Christmas Day-o-Fun!

We had a full, full day this past Saturday. I'm exhausted just thinking about it and looking at these pictures again. SO MANY PICTURES. Poor iPhone quality and all. I have a problem. I posted several of these on Instagram (again, it's a problem...) but wanted to recap our day here, too.

Our morning started with a visit with the big man himself. Santa! Kansas City Moms Blog hosted a Morning with Santa at a little boutique in Brookside. It was such a cute setup.

Gracyn had never met Santa before but she was sooo excited. Leading up to the actual meeting, that is. As soon as it was our turn, she freaked. She is so shy when first meeting someone new, add in a beard and funny red outfit and she was done.

Leighton? Leighton-badger don't care. She was all, "Santa? Yeah, I know him."

We met our besties at the event and ended up spending the whole day out on the town. Gracyn cheered up once we grabbed coffee (for the adults), fruit and juice. Sitting on a patio at 10:30 in the morning in the middle of December? I couldn't believe it. 

By the time we meandered towards downtown, the babies were hungry so we grabbed lunch at Blvd Tavern. Not the most child-friendly place but they had a couple of high-chairs and cold beers so we were all set. They didn't seem to mind the trail of cheerios left behind either... ;)

After lunch, we headed to Crown Center and Union Station to experience everything decorated for Christmas. I had never been down at Christmas (blasphemy, I know. Especially having lived in KC for over 6 years now...). It was so fun to see the giant trees and everything decorated for the season.

no nap? no smiles.

my best attempt at getting a photo with my girls...

To take a break from the crowds, we snuck out the back of Union Station and hit up cocktail hour at Grunauer. Das Boot was calling our names! They kind of gave us the side-eye when we waltzed in with 2 strollers, 3 kids and 4 adults longing for a drink. They were kind enough to let us sit on the closed patio (again, 60+ degrees in December!) so the kids could run around.

It was getting dark so we marched back through Union Station to see it in all it's glory. Seeing it all lit up at night was even better.

We dropped the strollers off back at the car and walked through the Crown Center District, also adorned with thousands of Christmas lights and the Mayor's Christmas Tree. 

My favorite picture from the day. Minus the crying Santa pics. Because those are always pretty good... ;)

Kansas City has a free holiday trolley that runs downtown. It takes you around to four different stops so you can see the lights and some other attractions they have going on those nights. Gracyn thought she was Daniel Tiger and Leighton was mesmerized by the light stick. 

We took the trolley to Power & Light to see {another} Santa and his reindeer. Live, actual reindeer. It wasn't Rudolph, much to Gracyn's dismay, but she still found them fascinating.

By 7:30 or so the girls were starting to meltdown. We fed them one last time and headed home. They were such troopers all day. We hadn't planned on being gone from home for so long but we had such a fun day. Kansas City does not disappoint when it comes to the holidays and I'm so glad we finally made the time to experience a little bit of what our city has to offer!