Unexpected Visitor for Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

We decided to do a nativity this year complete with costumes and the most awesomest stable ever constructed complete with an orange crate for the manger! It went um... ok. We learned some pointers for next year.

1. wait until the parents are fully costumed and ready to go before dressing the children or else their perfect costumes will loose their appeal and will end in many screams from the 2 yr old.

2. If you have an amazing angle costume complete with lights plan on dressing the 2 yr old in the same costume because suddenly wearing a towel on your head to be Joseph just isn't cool enough any more.

3. Don't worry that the 1 and 2 yr olds didn't preform their parts with perfection, they are 1 and 2. I know you have been telling yourself that since this idea was hatched, but really, quench that small glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, they will be perfect.

4. Go ahead and start with 2 baby Jesus's to avoid the initial fighting and perhaps another manger as well to avoid the one baby being used to hit the other out of the manger.

5. Take pictures before, you may be asking before what but you'll find out soon enough!

... well at least it will be a start!

This is Cora as Mary, giving loves to the baby Jesus

We have a tradition to have the Elves come and drop off Christmas Pj's on Christmas Eve and Justice has a Tradition of going for a walk on Christmas Eve to look for Santa so we combined them and when the kids got back from their walk the elves had been there and left something... Izaac was rather disappointed that the elves only brought candy and pillowcases(made by aunt Krissy!) and not treats... he really likes treats.

This was the closest I could get to a nice picture of the two of them,,, yep it is the second after Izaac hit Cora

Cora with candy cane in her hair, can you find it???

Christmas Morning!

Knock Knock... Who could it be??
It's The Erickson's!!! all the way from Canada!! Can you BELIEVE it???

(We were so excited with this lovely surprise that my sister Alyssa included in our Christmas package from my mom! They didn't want us to have to eat alone!)

Brotherly bonding time playing the Wii... way to High Five!

Riley is the WINNER!! It was rather surprising that he could eat and play at the same time.

Alyssa and I fighting over putting nuts into the salad... I totally won so she went and sulked by eating all my Chocolates from Gram... Fatty :( ... I don't like to share :( :{

My little ham!

Cora and Cloe playing, it was all good until Cloe offended Cora some how, I think she tried to steal Cor's Dora.

Izaac insisted on sitting next to Baby Brigham!... hmmm looks like they couldn't wait for the rest of us to sit down!

Cora loved sitting by Uncle Riley and he quite enjoyed all the scraps that she fed him from her plate



Hooray for popper hats!!

Izaac giving kisses to Uncle Riley and Cloe... pictured just too late!

Bye thanks for coming!! Gee, it was nice to have them here but really, all they did was eat!!

Gingerbread Houses!

Izaac the expert designer and Cora who was content to sit and eat all the candy!

The finished products... Justice's... Ali's... Izaac's

Hershey PA, Dec 23

Well, not being able to go home this year we wanted to do SOMETHING to get out of our house so we decided on a random last minute trip to the sweetest place on earth or so the Website said.

They had a few free things to do, They let the kids work on an "assembly line" and package kisses. Izaac loved pushing the big green button and Cora loved the hat they got to wear!

They also had a "ride" type thingy that goes through the history of Hershey. There are singing cows and chocolate rivers and tonz of fun, here Justice is dancing to the singing cows.
Family group shot.. Where's Cora?

I love Izaac's face in this pic, He just looks so amazed at all the things moving around.
They even give you some free chocolate at the end of the tour which Cora was happy to smear all over her face
Candy Cottage made completely out of Hershey's candy, Santa was there later sitting if front of it.
Silly Cora

They have an amusement park that is actually really big and for christmas they decorated part of it, the kiddy part, they had a Huge light show timed to music and really cool. They also had a bunch of rides that Izaac and Cora could go on with us. Izaac our thrill seaker loved them and kept asking to go on the roller coaster but unfortunatlly they were closed for the season.... bummer. We really enjoyed it the crowds were just the right size and the weather was just cool enough. We were bundled up to the max(Actually I forgot Izaac's winter coat at home so we got a nice new one at the oshkosh outlet) so that helped too. It was great fun.
Cora looked so Unimpressed about all the rides but she would get upset when it was time to get off so we think she liked it. She did fall asleep after about an hour in the park as soon as I put her back in the stroller.


Hershey bar!! Izaac wasn't too sure about this one but it was the first thing he asked for the next morning. "Mom, I want the candybar to come to our house"
Happy boy at the end of the night!

He stayed awake almost the entire 3 h ride home late at night.

oh and funny story about the trip there, We stopped in Bethlehem Pa and tried to follow a star but ended up at a gas station instead... This was also our first road trip with Izaac being potty trained and the first time we got to hear... " I have to go potty mom" from the back seat!! Awww the memories!