TERRI'S TRAVELS: Christmas Eve-Eve

December 23. Christmas Eve-Eve. And it was 60 degrees in KC.

I got up to work out at 5am, and it was already 51 degrees!

I ran a couple of errands yesterday, and one was to Joanns to get a frame for this cool "Period Table of Kansas City" print that lists a lot of the restaurants and theaters here in KC. I love it!

My mom and I had some Christmas prep plans for the day, but my brother called a little before 8am. He went to drop off Hunter at day-care ... and day-care was CLOSED! Guess who got Hunter all day! :)

He is such a good little helper and helped me put together the kids table for ginger bread house (and train) decorating that night.

Kelli brought the kids over a little after that, and while they got to baking with Gram, we got working on the ginger bread trains and houses.

"Wait, how does this work?"

It was hard than it looked, but we eventually got them semi-assembled. Maybe not just exactly like the box showed, but hey, the kids are 2, 4, and 5. Pretty sure they won't notice...

It was absolutely way too nice of a day to be inside, so off to the park we went! (Still can't believe it was 60 and sunny in December!)

The kids had so much fun running around and playing on the toys.

But even more fun when I discovered a little creek running nearby.

Trying to get all fancy with my iPhone photography ;)

Who knew throwing rocks in water could be so fun for so long!?

I practically had to drag them out of the water.

Hadley and Hudson went home for nap time. I took Hunter home and set him up with a movie on my Mac, hoping he would sleep, too. (It didn't happen.)

Meanwhile, I decided to try my hand at another arm knitted scarf. I literally got down to THE LAST ROW and then got distracted helping Hunter. I dropped one of the loops and one whole side of the scarf unraveled. I knew it was a lost cause so I just left in a heap on the floor. So angry. Angry enough that I think I'm done with arm knitting. (That was short lived.)

Hunter decorated a few cookies after the movie, but really wasn't in to it. He just wanted more iPad time and popcorn. Which is exactly what he got. (He generally gets whatever he wants when he's with me.)

I tried to get the house somewhat organized and cleaned up before the whole fam came over for dinner and gingerbread house decorating.

Our little tree is just so cute!

Before Tony and Christa could make it to the house, SANTA FaceTimed with the kids. I don't have any good pictures of it because I was recording it on the GoPro (it's on my YouTube page), but oh my goodness, it was so funny. The kids were all so nervous to talk to him!

I think they enjoyed it, but they weren't nearly as excited as we were hoping they would be when he was on.

Family pic:

The kids suffered through eating dinner with the bribe of candy and gingerbread houses. Worked like a charm.

Decorating was slightly disastrous. Hudson spilled his entire bowl of candy, Hadley used a whole tube of frosting on one spot. You know, about what you would expect with kids that age...