Regional Chess Tournament

Bayley's team took first place in the regional tournament. He played well, but four of the boys on his team were undefeated, which means they'll be the ones going to the state tournament. Bayley really embraced that they won as a team, which made us quite proud. He was so excited, he decided we just had to go out to dinner.

Buy My Mom's Book

For Kicks came out last week, and Private Scandal hits bookshelves next week. The boys have realized how these books do is the determining factor in whether they get to go to Disneyland this summer. They keep asking how the books are doing, which cracks me up.

Bubble Wrap

I did most of my holiday shopping online, so whenever something came packaged in the bubble wrap, the kiddos had a blast dancing on it!

The Doughnut King

Santa hooked Hayden up with a donut baker...and of course he had to try it out and experiment with toppings. His first foray into donut bliss was a chocolate version, so he opted for powdered sugar, chocolate frosted...and chocolate frosted with Reese's Santa had delivered to his stocking.

We had fun, but the baker is very hot, so I wasn't comfortable with Hayden squirting the batter in.

Breakfast With Santa 2011

While I was in the hospital, I missed the annual Breakfast With Santa. Jeff remembered to take a camera...but the pictures didn't come out well. I hope the kids have good memories of it since the pictures...are barely blogworthy.

Christmas Dinner

We lounged about all day, the kids playing with their new toys while Mom rested on the couch watching Hallmark channel holiday movies. When night fell, it was time to head up to Grandma & Grandpa's for dinner.

Everyone arrived...for Grandma's famous croissants. The Christmas miracle is always if they make it to the dinner table without being eaten.

The kids got at the gifts before dinner; Bayley loved his Legos and starting building them right away. Hayden wasn't in the mood for his How To Train Your Dragon book set, so he opted for putting together his Ninjagos. Grace simply liked twirling about, as usual. 

 

Christmas Morning

 By franitcally monitoring NORAD's Santa Tracker, the boys decided Santa must arrive just after midnight. And be in a hurry, since there is so much to do. They told everyone (Grace, Mom & Dad) to be sure to be asleep early so as not to miss their shot with the big guy.

Hayden was in Mom & Dad's room at 6:30, announcing that Santa had been here. We coaxed him into ten more minutes, so he brought in the reserves -- Bayley. We snuggled them until they couldn't take it anymore and woke up Grace. They all raced downstairs, thrilled by the gifts under the tree. Gracie shouted, "Thank you, Santa!" which became the mantra for the morning.

As did "Santa is kind of a pig." Apparently the boys weren't expecting the jolly one to down three cookies AND a cupcake.

Grace loved her new plush horse stable, Hayden his lego boombox and Big Time Rush CD, and Bayley seemed unaffected by everything except the Wii Points. OK, then.

After checking that there were still Hanukkah gifts to be had for the rest of the week, the kiddos started playing. The boys on their DS's thanks to Bayley's Action Replay score, and Grace with her Little Miss Muffins.

Once our cinnamon roll breakfast was finished, the boys escaped upstairs to try out their Skylanders gift from last night, and Grace followed with her new tray of cupcakes to play 'restaurant' with them.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We were late to the annual McCauley Christmas Eve dinner...and it started on time! Very odd, since these events notoriously run on McCauley time.

Hayden attacked the Swedish meatballs, while Bayley was all about the refrigerator rolls. Grace was more adventurous and went after Uncle Jim's rice pudding and Aunt Mary's jello salad (two helpings of each!).

We talked of new jobs and of the cousins who couldn't make it home this year. I'm excited for stories of Colorado & Switzerland when they return.

I think this might be Grace's last year in the family high chair... It's never out of use for more than a few years :)

A Bayley Christmas

Uncle Matt & Aunt Courtney hosted the Bayley Family Holiday Brunch again this year. Everyone raved over the bubble bread so much last year, Courtney made two this year - one with nuts and one without.

 

The kiddos had fun running about, dodging the mistletoe, opening gifts...the biggest hit had to be the mustaches. Who knew?

We also took family portraits at the end, trying out our camera skills. The funny part? Dan - with no camera classes at all - did a great job with ours.

Winter Wonderland

Since I wasn't up for walking around the zoo for Zoolights, we opted to view the lights at Winter Wonderland at the raceway. It was great to get to enjoy the lights and stay warm at the same time.

For the drive up there, we got kids meals and let them munch. By the time we arrived, the chocolate milk had them excited to see anything at all. They gave us a CD of holiday music, a bag of candycanes (because my kiddos hadn't had enough sugar) and let us on the track.

We liked how they had displays for each of the 12 days of Christmas, and some of the sillier set-ups like the juggling dinosaur. about five minutes in, Grace wanted to get out and play, and Bayley had a fit of the sillies, but other than that normal business, it was a hit.