White Christmas

What more can you ask for than a white Christmas? That is exactly what we got this year. The snow started falling around lunch time and continued until the next day. It did not add up to much, but it sure did look pretty! Of course we had to go out and play in it!

Trying out the new tricycle. Sam attached a basket to the front for Hannah to carry her baby dolls with her. She is such a girly little girl!

The tiniest snowman, but they still had a fun time making it!

Christmas Magic

I keep thinking that as I get older Christmas will be less exciting, but that is definitely not the case. It is still so exciting on Christmas morning. Hannah stayed up so late on Christmas eve but she was rearing to go when she got up on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, we were not able to make the trip down to Florida this year to see my family, but Sam's parents were able to come up here this year. Here is the tree and all the goodies ready on Christmas morning!

Hannah was pretty excited and immediately got on her new tricycle and wanted to open presents right away. She tore through them pretty quickly this year! Reagan was a little unsure and we had to open her presents in small doses to keep her from getting overwhelmed.

Reagan got a little rocking horse that she is not quite big enough for yet, but she loved it all the same!

Hannah and Reagan checking out a new toy!

Not sure if a helmet is really necessary on a tricycle in the house, but she just insisted on wearing it every time she got on the bike. I guess it is good to start that habit from the beginning. Notice she is also holding her Sing-a-ma-jig. Her and Reagan both got one of these ridiculous toys. I have no idea why they are one of the hottest toys this year...

Sam got a new guitar. Now he can sing little songs to the babies!

The only thing Hannah asked for for Christmas was a new baby doll and she was so happy to get one!

Yes, that is an indoor ballpit without the balls in it yet. This is a big hit with both Reagan and Hannah!

Reagan's special Baby's First Christmas ornament made by Grandma Dergosits.

Santa also left this awesome playhouse in the backyard!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and had such a great time with the girls. I can just imagine it is going to get better and better as they get older!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was full of making new traditions for our family and carrying out ones from when we were kids. We all made it to church on Christmas eve and the girls did great sitting in the service with us. I was a little nervous about not being able to leave the kids in the nursery and having to bring them in, but we figured with four adults and two kids we had them outnumbered and would be able to keep them entertained. Reagan could not keep still but she never cried and enjoyed all the music and candlelight.

All dressed up and ready for church!

On the way home from church we drove around a little bit and checked out the Christmas lights in the neighborhood. Then we came home and put out some food for Santa's reindeer. We, of course, wanted Santa and his reindeer to be able to find our house, so we scattered some reindeer food made up of oatmeal and glitter across the ground. Hannah didn't quite understand that this was for Santa's reindeer, but instead fed the light-up reindeer in the front yard.

We picked out some special cookies to leave for Santa and sat down around the Christmas tree to read a Christmas Story about baby Jesus and Twas the Night Before Christmas. Hannah was just so excited she could not get herself to sleep. She was awake up in her room until about 11 p.m. We just couldn't wait for Santa to come!!

I thought it was pretty special that this year Reagan was able to wear one of my Christmas outfits from when I was a baby.

Cookie Baking and Candy Making

Hannah and I had a great time making and decorating cookies this year. Of course we had a huge mess and Hannah would not stop eating the frosting, but they turned out cute and were delicious!

When Grandma and Papa came up to visit they worked on making some chocolates. They were so yummy!

Merry Christmas from the Sampson Family!

We are counting down the days and getting so excited! It's almost time for Santa to come!

A Great Excuse for Cupcakes!

Happy Half Birthday Hannah! That right, Hannah is 2 1/2 now. I guess we probably won't always celebrate her half birthday, but it seemed like a good excuse for balloons and cupcakes.

Reagan even got in on the acton. Yum.....cupcakes!

Breakfast with Santa again. This time at Chimney Springs. It was a great time. Reagan still was not up for a picture, maybe next year!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and it seems so much more magical when you have little ones in the house to share it with. Hannah is thrilled with the idea of Christmas and seems to understand about the whole Santa and presents thing. In fact, she spent a great deal of her Sunday morning breakfast time flipping through the Toys R US catalog and exclaiming "I like that momma!" to just about everything she saw.

We had a weekend filled with Christmas festivities! It all started with Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning. We all headed over to Hannah's preschool in the morning and enjoyed some pancakes, donuts, juice and bacon and waited patiently to see Santa. Hannah and I have been talking about this meeting with Santa for most of last week. She was very excited and kept telling me that she wanted to give him a hug and that she wanted him to see her "new pink room." I kindly explained that he would not be coming over to our house tonight, but that we had to wait for Christmas eve and even then I was not sure that he would be able to play in her room with her.

Hannah did great with Santa, got her hug from him and sat on his lap. She looked a little nervous but did great. Reagan, on the other hand, screamed when we tried to place her on his lap, so needless to say, we did not get any pictures with her and Santa this year. We just so happen to have another Breakfast with Santa next weekend too, so maybe we can try again then.

Later that day we ventured out to get our Christmas tree. We took the easy route and just headed over to the Home Depot, although one of these days when the babies get a little bigger, I would love to go to one of those places to cut down your own tree. We got a great tree and brought it home to decorate. Hannah was very excited and had a hard time waiting patiently while daddy got the lights on the tree. Hannah was very helpful with the ornaments and enjoyed looking/playing with them. Reagan was kept restrained in her walker, but enjoyed watching all the fun. We had a great fire going in the fireplace and some Christmas music on and it felt so festive!





We also got the rest of the Christmas lights up on the outside of the house and did a little Christmas shopping. Very productive Christmas-filled weekend! Now just have to get wrapping!