Friday, January 16, 2015

christmas fun

whew! this holiday season flew by. december was awesome...and packed.

we kicked off christmas festivities by picking out our first live tree at swansons nursery. (we've had a fake tree our whole marriage, which we bought with wedding gift cards from target for our first christmas:) i still prefer the fake tree but this was a super fun activity -- besides picking up our custom-fit tree, we got to see reindeer, a miniature christmas train, and santa! i wasn't sure what to expect with santa since jack has gone completely postal every time we've tried to put him on santa's lap, but both boys were all (timid) smiles for santa and we got a killer pic. nailed it!



we were also pretty proud to have a car big enough to carry a christmas tree this year (another marriage first):


we decorated that bad boy the first monday in december, one of our fave traditions. i absolutely love reminiscing over each ornament, remembering what it represents or where we got it -- and i looove seeing our tree all lit up against our big living room window. 


for even more december fun, grandma and grandpa came to visit us in december too! we had a blast showing them all of our favorite seattle christmas activities, like the boat parade. we also tried something new -- lunch at the rotating restaurant at the top of the space needle, which was SO fun. it was all decked out for christmas, the food was delish and it was way more fun that just walking around the freezing observation deck. i highly recommend!








after they left we still had time to squeeze in a few other traditions. the festival of the nativities in bellevue is always so amazing -- and this year kids got to dress up! jack, em and lexi were adorable. 


jack's preschool hosted a special winter art night where we made these cool mixed media snowman paintings. it was really fun to spend a couple hours with just me and my big boy. i love how his painting turned out and i plan to hang it on my wall every christmas. :) 


we had a sugar cookie decorating party one rainy afternoon. allie and jack love to put random eyeballs on their cookies. :) 


and then it was finally christmas! we got fast food for dinner on christmas eve and looked at christmas lights, then my mom read the boys christmas stories over facetime, we left cookies for santa and it was bedtime. b always says "jack will never go to sleep on christmas eve!" but without fail it's always the easiest bedtime of the year around here. :) he's out like a light when he knows santa won't come till we're asleep. 


santa brought jack a bike (which he has only rode one time to date...legos are apparently way more exciting) and hudson a rocking chair from opa wells. :) 


hudson felt pretty good about life with his new nikes (on over his footy pajamas, of course) and his pretzel goldfish. 


we spent most of the day covered in legos or video chatting with family, and i cooked a big ham dinner that night. it was a perfect christmas. 



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