All is calm, all is bright...aka 9 posts wrapped into one mega post!

The Christmas season has been extra memorable for us.

 Lucia Noelle is experiencing the advent season for the first time, Max is able to more fully understand the message of the nativity,  and Eli is at the age where everything about Christmas is pure magic. 

Julian and I are grateful for this new chapter, continued health, and the many opportunities we've had to do special things as a family. 

I love turning the calendar over to December, penciling in our annual traditions, and crossing each one off as it becomes a fond memory (ahem, except for you ice skating). 

Christmas Photo Shoot

Technically, this happened back in November, but these pictures seemed more fitting here. We are blessed to have friends who are willing to swap picture taking with us each holiday season, and throughout the year. I think we've just about got this down to an art now, we know the kids will give you about 5-10 minutes (if that) before the smiles switch to frowns. This year I even brought a snack (bribe?) bag that may or may have contained ring pops in addition to healthier options. Any time you see a picture of us all smiling, you can thank Mr. D, who truly goes to great lengths to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling. 

We've even found a location that has both a barn and a park, so the kids can run and play in between our coaxing. 

Here they are, some of our Christmas pictures 2014, can't believe we have a little lady in the picture. My friend Natalie did an amazing job (we are NOT easy to photograph).

These two cuties. 

Okay, when did he become such a BIG kid. 

We also visited Nana that same day...she already had all of her Christmas decor out, so of course we had to take some more pictures. 

That face!

 Oh, Christmas Tree

I grew up celebrating Christmas with artificial trees. Julian grew up using real ones. Up until this year, we had taken the easy route, using artificial trees. Julian claimed they just weren't the same, so this year we visited a tree lot near our neighborhood and brought home a 7ft noble fir. A real tree! In the house! 

Not our tree.  This tree was almost our tree, but then we found the noble fir section!

Ever the engineer. 

Max named the tree Charlie, and we turned up the Christmas music while we adorned him. He's been a great tree, still green, vibrant, and with most of his needles now on Christmas Eve Eve. He started off in the living room, but his presence was messing up the feng shui of the room...we were all seriously in a bad mood about it. He got moved to the dining room and we've loved having a REAL tree in our house this holiday season. I think I've been converted. 

Sleepy, our Elf

The elf! 

It seems like people fall into two camps...either they love the elf on the shelf or they can't stand him. 

I seem to sort of oscillate between the two, depending on the day. 

The boys really enjoyed it last year, so we pulled him out again. I mentioned to Julian an idea I'd seen on Pinterest where an elf arrived on a landing strip by plane, he went above and beyond putting one together to surprise the boys. 

He peaked early in the season this year. 

He did some funny things every day or two at first. We're really laid back with the elf in our house, every one can pick him up and move him, and the boys know that Sleepy is make believe, so they don't feel like they're being spied on day and night. 

This past week, as our schedules got full with Christmas preparations, Sleepy really lived up to his name. He actually has been an Elf on the Shelf, just sitting on the mantel every day and no one seems to care. 

Oh well. 

4th Annual Blossoms of Light

For the past 4 years we've met up with the D family for dinner and a walk through the Christmas lights display at the Denver Botanic Gardens downtown. This is one of our favorite holiday traditions, always a good time. We grabbed dinner at the Cherry Cricket, a restaurant near the gardens that's know for it's burgers. Yes, burgers ( I don't eat beef), but I've been promising Julian a trip to a burger place for years now, and he said this didn't disappoint!

This display is probably the most romantic and sophisticated of the ones we visit each year, which is mostly lost on the boys at this point (Max just runs straight through, the kid really can't walk). We had amazing weather for December, which made for a great trip. Ever since we started this tradition in 2011 with Max and Evie, we've had a new baby join each year. Lucy was the guest of honor this year, and we look forward to a new baby D in 2015! We are grateful for these friends and growing families. 

Gingerbread Houses (third annual?)

I wasn't sure if I was up for hosting a gingerbread gathering this year...so far the transition to three has been fairly easy, but I don't have a lot of free time either, so I was a little nervous to host a playdate/party. This is one of the highlights of the season for Max, though, who loves to have his friends come over. We carried on the tradition, albeit in a smaller form than last year. A couple of friends could make it, and everyone chipped in on candy and snacks. The result was a really fun afternoon for the kids, who all played beautifully together. They had all sorts of adventures upstairs in the playroom, no fighting, and us moms got to sit down and catch up. 

This is Eli's house. He broke it by putting way too many golden sprinkles on it...I feel like there is a lesson in that. 

Merry Christmas Maxwell!

Ice Skating

Okay, keeping it real here. All was not calm when we went ice skating this year. It was a quiet Sunday spent at home. Max's preschool was hosting a family night at our local ice rink, the weather had finally cooled down a bit, and it was a beautiful out with snow lightly falling...sounds like all the makings for a good night, right? 

See Max's face. That captures our night. 

Wrong.

We were worried about taking Lucy out because is was chilly, we thought she might not tolerate the weather. There were tears, but not a single one from our girl. The boys were both inexplicably grumpy, whining as we put their skates on, and then each boy sat there crying while the other took a loop around the ice with Daddy (because he could only take one). 

Good times!

Kind of looks like smiling, but was probably whining. 

I did get in some good cuddle time with Ms. Lucia. 

We thought we might be able to salvage the night with a trip to our favorite coffee shop across the street, but things only continued to go downhill. As we ordered, Eli had a complete meltdown because we wouldn't let him have a bottle of green tea he'd found in the refrigerator. Julian took him to the car to calm down. As I was holding Lucy and balancing 3 hot chocolates, Max dropped his hot chocolate, OF COURSE he did, that was jus the kind of night we were having. 

Then he started crying about it. We were quite the spectacle. 

Not sure if we will try this one again next year, we might just leave it off next December!

Zoo Lights

This just so happened to fall the night after our ice skating debacle. Thankfully, it was a completely different experience, phew. We'd never been to Zoo Lights before, Eli is obsessed with the zoo, though, so I was pretty sure he'd enjoy it at least. 

As it turned out, we all loved it. This was the most kid friendly of the lights displays, and since we went on the ULA company night, a Monday, it wasn't very busy. 

Meaning Max could run to his hearts content. 

Riding a carousel at night surrounded by Christmas lights, felt like one of those things I never knew should have been on my bucket list. 

This guy really scared Eli.  

Again, Lucy amazed us with her easy going personality. She cooed at the lights for awhile, then fell asleep. 

Yes, he's chipped both of his front teeth, boys!

Lucy's first carousel! 

Yep, this one's a keeper for sure. 

Chatfield, Trail of Lights

Chatfield is probably my favorite lights display...it's closest to our house, and it has a rustic flair. 

The boys have grown up visiting this place often for picnics, playdates, pictures, and pumpkins (wow, that's a lot of p's). They know the trails well. 

In this installment we saw a fire truck, rode in a horse pulled wagon, warmed up in the warming hut while taking advantage of the photo booth, took the short loop rather than the long one, cozied up by the fire pit, and spun a wheel winning two glow sticks. 

All good things. 

Our ride!

We love you Chatfield, we will be back.

Santa

One thing I love about the boys' preschool is the focus on religious education. They've spent December learning about and celebrating Jesus's birth and the nativity story, both at school and at home. Even still, they see Santa in books, movies, while shopping...he's pretty much everywhere this time of year. We've decided to include Santa somewhat in our celebrations, but Max and Eli know that he is make believe. I had a long discussion with Max about how Santa is a cultural icon, and cultural traditions can be fun to participate in.  He seems to understand and respect that some friends believe in Santa and we don't ruin their surprise, we'll see how that sinks in over the next few years. 

In any case, our neighborhood hosted a "Pancakes with Santa" event, the boys were interested, so we went. It was nice to meet some new neighbors over breakfast, and have a quick visit with Santa without any lines or chaos. 

Little lady in her Christmas dress. Dress! Bow! I still can't believe we have a little girl. 

Eli was a little nervous at first and understandably didn't want to sit on Santa's lap. We always tell both boys they don't have to sit with Santa if they don't want to. I could tell Eli really wanted to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas, though, as he hovered nearby. The lady playing Mrs. Claus was incredibly sweet and called him over. He told her he wants a train and she said she'd pass the request along to Santa, but Eli wanted to be a brave boy. He walked over to Santa and told him all by himself. It was heart warming to see. Mr. Max asked for a drum set which is so not happening this year or in the near future (sorry, buddy, this house is loud enough as is)!!

We love all the events and get togethers in this community, there's always something to do with the neighbors.

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We started buying and wrapping Christmas gifts in early November, we completed as many to-do's ahead of time as possible in the hopes of having a calm December. It has been wonderful, lot's of fun things on the calendar, but also a lot of quiet family time to to reflect and prepare our hearts. 

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!