Christmas is Coming!

So here we have the rest of December prior to Christmas Eve.  The kids had a fun Christmas program, and of course the video camera battery was dead, and they're just not as fun on a still camera.  They also did lots of fun crafts and activities at school.  Here is John's gingerbread house...complete with a swimming pool!

 We had breakfast with Santa at the neighborhood clubhouse.  Before I had gotten clothes together, John and Eve had dressed themselves...quite nicely!  Yes, we had cute Christmas-colored coordinating outfits, but this was just way more fun.

 We also spent an evening in Ft. Inn at the carriage rides.  Santa is there as well as free crafts, and this year they also had a model train exhibit!  Once again, we had a battery issue, but it just meant we got to focus more on having fun with the kids (and not losing them).

 I still can't believe they let little ones use this huge blade that they pull toward themselves, but John has done it twice and not ended up in the ER, AND he got to make a cool hammer (that I later used to hang pictures).

Then Uncle Greg came!!!  We were so excited to have him come visit.

 Then Aunt Michelle came!!!!  We were so excited to have her come visit too!  Both Michelle and Greg stayed until after Christmas, and it was such a treat to have their help...I mean share the holidays with them :)

 Aunt Michelle was very neat with the icing.

 No Eve!  Not in your mouth! (Michelle quickly learned to just let it go...it's an uphill battle)

 We went to Hollywild!  So fun!

 You can't tell from the pictures, but this cow that came to our car was seriously as tall as the van!  All was going well until...

 IT TRIED TO EAT EVE!  Just kidding.  It was just huge and slobbery.  It gave us all a good laugh. (Mostly me.  Greg and Michelle were on the passenger side with the kids screaming "Drive, Katie, Drive!!!" but I was laughing too hard.)

 Seriously, that cow was HUGE and it's whole head was in the car!

 Check out the buffalo's tongue.  Gross.  Fortunately that wasn't in our car!

 Eve and Ellie had a great time walking around feeding and petting all the animals.  Ellie had a peanut butter cracker she was carrying around that got the attention of all the animals, but she was very posessive and wouldn't share.  Unfortunately this was the night John started to get sick, so he, Buck, and Grandma headed home after the drive-through.  I was really bummed for him.