax season approaching for Steve!  I'm tired just thinking about it!

I hope all had a wonderful, blessed, joy filled Christmas!  Now on to the New Year!