A little bit like Christmas...

Let me apologize in advance for posting about Christmas before Thanksgiving has even arrived! 

I am a firm believer in celebrating each holiday as it arrives, without skipping ahead to the next one. 

But with Thanksgiving being so late in November this year, we've already started some Christmas celebrating...

A couple of weeks ago we went to our city tree lighting ceremony... 

"Who is ready for Christmas?" Eli says, "Meeeeeee!"

 This was one of the first chilly nights we've had, so we had to pull out the hats and gloves again. Eli is obsessed with his winter hats and wants to wear one at all times...

There was  a marching band, choirs singing Christmas carols, hot cocoa, glow sticks, and we even got a got a free gift card! We have lived in this community for three years now and I continue to be impressed by all of the events and community gatherings they put together. I was also very excited about the first Christmas light bokeh shots!

 CHRISTMAS BOKEH!! 

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. 

The little guys were amazed by the big tree and twinkly lights. There is nothing like experiencing the holidays through the eyes of your child...

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I suppose this isn't really Christmas related, but we found our way back to one of our favorite parks with some of our favorite friends. 

Eli was dangling here terrified. He didn't know his feet were only 1 inch from the ground I guess...poor boy!

An attempt to get all four of them to look at the camera and smile...Nope. 

Nope again, but the airplane flying by was sure interesting. 

There is never a dull moment when you get these four together. 

Nope, not a single one. 

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After the last round of snow came, we had to spend an entire day indoors...yikes. I realized there is no way we will survive the winter indoors day after day. 

So. we have now invested in some heavy duty snow suits. The boys will be braving the elements to get that energy out. Julian says if it's a blizzard or something and I don't want to go out in the snow, I'm to wrap a rope around their waists and pull them back in before they get completely frozen. 

So, that's our plan. 

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Finally, we went to our city star lighting celebration this past weekend (I think we are done lighting things now, pretty sure). Max's preschool was involved in the event, they had recruited a group of little ones to sing Christmas carols, and one of the singers was none other than...

See that sweet little face peeking out from the back row? He's ours. 

our mighty Max! 

He mostly stood and bounced with excitement, but he definitely contributed to Jingle Bells, it's his favorite. Naturally, 95% of the audience was us, the parents of the preschoolers, but they also caught the attention of some passerby's with those sweet voices. 

We met up with friends, grabbed hot chocolate at our favorite downtown locale, and walked through the crowded streets and Christmas booths. Julian said it reminded him a bit of the christkindlmarkt that are popular in Germany this time of year. 

My Max through the cafe window. 

Christmas BOKEH!!

 As soon as the sun went down we were officially "freezing our butts off"! So we headed back to the car to watch the lighting and fireworks with Christmas tunes playing and the heater blasting. We happened upon the perfect spot, the fireworks were right above us and we watched them through our sunroof. 

Max was very concerned they were going to land on our car, but we reassured him. 

I've never been that close to fireworks, it was so beautiful, I felt like I checked something off of the bucket list (if I had known to put it on there). 

Took this little video...

So, the tree is lit, the star is lit, and I am fighting back the urge to pull out all of the Christmas decorations and start wrapping presents. 

Soon. 

First, we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving, we decided to make our own Thanksgiving for the first time ever. 

We shall see how it goes...

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!