The year of 2011 has definitely brought some monumental change to our life – a new baby, a new job, a new home and a new city to live in … just to name a few things. This year also brought another new tradition to our life, spending the holiday season in our own place here in Western Washington as opposed to traveling to Los Angeles to spend it with family.
All in all, I think the 2011 Christmas Season was a success!
** We cut out lots of paper snowflakes. (Coffee filters do make awesome ones!)
** We decorated our annual gingerbread house.
** We watched lots of holiday movies.
** We saw a myriad of Christmas lights on houses in our area and at a nearby botanical garden.
** We made sugar cone Christmas trees. It was beyond hilarious to watch Eli with his. I had him sit at the table so I could take a picture of him and his finished tree … he wanted nothing to do with posing for a picture. Instead he did what any normal 3 year old little boy would do. He ignored the camera and proceeded to eat his frosted tree with no hands 
.
** We read scriptures and sang songs from our advent binder, though this was only successful maybe 50% of the time. (Tired and whiny boys of all ages makes this a bit difficult to enjoy at times.)
** We baked and decorated sugar cookies and delivered them to our neighbors.
** We read Christmas books.
** We went to Keri’s holiday choir concert which was wonderful to listen to. I was quite impressed with their performance. I was also completely mesmerized by the school’s marimba club which performed as well. It was delightful and fascinating to listen to the harmonies they produced. WOW!
** We attempted to act out the nativity while reading Luke 2. Our costumes were a bit thrown together, but they worked.
** We had a festive Christmas Eve dinner with just our family and then opened the box which family from California sent.
** We had a magical Christmas morning. Eli even slept in until 8 which surprised us all! [Note to self: One of my goals in the New Year will be to figure out the timer function on our camera so we can take a picture with all of us in it at once.]
Here is Christmas Eve Night after Santa paid a visit.
And here are the pictures from Christmas morning:
I think one of the few things we would have changed is the plethora of germs which invaded our home. We could have done without the flu, the colds, the GI bugs, the sinus infections and the UTI that plagued us.
Here’s hoping for a healthy, safe and happy 2012!
Great pictures, adorable kids! Keep up the good, exhausting, and sometimes lonely work that is motherhood
What a fun year! I am so excited for you and your family and all the fun new things that happened for you. I have a fun story for you….
My husband has some very good friends that were here in town for Christmas . We were able to get together for dinner earlier this week. We were talking and I mentioned that you had just recently moved into their city, and wondered if they happened to know you…. And they said you guys moved into their ward! Jason and Jen O. Jason and my husband have been friends for ages, and most likely we will make a trip up there to visit….hopefully sooner than later…. But when we do, we will definitely have to plan something together. It would be so nice to meet you in real life.
WOWSERS! you sure got around to lots of fun festive activities!
i love the jammies, cone trees (i need to do that!), intimate nativity, and the look of your christmas morning!
it looks so magical i want to jump thru the screen! lucky kiddos!!
xoxo