The 25 days of Christmas

The Christmas season has come and gone. What a whirl wind December was...and now it's on to a new  year. My goal is to do more blogging this year but before I can talk about this new year, I need to finish the old. 

We had a jammed packed December full of all kinds of fun and festivities.  We started the month off with our annual tree cutting at Manthey's Tree Farm in the county. Great trees (usually) for a great price. For some reason our tree this year started turning brown and losing it's needles really badly. We have never experienced this before and it was going bare by Christmas. 

Enjoying hot chocolate and cookies in the office. 

That night, we speed decorated our tree and then headed up to Lynden with some friends to enjoy the "Lynden Lighted Parade".  This is the 3rd year we have gone and the kids just love it. Each year it's been either freezing cold or raining. This year it was both cold and rainy! It was so amazing to see so many families out in the Pacific Northwest weather enjoying a parade in the dark and rain. But it is so worth it to see the kids faces just light up when they see things like HUGE combine harvesters and fire trucks completely lit up with Christmas lights! 

Eliza and her buddy Uma all bundled up. 

The kid crew waiting for the parade to begin. 

The Whole gang enjoying the show! 

A few other things we added to our Christmas celebrations this year was an Advent Calendar. I don't choose to do this for religious reasons but more to help the kids count down the days with fun activities or books. Adam was super on-top of it this year and pre-reserved a bunch of Christmas and holiday books from the library. We bought one new book, some new Christmas jammies, a few pieces of Chocolate, new Christmas ornaments, and then a bunch of fun activities for them to do. It was really fun. Here are some examples of what we did.

~"How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

~See the Christmas lights at James St. Estates

~Make Gingerbread houses with friends

~"Zelda and Ivy's Christmas"

~Watch Prep & Landing the movie

~"Daddy's Christmas Book"

~Go see Santa

~Make snow flakes

~Hot Chocolate & Candy canes

~"Christmas Tree for Pyn"

~Chocolate

~Go to Jill & Paul's Christmas Party and watch Rudolph

~A new pair of jammies

~"The Christmas Magic"

~"Number one Toy Expert"

~Watch Prep & Landing Two

~"An Orange for Kranke"

~"The Night Before Christmas"

In the middle of the month we celebrated Christmas with Adam's side of the family here at our house. They came up and had a super yummy brunch of monkey break, egg strata dish, fruit salad, and pear bread. Then we opened presents. This was the Christmas of Princesses and Legos. 

Eliza has hit her girly princess phase. It's crazy how fast it came on and how genderized it is. I could write a whole post on this fascinating this is... 

Eliza in her new fairy tutu. 

Corbin scored on some awesome legos! 

This is Eliza's 3rd pink tutu style dress. She wore them all at the same time....

Corbin and Grammie Susan working on his new legos in their matching shirts!

  We ventured to see Santa and get pictures with him. This is one awesome Santa. He has a real beard, wears funky Santa shirts, and says things to the kids, like "Wow, you have really grown since last year, Corbin!" Which Corbin of cours just loves.  I love the idea of Santa. I love the magic he brings to the kids. I think it's important to talk about the spirit of giving while also talking about him. I don't remember mad at my parents when I found out about Santa but instead being excited to now be able to help give and bring the excitement to my brother for a couple more years. Eliza keeps saying she would like to either be a Princess or Santa when she grows up. At first, they are both impossible, but then I realized that she indeed will be a kind of Santa one day and be able to share the love and magic of giving. 

Of course, as soon as we saw Santa, she changed her tune. She did NOT want to sit on his lap or have anything to do with him...

We finally got her to let go of my hand and sit still for one shot! 

 Corbin gave Santa his list, which included a remote control dragon, a Batman that can turn into a bug, a Nutcracker, a woopie cushion, and another remote controlled vehicle (I should have taken a picture). None of which really exist, except the Nutcracker. Eliza had been saying before we went to see Santa that she wanted a princess. Sometimes a real princess that will sleep in bed with her and sometimes a doll princess with either a pink or blue dress, depending on the day. And a Santa. Of course she would not tell Santa this, but we said he knew anyway. 

The whole family (minus Neal). 

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with Adam's family. I got a new sewing machine from them, so now I have to get crafty and sew a few things! Adam scored on some movie tickets, bike gift certificate, and new Bellingham United scarf. Thanks Gang!! We also had fun celebrating with some family friends, The Stoners! Everyone came over and we ate lots of cheese and cracker based appetizers and enjoyed seeing both of our extended families all together.  

My family came up here for Christmas. True to my word, we did not have to travel on Christmas! Thank you both Families!! Jed, Kara, and Maeve flew in from Denver and my parents drove up for the weekend. Of course they also brought their skis! And it had been snowing a ton in the mts. We headed up towards Mt. Baker to get some Cross Country Skiing in. We were expecting skier made tracks only since it had been snowing so much but when we got there the groomer was actually out on the trails grooming. We only had classic skis but it was still nice to get out! 

We forgot an attachment for the Chariot, so Eliza got to go in the Ergo, which she loved of course! 

 Corbin did awesome and skied a really long way! 

Corbin and Grammie Dani! 

Going downhill with Buppa. 

After lunch, we let Eliza on Corbin's strap on skis so she could try. She is a natural! 

snowball fight with daddy. 

Playing in the snow. 

 It's amazing how fun playing in the snow is for kids. Eliza enjoyed it so much more this year because she could move around better in it. 

Making cookies with Grammie Dani. 

We had our annual Burritos and Beer for Christmas Eve dinner. Read the "Night Before Christmas" with illustrations by Tasha Tudor (NH Native) that was given to me on my first Christmas. Loaded up the stockings and headed to bed. Luckily the kids went to bed easier this year and even slept in till almost 8am! Best Christmas present ever! 

Woa, look at those stockings! 

Corbin sporting the "Stash"

Eliza's new scarf. 

A Princess!!!

 And Corbin got a Play Mobile Dragon (no remote control dragons for this house hold!). And of course each kid got their Nutcracker and Santa decorations for next year :-)

It was SO fun to have Jed and Kara here for Maeve's first Christmas! We got some more cousin love (but very few pictures, we were too busy!). 

Some Grammie Dani and baby Maeve time.

Kara and Maeve

The Whole family! 

 Thanks for such a wondeful Christmas! Corbin made out with a play mobile pirate ship and pirates, a whoopie cushion, new cross country skis and boots, lots of new books, and some new clothes. Eliza got some princess clothes, new snow suit, games, a water bottle, and lots of new books! We are pretty lucky and blessed!