Celebrating Christmas at our house (Dec. 15-17)

The weekend before Christmas was a busy one! Cary and I had both of our Christmas Parties for work, Cary's Friday night, and mine Saturday night. Grandma Carol came up and spent the entire weekend with the kids for us! YAY! Here we are at Cary's party in Brainerd....


On Saturday afternoon, Grandma Carol and the kids made some treats for Santa...chocolate dipped pretzels! YUM! Halle dipped and ate all of her pretzels, while Brendan consumed about 1/2 of his!


Sunday morning was our actual Christmas celebration -- and Santa made an early visit! Here, Brendan tries on his new slippers from Santa...

And, checks out his stocking...

Brendan got a new train set from Santa - YAY! (Halle got the cutest little picnic basket, complete with a red/white checkered table cloth, dishes, and cups - she loved it, but was a bit sleepy so she spent most of the "Santa" time on my lap)

After breakfast, it was finally time to open presents!


Brendan got a ton of real tools from Grandma Carol - he LOVES them!
Grandma Carol made Halle this ADORABLE apron - doesn't she look cute in it?? She also made a matching set of pot holders, and an oven mitt!!
The apron, potholders and oven mitt were needed because Grandma Carol also got Halle a.........


NEW PLAY KITCHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is the cutest thing ever - it's two sided; on one side is the typical kitchen set-up - fridge, microwave, sink, stove, dishwaser, etc....

And on the other side - it's an outdoor bar-b-que grill area!

It is so much fun - both Halle and Brendan (ok, and me) have been having a blast playing with it! There are SOO many cute accessories that go with it - and it's been so fun watching them "cook"!