Christmas

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  Both kids had a great time opening presents; although, they both would have been fine with a lot less.  Philip, after opening one toy, didn't want to open any more and still hasn't played with some of the toys that Natalie opened for him. 

We enjoyed breakfast and then took naps and had dinner at my mom's house.

Thanksgiving

Back in November, we hosted friends at our house for a "friends-giving".  It was wonderful, I loved setting the table with all the fancy dishes and too many glasses and cooking the food. Here are photos from that day, although I have no photos of the food or table to share.

Morning!

Pre-dinner reading 

Pumpkin Picking

Waaaaay back in October we took Natalie, Philip and Kai on a trip to lunch and then to pick out some pumpkins.  Lunch was exciting - Natalie and Kai were very well behaved; but, Philip? Not so much.  The kids loved picking out their pumpkins and if Kai and Natalie has their way we would have purchased almost every pumpkin that was in the lot.  Every time they saw one it was their "favorite".  We made it out of there with a pumpkin or three for each kid - one big and a few small each. 

After picking out their pumpkins they played on the playground while I paid for and loaded the pumpkins in the car.  I think it is safe to say that they had just as much fun this time as they did last year.  The only thing missing was Darin and Melinda.

A few days after we picked the pumpkins we had Darin, Melinda & Kai over for dinner and pumpkin carving.  They brought the pizza, we brought the pumpkin carving kit and we all had fun.  Natalie decided on a pretty traditional face and Kai picked a design that was a little harder to complete.  Darin showed his pumpkin-carving-prowess and all the pumpkins were carved to perfection.

 

Christmas

Christmas came so quickly this year, in fact, this whole year has flown by!  

We started by decorating the tree right before we went to Boston.  

Philip playing under the tree, up to this point, he could only crawl backwards

Natalie decorating the tree

A few weeks later, it was Christmas eve.  Every year since we had Natalie, we have taken family photos in front of the tree.  As she grew it got harder and harder to get a photo with everyone looking at the camera at the same time.  This year was probably the hardest.  

Almost everyone was smiling and looking at the camera...

Thankfully we got a few, although, we might try again, to see if we can get a better one. 

Christmas eve, Natalie spread the Reindeer food all around the yard, we put out cookies and a mug of Sprite for Santa and three carrots for his reindeer.  Well, it worked and Santa came and there were presents for everyone to open.  

Here are the presents after Santa wrapped and arranged them under the tree.

Christmas morning, Philip woke up at 7:00 and Phil took him to play downstairs until Natalie woke up.  Natalie woke up at 8:30 and was happy to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer until the rest of the family showed up to watch the unwrapping. 

Opening presents

Philip was SO tired by the time all the presents were open and passed out on Phil's shoulder. He has turned into a total cuddle bunny.  

There is Christmas in a nutshell

Christmas DIY

For holiday gifts this year, Natalie and I made a few different things.  Last year I did a lot of baking, this year, very little baking, more use of the hot glue gun.  

First up is the Tea Wreath.  I cut circles out of cardboard and Natalie and I covered them with scrapbook paper.  Then we covered clothes pins with more craft paper and glued them to the circles then added little holiday-ish decals and added tea to every clothes pin and a bow.  

Tea Wreath

Next up was vanilla cranberry vodka.  I took a big bottle of vodka and split it between three smaller ones.  I decided to add a little sweetness to the vodka, so I made a simple syrup, and added the cranberries and vanilla beans to that to soak up the sweet.  Next I put the cranberries and vanilla into the vodka and shook it up.  Put the label on it and tied a bow - bam, gift.  Oh, and it is yummy.  Christmas morning my brother made a delicious drink by adding some of this vodka to crushed ice, orange juice and a peach from some home-canned peaches and stirred it around.  So good!

Vanilla Cranberry Vodka

I also decided to make S'more's kits too.  I put a can of sterno, a bag of marshmallows, bag of graham crackers, two bars of chocolate and a few skewers into a box and wrapped it up and added the tag to "enjoy S'more holiday time together".

Lastly, Natalie and I mixed up a few packages of reindeer food that we gave to a few friends, and forgot to give to a few others...Natalie enjoyed sprinkling it around our yard on Christmas eve to lure the reindeer to our house, and it worked!

**Side note - the vodka and wreath photos were taken with Phil's iPhone...the others? our camera.  Remember when photos taken with a phone were deemed "crappy phone photos"?  no longer