Christmas Pictures

We just had our Christmas pictures taken at JC Penney's. We had never been there before but I found a Groupon and got a great deal.  Here are some of our favorites that were included on a CD.

Christmas Toy Exchange

I participated in a Christmas toy exchange this year. It was fun! Apparently I like doing exchanges. Recently I participated in a Toddler Busy Bag Swap, where I got 16 different busy bags! About a month later, I participated in the Toddler Busy Bag Swap 2. Last year, I participated in a Busy Bags for 4-5 Year Olds Swap.  

For the Christmas Toy Exchange, the coordinator wanted to keep it relatively small. There were 9 of us who participated, so we each made 9 of the same things. Most of the items are little things that can be put in a stocking. Some items were bigger. Nevertheless, I now have things to put in my children's Christmas stockings and near the fire place on Christmas morning! Here is what was exchanged!

Felt button coloring matching game

Penguin hand puppet, this is what I made. :)

Bubble Wand

Marble maze

Pretend ice cream cone

Puzzle

Fishing game

Puppet theater

Magnetic/chalk board

Ice Exhibit

Thanksgiving is almost here and yet we are already starting in with some of our family's Christmas traditions. I have wanted to visit the Ice Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan before we moved to Germany. It's been that long! This year we finally went. Blue Rock loved it! He's really been into ice lately, making it various shapes, watching it melt, wanted to see it steam. So this exhibit was perfect for him. He literally jumped for joy when he found out we were going to an ice exhibit. 

As a special treat, we took the kids to eat lunch at The Rainforest Cafe before we went to the exhibit. Blue Rock and Princess both loved the restaurant. They both liked seeing the animals and all the excitement that goes on in the rain forest. 

The Gaylord Texan was decked out for Christmas. It was fun walking around the hotel and checking out all of their displays. But the highlight was definitely the ice exhibit which featured over 2 million pounds of ice. This year's theme was Frosty the Snowman. We took Blue Rock to see the play, Frosty the Snowman last year so he was familiar with it. There were some ice slides that were fun to ride down. The exhibit ended with a beautiful ice nativity scene. We are really glad we went, even though it was literally freezing cold! After we were done, we got some hot chocolate to warm us up. We hope to make this an annual event! It really is a neat event. I recommend going to see it, even though it is pretty pricey. Use a coupon! Here are some pictures from our visit. The guys from China who come and sculpt the ice really do a fantastic job! By the way, strollers are not allowed in the ice exhibit but there is an area to park your stroller. Dress warmly. They also hand out parkas, including small ones to babies and children. 

Goofty brother at Rainforest Cafe

Waiting in line for the ice exhibit

There was a lot of excitement

Walking to the entrance, we all got parkas

Large Frosty

Me and my cute snow boy!

Ice slides, lots of fun!

Princess was cold and got tired of waiting for us all to go down the ice slides

It was fun!

The guys!

Blue Rock got an ice apple at the end of our exhibit

He loved his ice apple but we had to give it away because it was melting and messy!

There's also snow tubing

 

They are such sweet kids!