The Magic of Christmas

Story told by: Lainey

We are LOVING everything to do with the Christmas season these past few days!

We had a last-minute Christmas party last Thursday! All of us kids got to eat lots of junk food and watch a Christmas movie in our pajamas.

Mommy bought two of the biggest pizzas we’ve ever seen.

The adults mostly ignored us all night long while they ate junk food and drank slightly too much.

Laughing until you cry feels so good. What an amazing group of friends we have!

Henry’s class was excited to celebrate the first snow during preschool hours!

They got to examine the snowflakes as they fell.

Because Mrs. O’Loughlin is amazing she let all of the preschoolers have hot cocoa after coming inside.

We were bummed last Friday when there wasn’t enough snow for a snowman, so we did a fun snowman craft instead.

But we woke up on Saturday to surprise snow that wasn’t in the forecast! So we were outside by 6:45 a.m.

And the best part for Mommy and Daddy? For the first time EVER!! they got to stay warm inside, drinking coffee while we played in the backyard. A win-win for everyone!

Brody has been playing “Santa Baby” nonstop in our house.

The boys’ preschool had a Parent Night Out on Saturday evening, so Mommy and Daddy got to spend some great one-on-one time together while we had pizza, played games, and did crafts.

Easily my most favorite thing of the past few days is when Santa came to our house so I could interview him for my podcast.

Mommy knows Mrs. Claus, so she arranged for me to call him last weekend to invite him to my house. I’m aware that the Santas you might see in the mall are helper Santas, but while talking to this Santa last weekend, I asked him if he knew where I lived. When he responded with, “Of course,” I immediately said, “HE’S THE REAL ONE!!!”

The boys went downstairs with Daddy while I asked Santa questions about reindeer (which is the topic of this bonus episode).

This episode of “Learning with Lainey” will be released later this month!

What I was most curious about was how he would get to and from my house. And now I know!

On Sunday evening, we had Advent Craft Night at our church. The boys were hesitant to craft at first, but eventually got in to it.

I was really excited to make matching jingle bell necklaces for me and Mommy.

On Monday we woke up to Elf announcing that night would be Grinch Night. We were so excited!!

While we had no snow in Colton, Henry and his buddy, Rowan, were thrilled to find snow in Pullman at preschool!

For Grinch Night, Mommy made Grinch kabobs.

We also got green milk, who hash, and roast beast.

We had mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.

And had a yummy Grinch mix for dessert number two while we watched the original Grinch cartoon.

This is one of our favorite traditions!

Brody got to enjoy hot chocolate in preschool today!

And then this evening was “Bring a Friend to Dance Night” where we got to wear Christmas jammies. Paige got to join me for this fun event!

My whole class and their buddies.

After a quick dinner of Happy Meals, we changed our clothes and went up to WSU to meet Santa and Santa Butch.

While we waited for them to arrive, we wrote letters to Santa.

We were at the front of the line to meet Santa. Brody told him that he wanted a “loopy loop” Hot Wheels track, Henry wants a Hot Wheels car wash, and I told Santa that I would like a watch.