The Gaffney Family: Christmas Time and New Year's Skiing!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Yep, I once again am a little behind in updating the blog, so here is a really long post capturing most of our holiday adventures. Brace yourselves for Christmas 2012: Gaffney Style.

We kicked off Christmas with a hilarious bang at the Parade of Lights! I can't really disclose details, (it is actually a Secret Society!) but somebody in our family was privileged to be a member of the Prestigious Clown Brigade. This is actually quite an honor and the kids were so proud of Mojo, their favorite clown.

Grandpa Don was able to make it out to see the parade and he had a great time chasing after Mason and watching the parade with Molly.

Grammy flew in for the weekend too!

The week after the parade we went to see Disney Princesses on Ice with Grandma and Pa. Molly was nothing less than captivated and Mason had a pretty good time too.

Perhaps one of the more memorable events of Christmas 2012 surrounded our Christmas tree. Brian was originally slated to be gone the three weeks before Christmas, so we hurried up and got most of our decor up right after Thanksgiving. While we were able to get everything else up, we hadn't got the ornaments on the tree before Brian headed out of town. A couple nights after he left I finished the tree, after my little helpers had gone to bed. Here is the result. Quite nice, don't you think?

Unfortunately, it didn't last long. The VERY NEXT DAY, CRASH! My dear little boy pulled the tree over! What a mess! Water was spilling everywhere, Mason was under the tree crying (he was okay, thank goodness), and Molly was screaming at the top of her lungs "He broke my tree!!!!" Making matters worse was the fact that I could not get the tree to stand up again. And Brian was gone. So, what to do? Throw the kids into the play pen and call Grandma and Pa to the rescue! Just look at the expression on their faces. Pretty hilarious.

Anyhow, thanks to Grandma and Pa, we got the tree back up. If you look closely, I protected the tree from further unprovoked attacks from Mason Lee. Yep, I put a gate around the tree. The baby fence worked great, looked festive, and kept the tree upright for the rest of the holiday season.

What would Christmastime in Colorado be without a little snow? After one of the first light snows of the season Molly built her very first Snowman. She specifically requested the carrot for the nose!

Snowman kisses!

Up next: Gingerbread house decorating with Daddy.

It took lots and lots of focus!

A little hot cocoa helps too!

Mason even wanted to get in on the action!

Hot chocolate grins!

The finished product.

The next Christmas activity was Breakfast with Santa! Grandma and Pa were able to make it up to see the Big Guy too!

Waiting for Santa.

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

The pancakes were really good!

Dancing with Pa!

Molly made sure to take the time to write and mail her letter to Santa.

After all that excitement, Molly settled in for her very first game of Candy Land with Pa and Daddy. I think she even won!

Up next? A little Christmas cookie decorating. I did this with the kids one day and it was a mess. A wonderful, happy, mess of sprinkles!

To keep Mason busy while we were getting the cookies done, I plopped him in his high chair and he enjoyed his very first Christmas cookies! Just don't tell the pediatrician. I'm sure that's not on the recommended list for a 10 month old.

He loved them!

In between all the Christmas festivities there was always a little time for a little rocking out.

Molly even got to have her very first class Christmas party! She was pretty lucky to have her Daddy go and help put with the fun!

At some point, Mason Lee decided to sneak a little bit of Christmas fudge. I don't think he liked it much.

Ready for Christmas already!

Uncle Adam even came over for Christmas!

At one point in the Christmas festivities, we had a Bronco party!

Mason loved cheering them on!

Molly riding the Bronco!

After all the festivities, Christmas eve finally got here! Here are a few shots from the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas Superstar!

After Church we had a birthday party for Jesus complete with Christmas cupcakes!

When the cupcakes were polished off we had to head outside and sprinkle a little Reindeer food in the front yard for Rudolf and his friends.

Molly and Daddy tracked Santa's progress on the iPad.

Just before going to bed, Molly and Mason left out a plate of cookies and Milk for Santa.

Daddy helped Molly write a letter to Santa too.

When Christmas Morning dawned, Santa had been to our house!

And it snowed!!! We really did have a white Christmas. Molly really wanted to go out and play in the snow, but since nobody was dressed we reached a compromise: the kids could indulge in a few glasses of freshly fallen snow.

After opening gifts we had a very fun breakfast, complete with paper crowns. What could be more stylish?

I think Molly just saw Santa!

One of my favorite memories of the morning was when Molly opened her gift from Grandma and Pa. It was a"treasure box" full of princess dress up clothes, shoes, and accessories. When she looked inside she said, in a voice full of wonder, "Wow ... this is going to be amazing!!!" It was pretty adorable.

She couldn't wait to try on her new clothes!

Mason wanted to try out his new things too!

I think he liked it!

Mason also thought a few of the boxes were pretty cool too.

Here are a few other shots from the morning.

After we were finally dressed, Molly and Pa headed out into the winter wonderland.

Pa even managed to build a sled run in the backyard!

Mason stayed warm inside and hung out with Uncle Adam. He did want to watch all the excitement from the window though.

WHen she finally came back in from the cold, Molly was ready to build her princess castle with Uncle Adam.

They played for a long time!

What's Christmas without the M&M's?

And finally, here are a few random shots rounding out the Christmas celebrations.

Uncle Adam wearing Molly's Tinkerbell ear muffins!

A candy cane for everyone!

Before officially wrapping up the Christmas celebrations, Molly convinced us to go and get a little Christmas ice cream! It was delicious!

A couple days after Christmas, we packed up and headed up to Steamboat to do a little skiing and to spend some time with Grammy, Grandpa Don, Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Ryan. We signed Molly up for ski school for the first few days were were there, so she would be ready to go up on the mountain with Daddy on our last day. She LOVED it!