Life as a Cole: Christmas Fun!

Christmas is always an extremely busy time of year for us. This year I was determined to not let the stress get to me and to enjoy it. I actually took off work the Thursday and Friday before Christmas and all the days in between Christmas and New Years so I would have plenty of time to enjoy myself. I ended up enjoying every moment and I think this year was the best Christmas I have ever had just because I made sure I enjoyed every little moment with the kids and my family knowing it would be over before you know it.

We kicked off the Christmas season with one big day of Christmas "cheer" to get everyone in the spirit. On December 9th Matt and I took the kids to Louisville for the annual brunch with Santa and the Mitchells. I think this was our 4th year doing this event and it is always a good time. We meet them at their country club and have a good breakfast and the kids get to see Santa.

The kids with Santa.

After brunch we met my mom and dad over at the Galt House for their lights and decorations and really enjoyed ourselves there. They had some really neat light displays.

All of us at the Galt House.

After the Galt House we stopped for a bite to eat and then went to the Mega Caverns to see the Lights Under Louisville. This was really cool too. They have a huge light display all inside a cave under Louisville.

So after all that fun in one day we were all set as far as getting into the Christmas spirit goes!

Also, Alex has helped us get into the Christmas spirit with all the singing Christmas decorations we have around. He loves pushing the buttons and listening to them sing, all at the same time. They are about to get packed up with the rest of the Christmas decorations so I took one more video of him playing with them:

In a blink of an eye Christmas had arrived and it was time to start the fun that was running all over Frankfort and Versailles. Here was our schedule for Christmas this year:

Friday, the 21st - Reagan, Alex and I came to Frankfort for lunch and Christmas fun with Debbie. We opened gifts, ate pizza, played and even decorated cookies. It was a great time. Debbie found a gift that was a huge hit with Reagan - boomwhackers. They are like a huge xylophone made out of plastic tubes. She has played these in music class and was thrilled to have a set of her own.

Sunday, the 23rd - Christmas with Nana and Poppy at noon, Christmas with the Whittakers at 4.
We headed to Frankfort at lunch to have Christmas with my mom, dad and brother before heading over to Mamaws to have Christmas with the rest of the Whittaker clan. You would not believe the amount of gifts our kids got just at my parents house. We had to borrow their SUV to get everything home! And we still had to go to Mamaw and Paw's where they would get even more. One of the highlights of Christmas at mom and dad's was Reagan's big gift. She got a metal detector and was thrilled. To make things even better she took it out in their back yard and found all kinds of "buried" treasures. She found a door knob, horse bridle, horse shoe, change, and several other cool things. Poppy told her it was from way back in the day when their neighborhood used to be a horse track. Unknown to Reagan, the items came from Debbie and Dan and Poppy had buried them earlier that week. Poppy's poor backyard looked like a mine field by the time they were done but Reagan had so much fun, they didn't care. After they were done digging, Alex had woken up from his nap and the Bengals had pulled off a close win against the Steelers, we were off to Mamaw and Paw's. We had another great time there and Alex got a little grill that he absolutely loves. I will post a picture of several of his toys in a bit. We got home around 8 and the kids crashed pretty quickly. We were all worn out from a fun day and knew we still had 2 more days to go.

Monday, the 24th - Christmas at the Vances at noon, Christmas at the Queens at 5.
Unfortunately Matt had to work part of Monday so me and the kids packed everything up and headed back to Frankfort to Kathy's. Matt arrived shortly after lunch so he didn't miss much. It is a big crowd there so it is always fairly chaotic but always fun. We ate a delicious lunch and then opened gifts. For some reason no one waits for anyone to open gifts so it is just a mess of paper flying and thank yous being yelled across the room. I never have any idea what everyone gets but it works so no worries there. Again, the kids got several goodies. Brittany got a game called Headbandz where you have this plastic band around your head and it holds a card and you have to guess what you have on your card by asking yes or no questions to the other players. It is tradition that we play a game on Christmas at Kathy's so this is the one we played while Alex took a nap. We had a great time and only stopped playing because we had to get going to our next stop. From Kathy's we headed to Matt's mom and step-dad's house for dinner and more fun. This gathering is more low key and is a nice break after the chaos at Kathy's. It is only the 4 of us, Matt's mom, step-dad, brother and sister in law. We ate and opened gifts. GQ (Matt's mom) has asked to be the "bike grandmother" and loves buying bikes for Reagan. This year she bought Reagan her first mountain bike, 24" wheels and gears. It is very cool. Alex also got his first bike - a tricycle. It is the old fashioned Radio Flyer one and is very cool. He also got a matching red radio flyer wagon to go with it. So the kids are all set for a while on bikes.

Tuesday, Christmas Day - Christmas at home then Christmas with the Coles at noon.
This year was our year to have Reagan on Christmas morning. Since the day is so packed, we actually have to set an alarm and wake the kids up. We were up at 7 checking out the loot Santa had left. Our living room looked like a display room for a toy store! Reagan got a huge floor piano and a 6' tall castle. Alex got a tent with a tunnel and a 10' roller coaster. Plus the kids got several other gifts that were wrapped up. After we opened gifts at home, Reagan went to her mom's to see her gifts there and we got ready to go to Matt's dad's house. Reagan came back around 11 and we headed to Christmas with the Coles at 12. This is another crazy gathering since it is fairly big with more kids. I will post a picture of the group below. After lunch and gifts we left there about 4, Reagan went back to her mom's to hang out for the night and Matt, Alex and I went home to nap and recover from a busy 3 days.

We have finally gotten our house back under control. To give you an idea of how many gifts our kids got, I will list as many as I can think of off the top of my head - roller coaster, tent, tool bench, grill, grill accessories, 10-15 books, 4 or more block puzzles, mega blocks, mega blocks table, basketball goal, tricycle, wagon, light up pillow pet, wooden block train, wooden pegs, see and say, boomwhackers, wheelies big rig, wheelies garage, multi pack of wheelies cars, pajamas, clothes, play phone, bath toy, lantern, microphone, Mickey floor piano, and a ton of other things I can't think of right now and what is frightening, is those are just Alex's toys! So then you have to add in the science kits, movies, clothes, Slurpee machine, games, DS games, metal detector, bike, castle, and all the other things Reagan got too. Shew! To say our kids are loved is the under statement of the year!

Here are some pictures and videos from Christmas time: