The Vallecillo’s

As it is customary, Larsen wrote his note to Santa on Christmas Eve to remind him how he has “tried” to be good all year. In his letter Larsen also made sure Santa wouldn’t forget that the only thing he wanted this year was a Nintendo DS.

The Christmas Eve Santa letter is quickly becoming one of my favorite moments of the season. Of course, the letter was neatly place right next to a plate of yummy cookies and other treats for Santa. Mmmmm, those sure look good!

Before bedtime Larsen and I tracked Santa on the computer (thanks to Norad and Google Earth), and read “The Night Before Christmas” like we (and many others) do every year.

When Larsen woke up Christmas morning he found a letter from Santa next to the cookie plate which now only held crumbs left by the jolly old man. Check out that note Santa sure has a way with words and killer handwriting skills!

About one of the oddest places to find Santa this year was a the Bass Pro Shops. We heard from our friend Kim he was there and that they had a surprisingly good setup. She was absolutely right! Not only their setup was great, but there was nobody in line. The perfect scenario when you have an infant who can go from happy-go-lucky to head-spinning and spitting-up in an instant.

Landri was all decked out in a dress and was even wearing shoes, even though you can’t see them since they did not make it into the picture. I’m telling you, infants and shoes just don’t go together. I lost count, but she must have kicked those off at least a dozen times.

The people running the show were great about letting me snap some pictures with my camera after they were done taking theirs, which is the one I’m including for your viewing pleasure.

We are a predictable bunch, aren’t we? Last year’s party went so well we decided to do the exact same thing this year and outsource Larsen’s birthday party. I’m pretty sure we’ll outsource it again next year, so post any suggestions you may have using the “comments” link below.

The kids had a blast hurling 6 lbs. balls any which way they could. The prize for the best hurdler goes to Luke though, through the air and with at least 3 bounces before reaching the pins. Absolutely amazing!

This year’s attendance: Celeste, Kyndall, Jack, Landon, Emma, Luke, Andrew, Gracie, Olivia and Hudson.

Happy 6th birthday Larsen!

Today we went to one of Larsen’s friend birthday party held at a local ranch/stable/farm. Amongst many other things available for the kids were pony rides and a petting zoo. Larsen was definitely partial to the pony rides, but only after the initial “I don’t want to” discussion. The petting zoo was alright, but riding the ponies and feeding apples and carrots to the horses were definitely Larsen’s favorite activities.

As expected, today was a very exciting day for all. Larsen was thrilled to see all of his presents under the tree when he got up this morning, and we were very happy to see him light-up when he found Santa’s note. Lots of goodies were delivered to our home this year including board games, roll-up piano, easy bake oven (yes, he wanted one of those), PEZ dispensers, walkie-talkies, Dr. Seuss’ books, Magnetix, “I can play piano” game, sewing machine, digital camera, and lots of other little goodies I can no longer recall.

Our yearly family get-together was held at our house this year, so we had a full house with everyone accounted for…except for Abuela (who we later brought in for a quick “hello” via video chat over the Internet). We had plenty of food and plenty of presents for the kids. The adults, on the other hand, went the “gift exchange” route since it gets a bit ridiculous for everyone to buy gifts for everyone else. During our Thanksgiving dinner we drew numbers and assigned everyone with one person to buy a gift for, that way every person would be responsible for only one gift.

The idea was for everyone to write down 3 things they would like under $40. For some reason nobody could think of anything in a pinch, so the list ended up being 90% requests for gift-certificates. When you think of it all of the adults simply exchanged $40 between each other: “Oh, thank you for the $40 gift certificate to Best Buy, here is your $40 gift certificate to Target”. I have a feeling the rules will definitely change next year

The excitement and anticipation of Christmas was in full-force this year, probably something to do with the excitement of a certain 5 year-old boy we know. Christmas eve traditions started early on today, from the baking of cookies for Santa, to the constant playing of Christmas music throughout the house, to the reading of “’twas the night before Christmas” right before bedtime.

This year’s Larsen list for santa included an iPod, a Wii and a roll-up piano, but we are not sure how many of those Santa is going to be able to bring. He has been a good boy this year, so I have no doubt Santa has done his best to make sure he is properly rewarded (and then some). Santa sometimes goes a bit overboard, but believe me it is all Mrs. Claus’s fault.

Eggnog consumption went up significantly this year (all by me since Mandi won’t touch the stuff). I must have tried at least 6 different kinds this year in search of the best commercially produced stuff, and I am here to tell you they all pretty much suck! I thought I had found the best of the bunch (Braum’s), but this belief was quickly dismissed after I decided to make my own. THANK YOU ALTON BROWN!!! After watching an episode of Good Eats on how to make your own eggnog I decided it was time to take it to the next level. Let me put it this way, if you like eggnog you owe it to yourself to make your own at least once. You will never buy the mass-produced stuff ever again. Oh yeah, make sure you try it with some good bourbon…it really gives it that extra “something”.

But enough about eggnog…lets bring it back down a notch to milk and cookies. Before bedtime Larsen put the note he wrote Santa next to some cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. I’m sure it is going to be an exciting time come tomorrow morning.

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Having had Larsen’s 4th birthday party at our house last year, we decided this year it would be nice to leave the pre and post cleaning to someone else. Although Main Event is very close to our house, Mandi had heard about a new place in Frisco called Strikz that she wanted to try. The concept is exactly the same as Main Event, but everything is newer since they have only been open for a short time.

Everything went just as planned, but by far the best part was only having to worry about the invitations to the party. These places have the whole thing down to a science, and we had a fun afternoon of bowling, birthday cake and arcade games. Of course, we ended up going home with way more presents that any child should get on one sitting.

There is definitely something to be said for outsourcing birthday parties. We were all very happy to skip the cleanup and make it back to a house that was just as we left it.