The Top 10 Moments of the Daren Nix family Christmas 2012

These moments are in no particular order but they encompass my top ten favorite moments of Christmas Day at our house.  It was a wonderful morning.  It was magical and the girls were sincerely so surprised and grateful.  Grandma, Pops, Christi, Mimi, Papa, LaLa & Lilliann were all there to share in the special morning with us.  It was such a blast!  We are truly so blessed. 

1. Claire wrote me a special love letter for Christmas.  She wrapped it herself for me to open.  It was a really wonderful moment for Claire and me.  I will treasure that little note for the rest of my life.

2. Grandma hugs captured on film.  Grandma & Pops arrived at 7 a.m. because they wanted to be part of watching the girls run out of their rooms to see what Santa brought.

3. Sweet Lilliann spending Christmas Day at our house was such a blessing!  We got her that chair and she looks so cute sitting in it.  :-)  More than anything, we are just so grateful she is in our lives.  She is a little angel.

4. Harper ran to Daddy to give thank you hugs.  It was so sincere and so sweet.

5. Claire desperately wanted Santa to bring her a gingerbread house.  He did.  The funniest part of it all is that Harper got one from Santa too, but she was WAY more interested in eating the decorations than she was building the house.

6. Claire was so excited when she opened her very own classroom stuff from Mommy & Daddy.  She has been teaching ever since.  I loved that I caught her expression on camera.  :-)

7. Miss Harper wanted her very own jewelry box with her name on it.  I missed the picture moment of her face when she opened it to find a ballerina inside, but it was priceless.  Our little ballerina girl was so excited!

8. Santa brought the girls a Wii and one of my favorite moments was of Daddy dancing with the girls.

9. Claire was ecstatic to build her gingerbread house.  Harper had a great time too. 

10. Mimi is so much fun!  She disappeared with Claire for a brief moment and came back with Claire hidden in one of the gift bags for Papa to open.  Claire had a blast being Papa's surprise!  Priceless moment of joy!

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve was really nice for our family.  We went to the candlelight service at Riverbend.  This service is always spectacular - Christmas songs, a sermon and the entire congregation sings "Silent Night" while holding lit candles to finish the evening.  It always feels really magical and is a wonderful reminder that we celebrate this day to honor the birth of Jesus.  The girls got to go down to the front to sing a song and meet Rudolph.  Those photos are on Lashelle's camera, but the girls had a blast doing that!  Once we got home, we left the cookies and milk for Santa, reindeer food for the reindeer, took our baths and headed to bed.  Mimi decided she wanted to sleep with the girls to be sure we all knew when they woke up the next morning.  We didn't want to miss those wonderful expressions of awe on their faces. 

Our family on Christmas Eve before the candlelight service at church

Mimi, Papa and Lilliann on Christmas Eve

Claire, Lilliann and Harper on Christmas Eve

The girls left Mint Oreos and milk for Santa

Harper didn't want her feet in the grass, but this is a picture of her leaving the reindeer food out in the front yard for the reindeer to eat. 

Santa's loot for Claire - a bulletin board with her name on it, a white board (a teacher in the making?!) and the gingerbread house were her big requests this year!  Santa delivered.  :-)

Harper's loot from Santa - a baby, a baby crib & a dress up dress were her big requests.  Santa delivered!

There's nothing better than a Mimi sleepover!  Can you find all 3 girls - Mimi, Claire and Harper? 

Climbing trees, caterpillars and a special date

The weekend before school let out for the holidays, Lashelle invited Claire and Harper to Houston to see Annie, the musical.  Claire ended up being the only one to get to go to Houston for the weekend, as Harper had to stay in Austin because she got really sick  The only picture I have from Claire's night at Annie won't upload.  :-(  But, Claire LOVED the musical and she tells her friends here in Austin that she met "the real Annie."   Claire loves being at Mimi and Papa's.  I'm sure she really loved getting to go all by herself.  :-)  Sweet Harper was really sad to be left out, but we told her she could make her own trip to Mimi and Papa's soon, and that seemed to subside her disappointment.

Claire at the top of a VERY tall tree at Mimi's.  She really is a monkey and has no fear about it at all!

Claire found some caterpillars at Mimi's!

By Saturday night, Harper was feeling better. She got to have a special date with Mommy and Daddy to dinner and to see the Domain Christmas tree.  We loved the time with our baby girl and she loved getting all of the attention. 

Our visit with Santa Claus at the UT Club

Grandma and Pops invited all the grandkids (and their parents) to join them to visit Santa at the UT Club.  It was really fun!  We weren't sure what to expect with Harper and Santa.  If you rewind to last year, we forced Harper in Santa's lap where she screamed and cried hysterically.  She didn't like the bearded creeper.  This year, both girls loved Santa.  They stood in line to meet Santa, decorated cookies, wrote letters to Santa, made ornaments and ran wild outside. The boys didn't want to sit in Santa's lap, but Claire and Harper were in love.  We had to force them to allow the next kids in line their turn. 

Pops, Grandma and the girls

Christi, Chris and Charlie

The girls with Santa - all smiles, no tears

The family pic with Santa Claus.  I still can't believe I got Daren to be in this picture!

Claire decorating cookies

Harper decorating cookies

This picture cracks me up because the kids were pretending to be Spiderman. They were scaling the walls to capture the spies.

I snuck this picture when neither knew I was taking it.  Harper LOVES to snuggle with her Grandma.

Harper's Christmas performance

Harper's school put on a wonderful Christmas performance.  Beginning with the infants, each group performed a Christmas song.  Harper was so excited for all of us to come.  She told me that I had two rules, 1. "You are not allowed to talk until I am finished."
2. "You need to clap at the end."

Grandma, Pops, Daddy and I packed in a pew at her crowded chapel.  I was so excited to watch her.  You see, Harper hasn't had very many performances in her little lifetime just yet.  The morning began with Harper refusing to wear her Christmas clothes, so I wasn't sure how the performance would go.  While very bold at times, Harper is much more shy than her older sister.  Harper did a great job!!  She sang the song twice, and if you are patient enough, the second round of Rudolph is better!  I loved every minute of watching my silly, sweet baby girl perform.

Here is a link to watch Harper sing "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" :
http://youtu.be/QqxlCl6OChc

Singing "Rudolph."

I love this picture because this is the exact moment where she found Grandma, Pops, Daddy and me.  Her face says it all!

Mid performance - her class

The next day was her pajama party at school.  She's sassy and ready to go!

What a beautiful little girl!  Santa loves you too, Harper!

The boys kicking off the Christmas season

Christmas season was kicked off by my sweet nephews.  Their church Christmas performance was at the beginning of December and it didn't disappoint.  The boys did a great job singing, and we all LOVED watching them.  My personal favorite is included as a video clip below:

"Do the Shepherds Need Shades?"
http://youtu.be/6OSU2Y4Jsic

Holding up their candles to "This Little Light of Mine"

The boys up close and singing

A group shot

The best birthday gift ever!

It's final!  And, on my birthday... Best gift of all!!

35 and holding...

35 snuck up on me this year!  I've never been one to care about my age.  I still feel like I am 20 years old.  My students often remind me of my age when I mention Vanilla Ice, roller skating parties or ET and they've never heard of any of them.  That's when I realize that I am not, in fact, 20 years old anymore.  I had a great birthday.  We did lots of celebrating and it was fun.  35 was a fun birthday and I look forward to a lifetime of more celebrations...

Family birthday party with 4 of my favorite people in the world!

Birthday date night with Daren at Paggi House did not disappoint.  AMAZING!  Thanks to Erin and Evan for such a wonderful gift.  :-)

We met the Gisslers post-dinner for some drinks.  We had a lot of fun with them!

Daren gave me a birthday party at Pinot's Palette.  It was a blast!  We painted and drank wine.  For someone as unartistic as I am, this was really a BLAST because I walked away with a decent painting. 

The painting crew ready to paint!

Our masterpieces!

A semester in Kindergarten

So far, Kindergarten has been an incredible experience for the Claire Bear.  I really can't believe she has completed an entire semester.  She has done very well both academically and behaviorally, earning greens almost every day for her behavior and 4s on her report card.  Her teacher is AMAZING!  She truly loves children and has each kid's best interest in mind.  We feel so blessed.  She sends a newsletter every Tuesday to the parents.  In it, she includes what she calls "outtakes," or pictures of our kiddos while they are in class.  I love that she does this.  It makes me feel included in Claire's classroom and in her learning.  Below are some of my favorite Kindergarten "outtakes" :

Taken in September: This is Claire and Katherine, one of her best gal pals, holding hands walking into school one morning. 

Halloween time: Claire's teacher sent us a picture of the class's green hands after a project they completed in art class.  Claire is on the right.

November: One of Claire's classmates speaks Italian at home.  Her mother came and read a book to them in Italian.  Claire is in awe. 

Claire making patterns during circle time

Claire and a friend learning to put numbers in order all the way to 100!!

Thanksgiving turkeys!!

The Kindergarten Winter Party - no parents allowed!  Claire's amazing Kindergarten teacher sent us all pictures of the event.  :-)