Adventures of Jingle and Belle

This Christmas season has been a blast with our TWO little elf friends!  We were so very lucky to have Jingle join our family this year.  Allie and Ayden have LOVED searching for them each and every morning...and finding little treats hear and there.  Jingle and Belle have given assignments to our family...write a letter to Santa, mail out Christmas cards, go to the tree lighting festival, have a bake day, watch a Christmas movie and eat Christmas popcorn, and even snuggle on the couch with hot chocolate on the first day of winter vacation!  They've done some silly things too...like take a marshmallow bubble bath or read stories to our PEZ dispensers. 

 

 

Jingle and Belle made a special sack in their workshop for Allie and Ayden and left them hanging on our mantle.  Their job was to pick out old toys laying around the house they no longer play with.  They are to leave their sacks by the tree on Christmas Eve.  When Santa comes, he will fix them up, good as new, for other girls and boys, but leave new toys in their place!  Allie filled hers up right away!

 

 

Belle and Jingle have been with us for the entire month of December...but now on December 24th, they landed in our tree in our basement (where we open our family gifts) so they can say goodbye to everyone and participate in our Christmas cheer when we celebrate with our family and open gifts tonight.  They also left one last little gift for our kiddos.

 

Each elf wrote a letter and said that it was okay for them to be touched tonight (just before bedtime).  Allie was to take Belle, and Ayden was to take Jingle...give them a hug and kiss goodbye. However, they have to make sure to leave them by Santa's plate of cookies so the jolly fellow can find them and take them back to the North Pole safely with him. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting the Hammerick's, Jingle and Belle.  It's been real fun!  I do hope you had some good reports for Santa on your trips back up to the North Pole each night.  Thanks for giving us some great memories this 2015 Christmas season!

Hammerick Christmas Card 2015

Thanks, John, for the "awesome" Christmas card photo!  We can only get better from here, lol.  After all was said and done, our photo come out pretty well.  I face swapped Allie and Ayden, removed sun spots from Todd and Ayden's head, and brightened up a majorly dark photo. The finished product was not too bad!  Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

 

 

 

Christmas Bake Day

Our annual bake day turned out to be a little bit of a bust.  With Todd being in Chicago and Nana sick...I braved our annual bake day ALONE (until I called in Papa Ray for back up).  My two little bakers did have fun rolling, cutting, and decorating our annual Christmas sugar cookies.  They weren't no Cookies By Design...but they were made with love...LOTS of LOVE!

For our second round of cookies, Papa Ray showed up and whipped up some of my mom's famous "Christmas Rock" cookies.  It's just not Christmas without THESE!

Thanks, Papa Ray, for showing us how it's done!  Now if we could get Allie and Ayden to EAT them!!!  They don't know what they're missing!!!

Heritage Night

Visiting Mr. & Mrs. Claus

These two were a tad bit sad today as Todd left for Chicago for work...but once we got to the 3 Cedars Farm where Santa and Mrs. Clause were visiting...their frowns turned upside down...at least for Allie it did. The barn where Santa was to arrive was decked out in Christmas Cheer!  Lot to look at and listen to while we waited for the big moment.

He said he would sit on Santa's lap.  He said Santa was nice.  He said he wasn't going to cry.  Well...he did cry.  No matter how much coaching I did with Ayden about Santa...he still wasn't having it.  Allie even took our little guy under her care and held his hand and hugged him tight until it our turn to tell Santa everything we wanted for Christmas.  

 

Allie shared her Christmas list with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  The main big item she asked for...a scooter!  Hopefully this will be the last year of Ayden expressing his hatred towards Santa.  Allie was kind enough to tell Santa that Ayden would like an airplane for Christmas.

Santa Photo 2015

Overall I'm pretty happy with our Santa experience this year...and our photo too.  See you soon, Santa!  Ho! Ho!! Ho!!!

Star of the Week

Our STAR (of the week) was super excited for this week at school.  She talked and talked about it weeks before she even knew her special week was approaching.  Allie and I spent the weekend preparing her "All About Me" poster.  Allie was the sweetest and said, "I'm so happy your my mom...no kids have these cool stickers like you do."  (melt my heart)  My stash of stickers definitely came is super handy with only having a weekend to make our masterpiece. 

Allie brought her poster to school to share on Monday.  On Tuesday, she shared a favorite book, Make Way for Ducklings and her Boston Baby book.  She shared about her adventures in Boston after she was born.  Wednesday, Allie shared her special interest...CHEER! with her uniform, photos and a video from her last competition.  Finally on Thursday, Allie brought in her PEZ collection to share her special item.  Allie was rewarded with a certificate on Friday that went directly into her keepsake box.

Although Allie was the STAR for only a week in her class...she is OUR STAR every day in the Hammerick family.  Shine on, Allie girl...and reach for those stars now and always!

Gingerbread House Making 2015

Hooray for Gingerbread House making day!!  Thanks, Aunt Jess, for hosting.  We always love coming over and making our annual gingerbread houses for the holidays!  These sweet kiddos probably ate more candy than what ended up on their houses!

Ayden loved putting stuff on his house (with a little help)!  He did a pretty good job! Allie was all about decorating her house.  She was very creative and thought of some really cool ideas.

 

 

Ayden's Gingerbread House

Allie's Gingerbread House

Our gingerbread village.  Great job everyone! 

Allie was very proud of her house...and even refrained from eating it.  Hopefully it will make it all the way till Christmas!!!  They are too cute to eat!