On the night before Christmas...

The kids were way too excited on this day.  

They woke up, opened their last advent surprises and then started spinning.....literally and figuratively.

James was working today, so the boys allowed him to open his gifts before he left for work (how nice of them).

We did some last minute clean-up at home, headed to shoppers drug mart in Georgetown for some last minute things (I couldn't bear to head to the mall) and then we hit Nana and Papa's.  When we arrived, they weren't there.

We had fun anyways.

Once they arrived, I took Drew outside to burn off some energy.  We spent a great deal of time playing with our wonder dog Happy.

That evening, we made cookies for Santa.

Spread our reindeer food.

and laid out a plate of goodies for Santa.

Somehow, while my parents and I were eating my cheesy chip dip, drinking wine and watching "the Help,  Santa came.

The lead up to Christmas...

We packed a lot into that final week before Christmas....

We went to Costco.  It was epic.  Hunter fell asleep in the cart.

We had a movie night.  The boys watched the Polar Express.  I was going out with some friends that night, so I timed the movie so that it would finish before I had to leave.  The boys had dinner watching tv.  It was cute.

Drew's last day of school before the Christmas holidays fell on Wednesday the 22nd.  This was also the day of his Christmas concert.  He stood in the back, so I could hardly see him.  It was still cute.

Notice the little tails they are wearing...

My cute little reindeer.

 We left the school at lightning speed right after his concert to meet Lisa and Norm in Buffalo at the Millenium Hotel for a fun night away.  While not being the fanciest hotel ever, it had a gigantic pool that was so very warm.  Perfect for littles to play in and not get purple lips.  It was also located right across the parking lot from the Walden Galleria Mall, across the street from the Olive Garden and around the corner from Target.  Could it get any better???

For dinner that night, we decided to drive to the Anchor bar for some wings.  Little did we know we'd be driving through a crazy sketchy part of town, scaring ourselves to death.

The wings were worth it though.

Our rooms were adjoining, something that THRILLED the littles.  Many pillow forts were made.

The following morning, Lisa and I headed back out to target and then met the littles and the men back at the hotel just in time to head out for lunch.  Olive Garden was our restaurant of choice and it was just as good as I remembered it.....only better.  They have a lunch trio that is far and away better than ESM.  I was very happy.

After lunch, we hit toys r us and then all crossed the border and met up again at Ikea for dinner.

SO MUCH FUN!

James had to go back to work on Friday (boo) but I took the kids to a momstown junior chef event.  We made and decorated rice krispie treats.

Nana and Papa's was next on our list, so we headed there to hang out.  Scrudge was being a bit of a nuisance as you can tell by the annoyed looks on my boys' faces.  They were trying to race their cars on the track that they made, but every time they sent them flying, Scrudge would intercept them.  It was really quite funny.

 Finally they gave up on the track and just started sending them towards the door.  This worked much better.

We made reindeer food in preparation for Christmas eve.  What's in reindeer food, you may ask??  Why oats, coloured sprinkles (so they could find the food) and cat food (for extra flying power) of course!!

 Stay tuned for pics from our Christmas celebrations!

"Mom, why does Mrs. Claus always look different?"

And the December fun continues...

Wednesday the 14th wasn't all that fun.  Drew went off to school and came home with a giant headache.  He was actually in tears it was hurting him so bad.  We stayed in, watched Christmas movies and played with our boxes (otherwise known as our train station ticket booth).

We also painted some of the ornaments that we made.

As you can see, Drew was not quite himself on this night.

A train is made...

Train tickets are very expensive!

When we went on the Santa train, Drew made a huge deal about collecting everyones tickets so that he could take them home.  He's been using them ever since in his ticket booth.

This chocolate penguin perked him up a bit.  They each got one for their advent surprise that morning.

The following day, the 15th, was a crazy, crazy, busy day.  James was at work, so it was just me and the boys and we had things to do all over town!  Our first stop was at Scribble n' splatter.  Some of our mommy friends were signing their kiddies up for a day or two of holiday camp there.  James and I had decided to sign Drew up for a half day on the monday to see how he likes it.  You had to register in person, so we went on Thursday during drop-in so that the boys could have some fun too (it's on the other side of town, so it seemed silly to just drive there to register).  It ended up just being Drew doing the crafting as H fell asleep en route!  It was early too, around 10:30....I'm not sure.  His naps are so hit and miss now adays, there really isn't any predicting them.

H woke up when I put him back in the van once Drew was finished with his craft fun, so we went straight for lunch and then to Simply creative for some pottery painting fun.  It was the last day to get something painted in order for it to be ready for Christmas, so in true Bonney style, we got in just under the bell.

Hunter accidentally painted a moustache on himself and this picture shows pretty much the exact moment that Drew realizes what has happened.  So funny!

We had a bunch more running around in there, but it's not so fun to go on and on about it, so I'll cut to the evening, where we hung out with Nana and Papa.

The boys had their dump trucks with them, so there was lots of fun going on.

Drew had pizza day at school on the 16th and therefore got a giant cookie with his pizza.  He saved it to have as an after school snack, which is what he often does with his sweets at school.  I'm not 100% sure if it's because teachers give him a hard time about eating sweets there?  He's never really said.....

My brother's old wii had finally given out...the boys were quite sad.  Papa works near a Toys R Us.  Guess what he came home from work on Friday with??

It was very exciting.......the boys were THRILLED.

On Saturday, we met Lisa, Norm and the girls at Mountsberg for our annual Christmastown visit.  It was so very magical, as it always is.

looking in on the elves flight school.

On Dasher, On Prancer......

Decorating cookies...

Delicious!

Mrs Claus trying to lure the littles over to see Santa.  J and H would have nothing to do with the big man.  I was a bit surprised, as H didn't seem to have any issues with Santa on our previous two visits with him the weekend before.

The closest we could get Hunter.

After a play in the play barn we headed out for lunch.  After much begging (on the adults part) we convinced the kids to allow us to head to East side marios for lunch.  It was perfect.  The kids behaved, the soup was hot, a good time was had by all.

Everyone came back to our place afterwards and we were treated to a number of "shows" put on by the children.....

Katie and Drew came up with this (with Katie writing it out)....how cute it this?!?!?

snacks around a miniature table...so fun to hang with our cousins!

I'm honestly not sure how the adults survived this evening.  The kids were HYPER and so excited just to be with each other.  It's so great to see them getting along so well, and to truly enjoy each others company.

The next morning, we packed up once again and headed out to yet another Santa visit.  This time we were having breakfast with him at our local superstore.  The cooking school was hosting a pancakes with Santa event that we were told was excellent from people who had attended previously.

The pancakes were delicious, but once again, Hunter wouldn't have anything to do with Santa.  Also, on this day, Mrs Claus was sporting a lip ring.  Hmmmm.  Obviously, this is where Drew asked me the question, "mommy, why does Mrs Claus always look different?"

"Well hunny, when you're as famous as Santa, you get all the girls...."

I promise I didn't really say that......