Christmas Couture

Before we left for church on Christmas Eve, we stopped to take a few pictures in front of the Christmas tree! 

Love this pic of my babies!

Liberty Farm Christmas Party 2013

This was our first year attending the Liberty Farm Christmas party. This is where Kyrie takes her weekly riding lessons. There was a nice dinner with lots of desserts before everyone headed down to the ring to watch the bareback "reindeer games." Kyrie participated in the kids' division that included: Simon Says, Musical Stalls and Tag. Kyrie was out of Simon Says pretty quickly, but was third from the last out for Musical Stalls, which is just like musical chairs, but on horseback. She also did well playing Tag. I wasn't sure how she would like riding bareback (and she is still catching up after being out for 2 months with a broken arm), but she LOVED it! 

A picture of Musical Stalls

This is how Degen kept busy while Kyrie was riding!

Santa Visit 2013

Our annual Santa visit! Wow...what a line before Santa even arrived! Whew! But the kids got to color and talk with their friends while the moms waited...and waited in the line. Afterward, we headed for lunch and took the kids to some of their favorite stores to dream about what Santa might bring them! We had a great day!

A Crafty, Cookie Christmas

These are just a few of our Christmas crafts and cooking that we did. The kids picked out the sleds when we went to the craft store and had fun painting. We did a big afternoon of baking, which I already blogged about and added some more goodies in the following days. The cutest of our extra creations were these snowmen and penguin Oreos. This was super easy and lots of fun for the kids! 

The kids saw the candy cane danish when I was on Pinterest and asked me to make it. It was a pretty easy recipe using crescent rolls. We were impressed with how delicious it turned out and even more so that the leftovers were still delicious after a few days in the fridge. I might try this recipe again using spiced apples in lieu of the canned cherries. 

Wildlights 2013

Well, we may not have a white Christmas, but we had a white Wildlights. We braved the cold and enjoyed the snow when we took our annual family outing to see the lights at the zoo. Our trip started out spectacularly because Degen was very excited about all the lights. At one point, he turned to us and raised up his arms shouting, "It's a winter wonder(l)and!" Then he danced and did a pirouette! It was just perfect and his enthusiasm made the experience a great one. Unfortunately... it all ended too soon. After a busy day of climbing, gymnastics and tennis, Degen's excitement wore off and he got tired and frustrated, which led to yelling & tears. Oh man! Not the way we wanted to end the evening, though he perked up with a little dinner in his belly. 

We had a little visit with Santa and both kids were nervous, which was cute. They kept looking over to me: "was I good?" "what did I want again?" 

Love this pic of my snow-angels!

Scuba Santa!

Darren took the kids on the carousel! They love the carousel!

We stopped in the barn to pet a few goats. This angora goat was my favorite! So cute!

Our last stop of the night was the train. It was a chilly ride, made a bit warmer with some hot chocolate from home. 

Love this pic of these two!

The above photo is Degen saying, "No more pictures!!!"