neighborhood decorating contest

The twins had been practicing all month for their preschool Christmas sing-along and we were excited to come see their performance and all of the super cute pajamas! Even though they practiced with the hand-actions and sang all the carols ad nauseam at home, they were less than enthusiastic to perform in front of everyone! They looked tortured most of the time.

Putting on our happy faces when all the kids are in complete meltdown mode.

Samantha and Amelia’s less-than-enthusiastic Christmas carol performances! It was a long show with seven other songs beyond these, but they were all pretty much like the following, so you get the picture.

Even though Meredith was in the audience cheering her on, poor Amelia was feeling completely overwhelmed by the end and started melting down. I read my preschool sing-along post from last year, and apparently, it was Samantha who had a meltdown and threw herself into Daddy’s arms that year! I guess they are taking turns.

Last year:

Pouty elf Amelia.

It’s okay, sister elf!

Last year by the preschool tree:

A number from last year’s preschool sing-along:

Another fun preschool event was the annual Santa visit, storytime and milk and cookies! Samantha said she told Santa she wanted some new pajamas and chalk. Incredulous, Santa asked her if she wanted anything else and she said that was it! Amelia said the same thing minus the chalk (despite the fact that they already have 10+ pairs of pajamas between the two of them and we usually let them unwrap new pajamas on Christmas Eve anyways!)!

I’m sure Santa was feeling bad for these clearly underprivileged children! When they were looking through a catalog earlier in December, I asked the twins what they would like to ask Santa for, and after bypassing all the toys, they fell in love with these old-fashioned silky nightgown sets in purple and pink. So that’s what they told Santa! Samantha added in the chalk because a few months’ prior, Meredith broke all of our chalk in half and Samantha was super upset. I never got around to restocking on chalk, so she added that in her Christmas list as well!

Samantha and Santa.

2016:

Amelia and Santa.

2016:

2017:

Preschool Christmas crafts.

Amelia was super excited to give me her snowman mug and hot cocoa kit.

On a cold and drizzly weekday evening, we also went to visit Santa at the local Santa’s Village. I stood in line for a ridiculous hour and a half, while Jake took the girls around to get hot chocolate, cookies, watch the trains, listen to the carolers, watch an outdoor movie and look at the decorations. Once I saw the insane line, I would have left immediately, except that the twins were adamant that Meredith needed to see Santa and we didn’t have anything else going on that evening, besides being warm at home and not being stuck in the rain. Still, next year, I think we’ll stick to the preschool Santa visit.

Samantha and Amelia again told Santa they wanted pajamas (and chalk for Samantha), and Santa winked at me and added in that maybe he could bring them a few extra surprises! Noooooooo, Santa! Pajamas and chalk sounds like a great Christmas to me! Meredith was a little starstruck, so Amelia spoke for her and told Santa she wanted a personalized baking apron just like the ones they have because Meredith didn’t have one. That meant an unexpected last minute shopping trip for me…I mean, Santa… that week!

2016 Santa’s Village:

2015 Santa’s Village:

More Christmas fun! Our town has a house-decorating contest and some neighborhoods are super coordinated and went all out. We explored a few of the extra decked-out neighborhoods and lighting contest winners with Parker, Maple, Phi and Michael. One fun neighborhood had hot chocolate and cookies for sale with proceeds going to charity and had their very own Grinch greeting all the kids.

Fortunately, our immediate street does not require everyone to go crazy for Christmas. This was an experimental year since it was our first Christmas in our new house.

Grandpa came into town from Utah and we went to see Disney on Ice with Noah and his family.

I thought the show was amazing, but the twins were pretty much there for the popcorn. They’ve never really been into shows. I’m glad I didn’t shell out more dough for the Nutracker this year!