that’s a wrap…

our beautiful Christmas Eve snow is gone, the decorations are back in storage and my family has temporarily dispersed. and I just might be blogging about our holly-jolly days well into the new year.

thanks to pinterest, we adopted the Want, Need, Wear, Read gifting concept and it couldn’t have been more successful. it was a great guide for me, the grandparents and even Santa to focus on a gift in each category. drew barely even pulled his clothes out of the boxes before tossing them aside, but they both love to read books, needed a few things and still managed to score some cars, puzzles and games along the way.

no surprises on our favorite gifts. drew’s was his “BIG” lightning mcqueen. callie’s was the pacifiers in her stocking. mine was a toss up between a camera coat and the bucket o’ art supplies. and I heard matt and bret enjoyed the basketball goal even more than the little ones.

           

i treasure the love, laughter and chaos of these two little people. and if not for my dear husband and His gift, I would have neither. thus the greatest gift will always be the love of our family. some were far away, some we only got to be with for a few hours and others we hope to be reunited with another day.

all because two people fell in love.

cheers to you and yours.

sprinkled with love…

         

I’m not sure if the kiddos or grandmothers had more fun at this gingerbread decorating party, but either way it was a grand success and deemed a new tradition.

thank you molly, kaye and amy.

ho ho ho…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

oh the joys…

I love my kids.

I love to take pictures.

And I love to take picture of my kids to remind me how precious and beautiful they can be when they aren’t FREAKING OUT in the morning about who gets to brush their teeth first, or who gets to hold the toothbrush, or who gets the zebra-shaped gummy vitamin.

Happy Wednesday.

My mom will be here this afternoon.

Happy Happy Wednesday.

fahoo forays, dahoo dorays…

   

welcome Christmas, come this way.

my little cindy-lou still several months shy of two,

awake in her bed calling for other whos.

charming, smart and precious is she.

an innocent reminder of our blessed family.

in whoville they’d say,

my heart grew three sizes that day.

Welcome Christmas. Bring your cheer,
Cheer to all Whos, far and near.

Welcome Christmas while we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand.

Dr Suess

jolly old saint nick…

last year drew all but refused a picture with santa and callie is still pretty skittish with characters and dolls, so our expectations for a harmonious 2011 picture with the bearded man were pretty low. at best, we figured they would both be a little fearful and it would make for a hilarious picture.

so one of the local car dealerships (arrow ford) has an amazing vintage Christmas village, and it’s BYOC (camera). the perfect trial run for our planned visit with the mall santa. dealership on saturday, mall on sunday. good plan.

upon entry their strategy was to stay as far away as possible, “if I don’t look at him, he can’t possibly see me.” and once we had made several unassuming laps around the village, it was time to make our approach. molly took the camera and josh and I split the kids. unfortunately, when the tears started to flow, it felt more like we were physically torturing the kiddos (a la wrestling drew to the ground) versus just a little holiday fun.

consequently, no mall visit this year and yet we definitely ended up with one for the memory book.

     

and for more giggles, here are the photos of Christmas past.