The Santifort Family: December 2011

This year for New Year's Eve we stayed home. We usually go to a friends house but thought it would be way to much to travel with the babies this year. I was happy to stay home, be able to put the babies to bed on time, and relax with some friends.

The Ashley Family and Carr Family came over to celebrate with us. Kevin and Kira really enjoy playing with Benson, Addison, and Jake. Benson and Addison are Kevin's age and Jake is Kira's age. Cindy brought over sparkling wine for the kids and they thought they were so special sipping it out of plastic wine glasses.

We had a bunch of stuff to munch on and lots of wine, beer, and champagne to drink. We talked, laughed, and had a great time. The highlights of the evening for the kids were playing Ring Around the Rosie, having wrestling matches, setting off poppers, and blowing the obnoxious horns :)

We rang in the New Year at 11pm here in Arkansas since we are an hour behind New York. They always replay the ball dropping for us....but its not as fun as seeing it for the first time.

Eating snacks

Benson, Kira, Kevin, Jake, and Addison

Kira didnt like the sparking grape juice :)

Playing Ring Around the Rosie

Hailey Jane

Benson, Adam, and Addi

Jesse and Courtney

Poppers!!

Benson was a little afraid of the noise from the poppers

Happy New Year!

Popping the Champagne

This is our third Christmas here in Northwest Arkansas. The kids actually slept until about 7:oo am which is late for them....and good for us! I decided not to go overboard this year on gifts like I did last year. The kids didnt even want to open half the stuff I got them the Christmas before. Granted they are a whole year older now....I just decided to try to keep it simple. Especially with the babies. It couldnt have been more perfect. They were so happy to see that Santa came. They each brought their cookies Santa left them on their night tables into our bedroom to show us. They wanted to eat them right away....but I convinced them to wait...at least until after breakfast...and by then they were so engrossed in their toys the cookies were old news:) They opened all their gifts...loving and appreciated all of them. Which is exactly what I had hoped for. There were just enough. They wanted to play with them all right away! The babies were asleep for most of Kevin and Kira's gift opening which worked out well.

After a lot of playing the babies were up and we had breakfast. I made pancakes, sausage, and bacon. One of the kids favorites. Actually, anything that involves bacon is a favorite! Then we went back to more unpackaging and playing of gifts. The babies got their turn to open their presents too. They sat on my lap and with a little help actually were able to rip some of the paper off....it was adorable! The got a lot of clothes from family and a car garage and some rattles from Santa.

I think Kevin's favorite toy was Rob's Iphone. He wouldnt put it down all day :) He loves to play Angry Birds.Grammy got Kira her very own video game which I think was her favorite. She also REALLY liked the twin babies Grammy got her. It was like having her own set of twins to stroll around in the house in the stroller. She played with them a good portion of the day. They also came with a double high chair and she fed them a lot too!

For dinner we had fillet mignon, twice baked potatoes, corn, and Rob's family's famous string beans. It was all very yummy. The day couldnt have been more perfect. I cherish these moments and love to see my kids happy. It was a wonderful day!