Christmas Eve 2016

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. You still have the anticipation of Christmas, there are gifts to be wrapped and toys to still be put together. But it's also the day the celebration officially begins. In our family, Christmas Eve is a day to eat and drink and play games and watch movies. We put out a huge spread of appetizers early in the day and spend the whole day grazing. 

 If family is in town, like this year, we play card games. And it's always Christmas movies all day.  This year my parents came in to town, so we set up our card table (AKA we dragged the "dining room" table into our living room) and played shanghai while the kids played around us.

We let the kids stay up a little later and watched Elf as a family. Can you believe my parents had never seen it? It's pretty much my favorite Christmas movie!

And then our last Christmas Eve tradition, reading our Elf book one last time and The Night Before Christmas in front of the Christmas tree.

And finally, we tucked the kids into bed and all went to sleep so we could wait for Santa to come.

Lol, yeah right. We tucked the kids in to bed and I stayed up until almost midnight wrapping and doing stockings and putting together gifts and making sure everything was perfect. And, I admit, around 11 I started getting a little stressed and overwhelmed. But it all came together, and even with the stress Christmas Eve will always be my favorite. Because, at the end of the night right before bed, when I'm the only one still up, I get a few moments by myself to take in the magic Christmas. I love taking the last look at the tree and the stocking, taking in the calm and beauty of it before the madness of Christmas morning happens. I love the hope they hold, the promise of an amazing day to follow. I love those last minutes of still being excited and anticipating Christmas, before the big day actually comes.

Like I said, Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year.

Santa!

We finally made it to our annual Santa visit, and while it wasn't a complete success, it was better than last year! This year both L and L2 were happy to sit with Santa and take pictures, and R was the only hold old! I'll take it, and look forward to a year when all the kids are good with Santa and I don't have to be in the picture!

(R clinging to daddy!)

But at least we got a cute family picture out of it!

The saga of the gingerbread house

Several years ago, when L was very young and our only child, him and I tried to make a gingerbread house at Christmas. It was a complete failure and I've never attempted it again. Well, this year I decided that maybe it was a fluke all those years ago, and we had Frosty (the Elf) bring the boys a gingerbread house.

Spoiler alert: That disaster all those year ago? It was not a fluke. I have decided gingerbread houses are not meant for mere mortals, and they are actually quite impossible.

But regardless, the boys has a blast making it (and eating a lot of the candy as they went!)

Hey, it doesn't look like the picture, buy it's our little run down, probably a foreclosure, definitely neglected gingerbread house!

Royal Ranch Holiday Party

I really love our sweet little neighborhood. Every year our HOA puts on a holiday party at one of our parks, and they really do great job. Last year was actually the first year we went, (the party is wonderful, the advertising for it not so much!), and this year we had it marked on our calendars as a "must-do" holiday event.

They didn't disappoint. The park was filled with bounce houses, a train ride, visits with Santa, food trucks and even horse and carriage rides!

(I swear, he had fun! This was just a brief tantrum!)

We had such a good time hanging out with friends, and it put us all in the holiday mood!

Christmas Tree 2016

Holy cow, this post has been sitting in my drafts box and I didn't even realize it! We actually got our (live, as always!) Christmas tree last weekend and decorated it, but apparently I never finished and published my post about it! My bad!

Here she is, our 2016 beauty. I was super sick on the day we were suppose to go tree shopping, but S and the boys did a great job picking a beauty!

And, you know, it's funny. Every year I start to see friends trees going up, and they are gorgeous. I lot of them have the fake trees which are so symmetrical and you don't have to worry about watering... the list of pro's goes on and on. And they have twinkly white lights and beautiful ornaments, and for a moment I get jealous.  I want a grown up and sophisticated and symmetrical and all white light tree. It's so pretty, and looks like it belongs in a magazine!

But then, we find an amazing live tree, and S is always so proud of it. And we put on our colored lights that remind me so much of when I was a kid. And then we pull out the ornaments, ranging from old hand-me-downs that once belonged to my grandparents, to the ones S and I have from our first Christmas, and our first house. The ones for our dogs, our first babies, and of course our actual baby's first Christmas's. We have handmade ones from the kids, and while they aren't work of are, they are special. And as we go through all of these memories I fall in love with our tree and our ornaments and while I love those pretty, sophisticated trees with tasteful lights and ornaments, I wouldn't trade ours for anything.

(But maybe one day I'll be one of those people that has a second tree that is all white lights and lovely ornaments!)

And then there is our boys. So excited to see the ornaments. L is especially excited to hear the stories behind them each year. Decorating a tree with little kids isn't easy or relaxing, but it's something they will remember forever.

But, of course, when decorating a tree with young children always make sure you leave time for a tantrum. The three year old will most likely be slighted in some way and need a few minutes to cry and pout behind the tree.

And lastly, your husband will put your oldest on his shoulders so he can put the star on the top of the tree. It is a time honored tradition that both of them will remember forever!

That is until you oldest decides being up that high is super scary, and refuses. And then all the other boys also refuse.

That's then Mommy end up on Daddy's shoulders, because she's the only one brave enough!

But regardless, the tree got decorated and the star found its place. It's so pretty, I could look at it all day long.

The Circus 2016

So, every year S's work does some sort of Christmas Celebration. Some years it's for adults only, and some years it's very family orientated. Every couple of years since L was a baby, they have done a circus. We've gone every time, and it's always been fun, but I admit I was hesitant when S told me that's what they were dong this year. I've recently started to understand more that circuses and zoo's probably suck for animals, and as much as we've enjoyed it in the past I was uncertain if it was something we should support.

Regardless of my hesitation, the kids were excited, and despite waking up Saturday morning sick as a dog I decided to rally and we all went out to dinner and then to the show.

(Dinner at Four Peaks)

After dinner we headed over to the show, and much to my delight it was amazing  as I remembered and it no longer featured animals!!!

We watched acrobats and juggler and trampoline artists (is that what they are called?), and all other types of performers. They were amazing, to the point where I was genuinely worried about their safety a few times, but hey always managed to pull it off!

(Juggling... using other humans... and only their feet!!)

(That's a man, holding himself vertically on a pole, support the whole body weight of another man!)

Despite not feeling well earlier, I'm so happy I pulled it together and went to this with the boys. They were so mesmerized and seeing it through their eyes is always so special!!

Christmas Paint Night!

'Tis the season.... am I right??

I'm not normally one for arts and crafts, but when a friends tells you they are hosting a wine and paint night, you grab hold of the wine part and just hope for the best when it comes to painting!

Thankfully, the paint night was delightfully simple thanks to a wonderful instructor. Of course, my painting still managed to look like a 12 year olds among a bunch Picasso's, but hey, I held my own and I did a great job on the wine part of the night!

(I mean, the background and the ornament look OK, right?)

It was such a fun night though, and it catapulted me right in to the Christmas Spirit!