We celebrated an early Christmas with Gramma and Grampa while they were here. We don’t normally decorate before Thanksgiving, but we wanted to have the full experience. And now that Ben is three he is so excited about all things Christmas. We do have to barricade the tree to keep the girls from messing with it, but Ben is pretty good with it!
Pre-barrier. Dagger was super happy we put up a nice tree for her.
The night before we had first Christmas, we headed to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. We had never done the Santa experience there, and let me tell you it was great!! They had all sorts of places for the kids to play while they waited. They had crafts to do and a big ball pit for the kids. Plus Bass Pro Shop is just huge and full of interesting things to look at. I’m not a super outdoorsy person and I really enjoy it. I also really liked that you could get a ticket for a specific time frame to see Santa in. With little kids less time in line is better.
Ben adored the ball pit. Christmas themed of course!
The men checking out the fish.
Grampa and Ali waiting in line
Sammy and me, almost time to see Santa!
I wasn’t sure how Ben would be with Santa. He was excited before we went, but you know with toddlers that could all change once we were actually there. Let me tell you, he was so excited. He played and had a great time while we waited for our turn, and when we were the next ones in line he could barely contain himself. He was jumping around, smiling, and he literally threw himself on the floor he had so much excitement he didn’t know what to do with himself. Not a tantrum, a full on so excited he just couldn’t keep it in. It was so sweet! When it was finally our turn he raced down the carpet to greet Santa. He was so good with Santa! He told Santa his name and thanked him for seeing us. The girls were great too! They looked a little confused, but they sat on Santa’s lap without fussing. Santa was a pro and had no trouble holding two babies with Ben standing in front of him. I was so pleased with how the whole thing went.
Crazy face, but this is the most excited little guy in the world! He’s going to see Santa!!!
Ben raced to give Santa a great big hug.
A bit blurry, but quite the happy guy! And non-crying babies! Win!!!
Gramma put a call in to Santa to bring a few presents early ;), so the next morning while they were here the kids woke up to Christmas morning! The big gift for the kids was a play kitchen. It was all setup when Ben came out of his room and he adored it from the start. The girls love it too. We have been eating some wonderful Ben creations ever since.
Pat and Grampa got to put together the kitchen
We girls were very helpful watching. 😉
The kids were very excited to wake up and find early presents. Ben loved his gifts and the girls had a ton of fun with all the excitement. Thank you Gramma, Grampa, Aunt Lindsay, and Uncle Chris for all the gifts!
Happy boy!
The girls had fun ripping all the paper.
All three loved the kitchen!
There were a couple of presents that had extra tape on them, and Ben needed help getting into it. Pat grabbed the big knife from the toy kitchen and used it. You can bet what happened after that, Ben wanted to use the big knife just like Daddy. It turned into Ben kind of sort of stabbing presents. While I probably shouldn’t say so, it was hilarious.
Stabbing presents. I don’t think this is going to become a new tradition.
We had so much fun! I’m glad we got to have some Christmas fun. The kids have been loving the new toys and now Ben is even more excited for Santa to visit! I love that we are really enjoying a full holiday season.