more christmas....

after christmas at home and mass, we headed up to my mom's for christmas with the rest of the family. as you can see, selma was a bit tired. nothing like being right next to your new toys but feeling too tired to play with them! merry christmas!!

st nick

st nick arrived to much excitement. even selma was excited, and greta and otto thought it was hilarious that st nick brought selma things like puffs and other baby treats. after emptying their stockings, our kids did their typical "sort everything and line everything up in an orderly way". do other kids do this?

this was also day 6 of our advent calendar, and our christmas "thing" for the day was to have a christmas music dance party. the dancing was too out of control to get a photo. in fact, otto twirled a bit too long and fell face first into his basket of books in his room. yes, the christmas music dance party involved an injury and blood. but it was fun.

day 5....

....do a christmas craft. we had three christmas crafts lined up, but the kids tired (and we ran out of time before bed) after two of them. they colored and glitter-glued wooden ornaments, and then they put beads on pipe cleaners to make candy canes. selma was there to supervise and to attempt to grab and choke on every single bead that was dropped.

day 4

get a tree and decorate it. we got our tree from that same shop on monmouth street where we've gone the past few years. not much to report here. we got a tree. we decorated it. otto broke a few ornaments. the end.

yes, virginia, there really is a santa claus.....

and he's hanging out at macy's on a friday night with NO ONE waiting to see him!!

it's never been a big deal of mine to take our kids to see santa. i guess maybe when they're a bit older they might ask to go see him, but for now i think the season is about so many other things. the first (and i think only) time our kids sat on santa's lap was when greta was two at christkindl market. on her own, she noticed santa up on the stage getting set up to greet kids and she just walked up there and sat down on his lap. it was so uncharacteristic of greta....and hilarious.

this year, we were walking from fountain square to redsfest at the convention center when we spied santa in the window of macy's. with one child on his lap and no children in line. so we jumped at the chance. i sorta felt like we HAD to go see santa. the kids were a tiny bit hesitant but were pretty okay with it. they just kept staring at him. greta asked me, "is that the REAL santa?!" selma, of course, freaked out. i knew that would happen, but i wanted her in the photo.

both kids froze when santa asked what they wanted for christmas. all otto could come up with was that he wanted a jumprope. and greta said she wanted a music box. so then when santa asked them if they wanted anything else, otto said a music box and greta said a jumprope. easy time at the hansbauers, santa!!
i think there favorite part of seeing santa was the candy cane he gave them, which we enjoyed later with our movie and popcorn.

paper chain

day 3 of advent calendar....make a paper chain.
greta and i had been talking about making a paper chain to help us count down the days til christmas (even though that's exactly what the advent calendar is doing).
greta and otto worked on the chain for a while this evening. otto tired of it quickly, but greta was so into it i bet she could have done the whole thing by herself. they were both excited to count the links when we were finished and they were impressed at how long it is! it was super fun and makes for a neat decoration!

yo gabba gabba christmas!

day two of our advent calendar.....eat popcorn and watch a christmas movie.
we were running short on time before bed, so we settled for watching yo gabba gabba christmas episode. as you can tell from the glazed looks, i don't think the kids minded one bit.
they added the candy canes that santa gave them, and i think they'd call this a perfect end to a great day.

sending christmas cards

day one of our advent calendar....make christmas cards.

advent calendar

and so begins the season of advent. we kicked things off with our advent calendar. each pocket holds a tiny ornament for a small tree that the kids decorate. this year, the pockets also hold a paper that tells us something "christmas-y" we are going to do that day.....from have a christmas music dance party to go to festival of lights. so far the kids seem super excited about this. and i've spent WAY less time this year reminding otto to leave the ornaments in the pockets until the designated day. unlike last year.

ol' saint nick

after trimming the tree on saturday, greta and otto woke on sunday to find that st. nick had filled their stockings with some holiday goodies. sweet!

o christmas tree

we headed all the way to monmouth street in downtown newport to get our christmas tree. there is a little local market (peluso's) that sells christmas trees out of their back lot....not the most festive of locations, but it's a short drive to get there and back and we've found the perfect tree the past few years. greta was very intrigued by the chainsaw they used to cut off the bottom of the tree...she kept repeating "that guy gave it a FRESH CUT" all afternoon. here are some pictures from the tree trimming. otto slept through most of it, but woke up in time to hang his ONE ornament on the tree. greta enjoyed hanging all the ornaments in one bunch right on the front of the tree. we listened to christmas music, had tea and candy canes....it was such a fun time.

fountain square

after the trains we headed to fountain square....we saw the giant christmas tree, the fountain, and santa on ice skates!! the weather was perfect, and greta enjoyed running all around the square. otto preferred to take in the sights from the warmth of his bundle me.....

the trains! the trains!

we decided to head downtown to see some of the holiday sights. we started off at the trains at duke energy. the lines weren't too bad, so we were able to see the trains without much of a wait. greta was definitely more interested than she was last year....and this year she was able to enjoy the free cookies that they pass out!! if you look closely, you can see the bruise on greta's forehead. the day before thanksgiving, we were at a playdate at the nawroths. i suggested that greta give ella a hug goodbye. greta took me seriously, and the hug turned into a bear hug/tackle that landed both ella and greta on the ground and in tears. we think that greta's forehead hit the doorframe on her way down. love hurts!!

cheap thrills

again, does santa really need to bring toys for christmas? greta played with this bag of pens for quite a while at my family christmas. put the pens in. dump the pens out. repeat. i might have to wrap this up and put it under the tree.

nestheide family christmas

after we took greta downtown on saturday, we had my family's christmas party later that evening. it's always a ton of fun. lots of food, lots of beer, lots of haggling over gifts in the 'white elephant' gift exchange. it's always loud and rowdy, and i think greta had a great time. here are some pictures from the evening.

here is greta, the true "present" in it all. aww shucks. actually, in this photo she is placing the bow on her head and then saying "aaachooo!" while tossing the bow across the room.

here are greta and robby, busily filling out postcards to send to uncle john. greta and robby are about 2 months apart in age, and were hilarious all night. aware of each other, but never really acknowledging the other's presence.

greta and papa unwrapping her gift from great grandma katie. thanks grandma!

greta shares a quiet moment during the gift exchange with aunt boo to read a christmas book.

and lastly, here is greta road testing my gift from the gift exchange. this is her latest fascination....climbing!! climbing into things, climbing on top of things, etc.

greta had a ton of fun with all the nestheides at christmas, and is looking forward to celebrating with the rest of her family in the days to come. i can only imagine what NEXT YEAR will be like!! (i think we said the same thing last year!)

holidays downtown

we took greta downtown on saturday morning to check out all the holiday sights. first we stopped at fountain square to check out the christmas tree. then we headed to duke energy to see the train display. greta was actually pretty interested in the trains and watching them move around the tracks. she was also interested in all the kids that were there.

next we headed to the carew tower and the hilton netherland to see the gingerbread displays. they always create really amazing buildings (like great american ballpark) out of gingerbread and icing. here is greta making her "funny face" while looking at the display. we then stopped for a snack at brueggers before heading over to macy's to check out santa. no intent of getting a pic with santa, especially after we saw the number of people in line. and especially after i heard a mom threaten her son that "absolutely no transformers are coming to your house this christmas if you don't smile with santa!". lovely. that's the christmas spirit. greta got a glimpse of santa and then we headed home. where she played with her newest "toy"....my medal from the flying pig relay. does santa even need to bring toys, anyway??