Holidays 2012

Christmas was a little different for us this year...our first year of Christmas on our own with the kids. I felt obligated to come up with all of these special activities to make sure it felt like Christmas for them, but I think it was more for me.  We definitely missed our families tremendously, but I think we ended up having a great Christmas and New Year despite being stuck in the frozen tundra on our own.  I thought I would share some of our holiday fun...

Of course, we had to visit Santa Claus!  Normally, we see Santa at the Cargill Kids Christmas Party, but he wasn't available this year.  Instead, we went to Lawson Heights Mall with the Dechka Family to visit Santa.  We got there a little before Santa arrived, and didn't have to wait long.  Brogan was very excited to see Santa and so was Neala until it came time to get up close.  As you can see in the photo, she is not very excited about being there, but she eventually warmed up to the guy and gave him a high five.



Santa Visit

Our friends Marilena, Nicholas, and Lucas invited us over to decorate gingerbread men.  5 moms, 11 kids, and 2 new babies was a crazy bunch!!!  The kids had a great time decorating and eating the cookies.  

Neala and her gingerbread man (mommy helped with the decorating)

Brogan working on his masterpiece

The Cargill Kids Christmas Party was at Fuddruckers/Ruckers this year.  After dinner at Fuddruckers, the kids got to play games at Ruckers.  Neala was in the young group that got a $20 Toys R Us gift card instead of tokens to play at Ruckers, but when we went to play games, they gave her a bag of tokens anyway...BONUS!!!  But now she has to share the gift card with Brogan to make things fair.  The setup this year didn't really give us a chance to associate with the other Cargill families there, but I can definitely say the kids had a GREAT time.  Both of them get so excited every time we drive past Ruckers now!

They really do love each other!!!  (Waiting for dinner)

Daddy let Neala cheat

Brogan slicing up some Ninja Fruit!

Brogan had a "Christmas Concert" at school that was all about holiday traditions in different cultures.  It was a K-4 concert, so there were lots of kids and parents everywhere!  We actually had to request tickets for the evening show, and it "sold out" quickly.  The kindergarten classes sang "Feliz Navidad" and "The Hanukkah Song".  It was a very cute show.  In most cases, the older classes helped out the younger classes which was very cute.  Neala enjoyed cheering (loudly) for "her Brogan" and made friends with a couple guys sitting behind us.  I think she ended up being their major source of entertainment for the evening...making funny faces and playing peek-a-boo.

All three kindergarten classes singing the Hanukkah Song (Brogan is in the front row with the red sweater with white and grey stripes)

Neala decided to stick her fingers in her ears shortly after the singing started...so embarrassing!!!

We decided to make a gingerbread house this year.  Well, I bought a pre-assembled house, so we really just decorated it.  Neala started eating all of the decorations so we had to give her some chocolate so we would have something to put on the house. (You might notice the chocolate on her face in the pictures.)  Brogan and Casey made some paper snowflakes too, so we had quite display going on when all was finished.

We're ready!!!

Everyone carefully placing on the decorations

Brogan and the finished product which took most of the day

On Christmas Eve, we tried to get a few family photos...even got the dogs squeezed in, but of course, Brogan's eyes were closed in every single picture.  Ella our shelf elf is even hanging out on the star on top of the tree!  The kids loved Ella (this was our first year with a shelf elf) and finding her was first on the agenda every day!  They were very sad to see her go back to the North Pole.

Our best family photo even though Brogan's eyes are mostly closed

This is my favorite...Neala's favorite funny face!

Christmas morning did not start out well for the McHughs.  Neala woke up crying and soaking wet, so she didn't get to wear those cute Christmas pajamas all morning.  She was very happy to wear her sparkly red shoes instead though.  But we decided to let her wake up a bit before heading downstairs to see if Santa came (very painful for Brogan).  We wanted to start out with a happy group!!!  When it came time to go downstairs, we found Brogan puking in the bathroom sink.  The puking continued throughout the day, so Brogan's excitement level was a little disappointing while opening presents.  Neala wanted to just tear through everything and was very frustrated with us when we told her we had to take turns.  This caused her to give up on the presents about half way through to go play with her new kitchen.  (This kitchen took mommy and daddy 2 hours to put together on Christmas Eve, so mommy and daddy were very tired too!)  We managed to have a wonderful family dinner and Brogan was starting to feel better too. 

The kids with their goodies from Santa

The picture that pretty much sums up Christmas morning for the McHughs

Other happenings during this time...
We went to see the holiday lights at the Forestry Farm, and the kids loved it.  Of course, Brogan had to pee in the middle of it all, so Casey pulled over and took him for a little stroll to pee on a tree.

We had one last ultrasound with baby #3 on the 20th and found out that the baby is a BOY...a very big boy!  I was 34 weeks 1 day at the time of the ultrasound and measuring at 39 weeks 2 days.  The technician estimated the baby's weight at 7 lbs 11 oz that day.  Looking like we are going to have another huge baby boy!  The last couple weeks have been busy with getting stuff ready for baby...shopping for necessities, moving Neala to the bunk beds with Brogan and moving all of her stuff into his (now their) room, and washing clothing.  On New Year's Eve, I ran to Babies R Us to buy a video monitor...decided to splurge since we don't have any medical bills this time around.  And I really wanted to try it out on Neala.  The big bunk bed is a little too exciting at times and sometimes she doesn't want to go to sleep...just play.  But she's settling down in her new space and trying to get used to her old room being the baby's room.  I find her in the crib on occasion messing with the baby's things...naughty girl!!!

We had a very low key New Year's Eve.  We got to Skype with the GBS/Rolla crew who were partying at the Lake of the Ozarks.  Casey and I actually stayed up until midnight, but were in bed by 12:30.  The weather New Year's Day was beautiful...a bit windy, but the temperatures were mild...so we took the kids tobogganing.  Brogan can't get enough and Neala enjoys a few runs down the hill, but then prefers to just eat the snow.  Tobogganing really wears her out though...she ends up being a lump of clothing that you pull along on the sled by the end of the trip.

Brogan tackled the mountain of snow in the front yard before heading down the street to go tobogganing

Daddy and Neala pushing off

Brogan and Neala taking a turn

Neala's snow moustache

The purple sled is slow-going, so even Mommy took a turn with Neala

And she's spent...