The Holidays are Gone :(

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving, of course.  We had Thanksgiving at my aunt's house and it was fun to be able to see all my cousins and their growing families.  My oldest cousin is pretty good at photography so while she was taking some pictures of her siblings and their families, I asked if we could squeeze in too.  We got some pretty good ones!

My favorite are some that she took of Adam.

I just love how cute he looks in his little plaid shirt and blue jeans.  He actually had a milestone that day too.  They have a big back yard and since it's Arizona, we could all eat outside and enjoy the nice weather.  Because it was so open, Adam could run around all he wanted.  He got so much better at walking that day!  He just loved being able to roam free.

Christmas

As soon as Thanksgiving is over (or before) I kick into Christmas mode.  I really had an enjoyable Christmas.  Last year was nice too, but I was still recovering from pregnancy and stuff (it took a lot longer than I expected) so I was really stressed at times and found it hard to focus on what Christmas is about.  This year I wasn't crunched for time or trying to figure out how to be a mommy.  I was able to spend more time thinking about the whys of Christmas and really enjoy the season.  I did a post every day about a Christmas tradition and how it reminded me of Christ.  I learned a lot and it was very interesting.  It made me look at everything a little more differently.  If you missed it, you can read about it here, or just go back in the archives.  The one thing I didn't enjoy so much about it was writing something every day.  I'm not much of a writer.  But now I won't have to do it again because the great thing about journals is that you can always go back and read what you wrote.  Which is what I will be doing next year.  

Anyway, it was nice not to have the stress.  Thinking back on it, I only had about one day of "stress."  I was torn weather or not to bake cookies, or make stockings for our family.  I didn't have time for both, but thanks to personal revelation, I was prompted to make cookies with the intent to give some to friends in our ward (of course keeping some for us as well) and I could always make the stockings next year, seeing as how Adam doesn't get the concept of stockings yet.  I decided to use some giant red mugs (we got them for our wedding but never have used them) for "stockings" instead.  Everything worked out perfect.  I made little name tags for the mugs (which I got from my sister-in-law's blog) and tied them onto the handle.  The mugs were big enough that I could fit all the stocking stuffers plus some nuts and candy.  I was very proud of my resourcefulness.  Plus, the cookies were AWESOME!!  And then, to top it off, my husband, being the sweetheart that he is, didn't know I had plans to make stockings, so he went and bought one for me and Adam and stuffed them with stuff as well!  His brownie points soared that day.  Or should I say, "cookie points."

I even got all my Christmas cards mailed with time to spare.  I was able to get them printed, addressed, stamped and mailed all in one day.  Unlike last year, which, for some reason was a really, really big headache.  Literally.  But that's another story for another time.  Like a time when I decide to catch up on the stuff I missed writing about from last year (and the 5+ years before that).

On the 22nd we celebrated with my parents and sisters at our house since we would be out of town for Christmas.  It was fun to watch Adam, who still hadn't gotten the hang of opening presents.  I figured since he just had his birthday, he would have gotten the hang of it.  Oh well, at least I didn't have to worry about keeping the presents out of his reach, which was nice.

(There's supposed to be a video here but for some reason Blogger can't upload it.  I will try again later I guess.)

I think his favorite gift were the cars that Auntie Breanna gave him.  He loves Lightning McQueen and the Doc Hudson cars.

We celebrated Christmas together as a family on the 23rd because we would be going to Brent's dad's house in California the next day and we didn't want to haul all our stuff up there.  We saved a few things for Adam to open there, but the rest we did at our house.  I got the best gift ever!!!!  I have been wanting a Silhouette CAMEO for a long time now.  I hinted very strongly that I wanted it for Christmas/my birthday.  Brent was very sneaky about it but when he came home from work that day, he had a big, wrapped present in his arms.  It was the Silhouette!  YAY!  All my crafting dreams will come true now.  If you don't know what a Silhouette is, basically it is a vinyl/paper cutter, similar to the Cricut but better, in my opinion.  I was just bummed that I couldn't use it right away because we still had to pack and stuff.  Oh well, now that the holidays are over, I can cut vinyl all I want.  But first I need to get some.  Brent got a new tool box and a ton of storage/organization stuff for the shed.  And a coupon to pick out a new fish.  When we got back from California, he spent the rest of his time off building shelves for the shed and getting it all organized out there.  Now he has a Man Cave.  

Christmas in California was a lot of fun, especially because we were there with the whole family.  Brian and Janny were able to come too.  There was so much anticipation on Christmas morning.

Santa ate most of his cookies the boys left for him. 

One of the best parts was when we were trying to decide who would open up presents first.  Should we go youngest to oldest?  Smallest to biggest?  Then someone suggested we go by whoever was the goodest that year.  Poor JR.  He got really sad and said, "That's not fair!  That means I have to go last!"  We decided to let him go first because he was being so honest.  We had fun spending time together and opening up our gifts.

That night we had a Christmas feast!

Yum!

Another fun thing we did while we were there was visit the Reagan Museum.  Adam loved the Air Force One hanger.  It was so open and it had cars and airplanes in it.

It was pretty crowded but Adam was happy once we got in the hanger area and he had space to move around.

There was a small replica of the Berlin Wall.  Adam fit perfectly in the tunnel.  Too bad the picture is kind of blurry.  We weren't supposed to use flash photography.

We also tried to get a good family picture.  It was really hard with the babies.  They had had enough.  We took a few and I'm going to try and edit the good parts of all of them together.  We will see how it goes.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip, though poor Adam got sick on the way home.  But that meant he slept most of the way.  

We had a few days to recuperate before Brent had to go back to work.  It was nice to spend some time together.  Now I am in the process of putting all the Christmas stuff away.  It's almost done.  I have all the tree stuff put away, except for the tree, and a few other odds and ends.  Now it's time for a new year and some resolutions.  

But not today. 

:)