An Amazing Holiday Season!

I am determined to get caught on this blog by next weekend.  It continues to blow my mind how quickly the time is passing and just how much we've been doing over the last several months.  But for tonight, I'm just going to cover the holidays.  In a nutshell, they were wonderful.  My folks came up for Thanksgiving and we all spent the day at my aunt Sue and uncle Bill's house with Rick and Lori and the girls.  It was a very relaxing day and the kids, as usual, had so much fun with their cousins Rylie and Logan.  Technically, they are Max and Evelyn's third cousins (I think that's how it works), but for now it's just easier to call them cousins than trying to explain the relationship to the kids.  Sue came out the next day and we all got to spend the holiday weekend together, which was so nice.  We took the kids to see Santa with the hopes that it would turn out better than the year before when both kids were...not thrilled to be on the giant red man's lap.  This year Max kind of understood the concept of Christmas and Santa, so he did great.  Evelyn was still not impressed.

As most of my friends and family know, I am a huge Christmas geek.  Between my love of the autumn and my love of Christmas, I am a happy, happy girl from October through December.  I LOVE the holidays- the anticipation, the music, the excitement, the lights, and the joy and love in the air.   So naturally, I love any and all activities that lead up to the big day.  This season,  I was able to do the Jingle Bell Run, Zoo Lights, and activity day at Gymboree with the kids.  The Jingle Bell run was a 5K I was able to do with the kids where everyone was giving jingle bells to tie to their shoes and almost everyone was decked out in some kind of Christmas decorations.  It was a blast!

Maybe the kids weren't as excited as me

Matt and I took the kids to see the Zoo Lights- a spectacular light show at the Portland Zoo.  We were not disappointed.  Even our little ones were impressed.

And lastly, we took the kids to a craft night at Gymboree where they got to make hand print wreaths and beaded braclets, decorate their own graham crackers with icing and sprinkles, then got to play in the gym.  Needless to say, it was a very fun night for them.

Thank goodness for non-toxic paint!

My little artist

Mmmm...frosting

After that, we just had a nice, relaxing December.  Christmas was absolutely perfect.  It ended up just being the 4 of us, but we had an amazing, wonderful, relaxing day.  We stayed in our pj's all day, ate when we felt like it and just enjoyed each other's company.  Matt had the whole week off leading up to Christmas, and I can honestly say that time was the happiest I have been in years.  And that's saying something since I've had a pretty amazing couple of years.  I realized how seldom it is that the 4 of us get to spend any substantial time together, so I cherished every moment of it.  I couldn't have asked for a better holiday season!

The Christmas card photo

Baked goodies for the neighbors (and maybe a few for us)

Presents!

I am so looking forward to next year.  I love seeing the magic of Christmas though my children's eyes and I know each season will only get better.  It's the time of year I take a little extra time to be grateful for all my blessings and all the wonderful times we have had throughout the year.