Gosh, I just love Christmas and all of the magic, excitement and fun that comes with it. Our Christmas season this year was filled with all of that and the kids are just at such awesome ages to celebrate it all and really get into everything!! The month of December was filled with lots of special activities, events and festivities and we enjoyed all of them!
Although it almost killed me waiting until December 13th to put our Christmas tree up (due to the construction) the extra wait made it seem almost more magical and special once it went up. We actually got the tree almost 2 weeks prior so it has just been sitting outside in water the entire time waiting to go up. We went to the Christmas tree lot by Home Depot but didn't see any that I loved and didn't love the idea of spending over $100 for one, so we decided to check out the Poway Costco since we heard that they had them and sure enough they did and we walked away with one for $60. It worked out great. The kids have been such great troopers of dealing with everything that has happened in just a little over a month and the decorating for Christmas made our new home feel even cozier and more like home so getting the tree up was crucial for me and once it was up it just all felt right!
Lots of great helpers! Joseph, and the girls, love hearing the story about how when Joseph was 2 we were decorating the tree and he stepped on a bunch of ornaments...they crack up when Rich tells the story, "Crunch crunch crunch went Mommy's nice, sentimental ornaments". Ha. Thankfully we didn't have any broken ornaments this year!
Ella talked Rich into letting her do the star this year, not sure how or why that happened, but everyone was good with it!
Hot chocolate with marshmallows made the night extra special and Jingle brought them each a personalized ornament the next morning which made it even more wonderful! We are officially ready for Christmas now!!
Julia had her holiday performance on Decmeber 12th and it was as sweet as could be. Her class sang 3 songs and she was so excited for the day! She sang: Dreidel, Dreidel, ********
Charlotte wanted to get in on the individual photos, too! Soo sweet!
She was up in the front and center and did awesome! Daddy was able to be there, too, and we got lots of smiles during the performance and she loved it!
On Saturday, December 15th the RB community park had their annual winter fest so after a full morning at wrestling tournament we headed over there for some fresh air. The Ozecks were able to join us so it was a lot of fun!
The girls loved the sledding!
They also all loved the snow area and Joseph and Cole spent a lot of time trying to get the adults hit with snowballs! Charlotte did like the snow but her favorite activity was the bounce house obstacle course that she went on repeatedly!
We were able to get a group photo with Santa right as it was closing...Charlotte had no interest in even getting close to him so she opted to skip this photo out.
Ella, on the other hand, spent a good amount of time on his lap chatting it up with him!!
The kids had fun celebrations in school, too. I attended Joseph's gingerbread making party on the Thursday before break and had a great time. I laughed when I saw this on the bulletin board-this was his crazy elf. He's a character!!
On Friday, December 21st, the day before break, they had pajama day at school which was a great way to begin the break. Ella was SO excited to not only wear her Santa pajamas and hat, but also to celebrate her birthday in school that day, so it was extra special!! I realized a few days prior to today that Joseph didn't have any appropriate pajamas to wear (since he always sleeps in his clothes!) so I ran out before to get him a proper pair of pjs to wear and he was pleased with the Minecraft choice!
We celebrated Christmas at Nani and Poppa's on December 23rd. Brian and Hollie were heacding to Hollie's family on Christmas Day so we wanted to be sure to celebrate with everyone. It was such a great day! We went for brunch and spent all afternoon there. Nani kept the Christmas pajama tradition going this year with matching pjs for everyone (which we all secretly love, I think!) and the gift card game was a strong one this year! She had some new stores thrown into the mix along with the favorites such as amazon, in n out and golden spoon so there were some steals and deals during the game which always makes it so much fun! Days like today make me SO thankful that we live here and are so close to this family of ours...we left feeling filled with so much joy, love and gratitude for all of our blessings.
Julia waiting patiently top open up her pajamas.
Ella's turn!
These two are just the sweetest...when they're not bothering each other. Ha.
Cousins in matching pjs
Charlotte is ready for the gift card game now!!
And finally, we fit in Christmas card lane on December 23rd, just in the nick of time! It's been a tradition since we moved here (and was one of my traditions growing up) and the kids look forward to getting hot chocolate and walking around the streets looking at the lights. It was a great night and surprisingly not too crowded, although we did get there right around 5:00 so probably beat most of the crowds!
LOVE all of these celebrations leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas and so thankful for such a joyous season this year!
No comments:
Post a Comment