Pre Christmas Fun!

Along with the two birthdays in December, we had plenty of other Christmas festivities and other holiday fun to keep the month very busy!

On December 3rd Rich took Joseph and Ella to Home Depot to get our Christmas tree and stumbled upon the Home Depot workshop to make a gingerbread craft so they participated in that prior to getting the tree.  

Later that day, the RB community park had a winter festival that we went to for a few hours to check it out.  

Julia's first experience with snow and she loved it! 

They had a snow hill and all three kids wanted to give it a try-a little extra push from Daddy and they were ready to go! 

Julia was not a fan, Ella seemed indifferent about it but Joseph loved it and continued to go down over and over. 

He loved it and went down at least 5 times! 

We met up with our neighbors and the kids had a blast having a snowball fight (amongst the grass!) with the dads. 

Excited to get Daddy with a snowball!! 

Julia didn't have any interest at all in seeing Santa (actually started tearing up and wanted Rich to hold her) so we decided not to force the family picture but did get individual photos of Ella and Joseph.  Joseph's eyes were closed in his so didn't include it but he was definitely excited to talk to Santa and let him know what his list consisted of. 

We were definitely getting into the Christmas spirit as evident by Joseph pretending to be Santa with our couch being the sleigh.

The next day, our church had photos with Santa after mass.  Joseph and Ella got individual pictures during their faith formation class and then we all stayed after donuts and coffee for a family photo. Julia was not excited about seeing him but she was ok with it as long as Daddy was holding her!   

Ella insisted on wearing the pink headband that day so she has a little pop of color with Santa.  Her teacher told us that she basically ran right up to Santa and was so excited.  

Joseph's smile says it all!  Pretty excited, too!  

After church we went home to decorate the tree!! 

After a quick run to Target to pick up additional lights, we were in business! Joseph and Ella were great helpers this year as Charlotte just watched and Julia really didn't have any interest in it so she just played around everyone. 

Getting there!  

Taking a break from the decorating

Love this time of the year!! 

Enjoying the Christmas festivities!

And, then she decided to decorate her own hair!

It was the perfect tree!  A little heavy on the decorations on the bottom front but we wouldn't want it any other way! 

Happy girl just hanging out on December 6th! 

As mentioned in Joseph's birthday post, originally we were supposed to have all of the family over for the Army Navy game and to celebrate Joseph's birthday but since he ended up with strep throat we had to cancel the plans so we just had a relaxing day with our family watching the game and hanging out.  Charlotte must have been their good luck charm since Army finally won after a thirteen year losing streak!!  Go Army! 

On December 15th at the library story time, they had a rabbi from a local synagogue as a guest reader and after the books they decorated dreidel sugar cookies! 

We continue to spend lots of time in the cul de sac with neighbors! 

Nani came over on December 16th to play with the girls for a bit. 

Christmas break began for two weeks for Joseph and Ella on December 17th.  We had a great break together not only celebrating Christmas and New Years, of course, but enjoyed the down time of hanging at home without having to always rush around from drop offs and  pick ups and spending time with family and friends. 

Lots of cul de sac time with friends!  We've got quite a great little crew in our neighborhood and Joseph just loves all of the boy time.  We have gotten into a great little routine of every Friday afternoon getting a big group together and play and love that it is such a nice way to end the week!  

Ella is getting really confident and strong on the balance bike.  She has the goal of learning to ride her two wheel bike when she is 4 so hopefully this helps her get on her way.

Lots of craziness at home over the two week break!  

Joseph and Ella's yearly well checks which both went great and we are so thankful for healthy kiddos.

A little light saber war while face timing cousins, Michael and John.  Gotta love technology and the ability to battle across the country! 

This peanut is just so laid back and always enjoys the constant entertainment at home.  

Of course we had to do some Christmas cookie baking.  We made kiss cookies, peanut butter cup cookies and sugar cookies.  So much fun but such a mess! 

We went to Christmas Card Lane on the night of the 20th but I totally failed to get any pictures but we love this tradition of ours and were able to enjoy some of our cookies while checking out the lights.  

The Zicklers arrived into San Diego on the 21st so we loved having so much time to spend with them!!

Just hanging out...

Enjoyed the down time during the day just playing and spending time together. 

And the more chaotic moments...

Some days I feel like time is going by so fast and Joseph and Ella, especially, seem to be growing up so quickly so I am so thankful for this time with these little ones.  December is such a special month and we had a lot of fun!