Christmas in Xenia

After our Christmas at home on the morning of Christmas Eve, we played with the toys (had a little power outage derail our plans) and then packed the car and headed to Xenia.  Do I say every year that it was the best year ever? If so, I'm sure I meant it in the previous years, but this year really really was the best.  Maybe because the babies were now old enough to enjoy it fully. Maybe because the way the holiday fell meant we had plenty of down time at home before and after the holiday away. Maybe because the surprise snow kicked up an already-awesome few days away into a snowy adventure. Maybe it was the Christmas magic Tia put together for some cookies & milk to set the tone on Christmas Eve. Maybe it was because Santa delivered some really really cool toys for everyone on the nice list this year.  Maybe it was Grandma keeping a house full of hungry bellies full to overflowing with home-cooked food at every meal.  Or just maybe it was a little bit of each, with candy cane sprinkles on top, that made for the perfect recipe of holly jolly Christmas in Xtown.  See for yourself...

"DO NOT DISTURB"

 

 

 

Here's the video of Christmas morning in Xenia.  

(Disclaimer: This looks like an obscene amount of presents. But it's a little less obscene upon the realization that these are the presents for three families under one tree.)

 

And a few more from our time in Xenia from my phone:

Some Christmas Clownin'

Does Christmas bring out the sillies at your house, too? Maybe the camera is just nearby more often this time of year to capture the normal sillies on film. Either way, here it is for the Schneider family log book.  Let it forever be known that there's plenty of clownin' that goes on in these parts.

It's not unusual to find at least one Schneider upside down at any given point.

Bea enjoy spending her free time upside down:

Bea and Louie enjoy cuddling and yelling "Maaaammmaaaaa" just to be silly:

Perhaps it's now obvious why Bea enjoys spending so much time upside down:

 We've been playing this game with Josie since she was Bea's age:

 Tick-tock-tick-tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock:

 

 It really is a wonderful workout and is sure to produce giggles every time!

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It's also pretty common to find the kids in random yoga poses for no real reason throughout the day.

And you never know when someone might set up an obstacle course while you're doing dishes. (Hint: someone = Louie)

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Bea hates clothes. Like hates them. This is one example the ended up being pretty hilarious from Christmas in Xenia.  I noticed just how often Bea is naked when she stripped down at Grandma Fifi & Grandpa Bop's house a few days later.  Ha - I guess we hardly notice around here anymore.

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And now for the ultimate in clowning around - the man who pretty much invented the whole idea - Mr. Garry Jim Johnson aka "DD."  I only caught the tail end of this on Christmas morning, but we were all laughing hysterically when he came up the stairs and busted this out.  The only thing funnier was when he went upstairs and surprised Josie and Lyla. The screams and giggles were priceless!! 

The (most perfect) holiday snow day

Truly - how enormous is the gift of a big snowy day to two eager little girls, armed with a new sled from Santa, and their fun-lovin' parents on a day when those fun-lovin' parents were off of work? Add to this the fact that our new house has the perfect kiddo snow hill - right in the front yard!  Add this to an already perfect day of nothing-to-do-but-play-with-new-toys bliss and well, you have yourself the best snowy day in the history of snowy days.  I managed to snap a few pics with a frozen finger on my phone before tucking it away for the first Four Schneiders snowball fight.  Then we all took turns going down the sleds in different combinations, before I snuck inside to make vegetable soup and grilled cheese - with hot cocoa for dessert. This day will definitely go down in the Schneider family history books!

(I'll save the BEST for last...but first some pics!)

LITTLE BEA, BIG HILL

Lou and I had to do at least one trip down the hill togethere

Backyard panorama

This one pretty much says it all

Until tomorrow

And now for the videos!

This is the first one from early this morning when we all woke up to find this beautiful snowy scene outside of our windows.  I'd say the girls' plans for the day definitely came true.





















And now, as I said, the BEST FOR LAST! Two perfect minutes to capture the perfect fun of our snowy day at home...