Making A Christmas Tradition

For the second consecutive year my mom, my sister & her children & the boys & I have all met up at the mall for a fun filled day of train rides, Santa visits & lunch, along with any other mall adventure we come across, like mechanical rides & good Christmas deals.

Honestly after chasing 3, 2 and a half year olds around the mall, I wasn't sure I would be up for it again but time & good memories erased the memory of sweat & exhaustion due to crazy toddlers, lol... It is amazing just how much kids change in a year! Not that the boys arent crazy 3 and a half year olds but the urge to dart into a mall crowd & sprint long distances has subsided & they usually stick pretty close.

My boys were not the least bit interested in the mall playground this year, although this mall has pretty tiny sized play equipment. I think Nadia would have had a good time but since all the boys were more interested in mechanical rides, she just joined in with them there :)

Nadia & Garren cruisin around

Walking the mall with 5 under 5!

When we finally ran out of quarters we made our way towards Santa. The boys all wanted to ride the train, we hoped that promising a ride after seeing Santa would encourage good line behavior & big smiles but 3.5 year olds just want what they want when they want it!

 Chandler (almost 4.5) did great!

 Garren & Caden held up well...

but poor Kellan just wanted to ride the train!

Nadia (14 months) wasn't totally crazy about Santa but calmed down

enough for my sister to get a non-screaming Santa photo.

I personally prefer at least one good screaming Santa photo, lol

After we got all of photos & goodies, Autumn joined all the kids for a ride on the train, finally!

I rode last year, it was Autumn's turn this year :)

After their train ride it was time for some lunch. It's funny because it doesn't seem to matter how many adults we have with us, when people see us all out together they count the children. I can't tell you how many people walked by our table & counted out load, lol...

Once we finished lunch it was time to head home. Since moving into the house the boys really don't like to be out for too long which is completely opposite of when we lived in the apartment, they never wanted to go home then. It was past nap time though & the boys needed to either sleep or run around in order to keep their cool.

It was a really fun day, slightly more work for my sister this time with a new-ish walker & keeping tabs on Chandler who had surgery last week but I think we will definitely do it again next year!