❤ Christmas 2012 ❤

We had a very Merry Christmas! This year my parents and Jo-Jo were here with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning so it was fun for them to see the "magic" of Christmas with the girls. We opened gifts and Santa pulled through and brought the girls the things they asked for.

Allie made us a special gift a pre-school (that we could not open until Christmas morning)

After opening the Santa gifts we waited for Grandma Ganne and Paka and opened all of the gifts from them. It is fun to do Christmas in segments...makes is last longer! After playing with gifts and taking my parents to the airport, we headed to Grandma and Paka's after nap. We joined the rest of the Hulbert Fam and opened gifts once again and had a yummy dinner. We are very blessed to have two healthy girls and look forward to many more fun Christmas mornings!! Merry Christmas to all!!

Grandma Ganne and Emily have matching purple casts!!

Christmas Eve

We have kind of made a little family tradition for Christmas Eve here in Cali. We go to Uncle Jerry and Aunt Fay's in the afternoon, then to Uncle Jerry's church service in the early evening and then to Scott & Nicole's for Christmas Eve dinner. This year was extra special because my parents and little brother were with us. Uncle Jerry's church does a wonderful kid's service that we always enjoy attending. It seems like the fastest church service ever! This year Allie and cousin Kainoa got to be sheep in the Christmas pageant and did a great job.







We left Davis and headed to Dixon where we had a nice time at Scott & Nic's. Yummy dinner, gift exchange for the kiddos, and the White Elephant and ornament exchange for the adults. Paige was super tired and had, had enough by the end of the night so we left a little early. She has been a trooper with all of the craziness and she is not feeling her best with her little broken finger :o(







When we got home we had to set out cookies and milk for Santa. Then got on our Christmas jammies and were off to bed! Once the little ones were snoozing Santa stopped by and left lots of gifts for the girls. Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Santa's Secret Adventure

This is are third year in a row going to Santa's Secret Adventure. Allie talks about it all year long and loves going to this special place this time of year. We usually go earlier in December, but Allie really wanted Pa to go this year (Grandma Rhonda just got to go last year) so when my parents told us they were coming for Christmas this year, we knew we had to wait to go to Santa's Secret Adventure together. Jo-Jo was here too, so he was a good sport and joined us on our little adventure.

While waiting to see Santa we sat around the campfire and read stories with some of Santa's elves.

This year we got to see Santa in "family" groups and it was great. Allie sat next to Santa between him and Mrs. Claus and Paige got to sit on Mrs. Claus. Allie had some framed artwork (that she made) in her room and really wanted to take one to Santa. I tried to talk her out of it since I was not sure if Santa would have room for lots of treasures from kiddos. But when she said "Mom, Santa always does kind things and brings us presents, so I want to give him one too" there was no way she was going without her gift. I think Santa was a little shocked when she gave it to him and wanted him to keep it, but he told her he had just the perfect spot for it in his workshop! Allie is a sweetheart and makes us very proud! I wish we had a picture of it, but we could not take pictures again this year so that was a bummer, but it was one we won't forget. I was not sure if Paige would be scared or not, but she said "Hi Santa" and was fine sitting up there and talking with them.

Allie and Paige loved riding the ponies and horses. This was a major hit last year and we got to ride them over and over. This year Paige got to ride too! She loved it and said "hee-haw".

The whole gang getting ready to go on the horse drawn carriage ride around the property.

There was also a pony show that was new this year. The kids sang Christmas carols and watched the pony show. It did not hold the girls' attention too long so we headed back over to the arena to ride again!

This is truly a magical place and we were glad we got to be there with my parents and Jo-Jo. After we left Santa's Secret Adventure, we headed to Red Robin for a little din-din and then met the VandenAkker's to look at lights. They have a great neighborhood out in Rocklin that is about a mile loop and almost EVERY house on the loop is decked out in lights. It was fun to see them and look at all of the pretty lights and decorations! Paige was a trooper with her broken finger and all (more on that in another post).