Pre -Christmas 2012

As always the Christmas season flew by.  I tried my best to get all those holiday traditions done for the girls.  Apparently we have traditions that I  was not aware had made their way into that "tradition" box though.  Anything we have ever done through the holidays has now become a tradition.  So, with Matt gone to California for a week in december (and I painted my kitchen red while he was gone), to losing a dog,  adding a new dog, adding an elf, making a wedding cake, Christmas family get togethers, and shopping, we still squeezed in those little important things that make the holidays fun.

For example, I now know that the house cannot be decorated and NOT make muddy buddies (chex mix, pb and powdered sugar mixture everyone has a different name for.)  That starts off the season.

We also must bake.  Leah had actually picked out a magazine and had all these different elaborate cookies circled that we were going to make.  They settled for a million gingerbread men, and later painting sugar cookies.  check.






Of course we have to see Santa.  Santa gave them their trophy at their gymnastics performance.  I was kind of banking on that counting since time was getting away from me.  And then one night after their dance class we were driving to the back of the neighborhood to drop off some Christmas cards and in the middle of the well decorated circle Santa was there.  We all got out and froze our tails off (since they were dressed for DANCE and it was the coldest night of the year by far) but we got a picture with Santa.  In the dark.  With my camera phone.  While freezing.  Check.



We went a couple times to look at Christmas lights.  Noah kept cutting it short because he felt it was the time to fill his diaper, but we did have one night where we rode around in our PJS, drank hot chocolate, and listened to Christmas music while picking out our favorite display.
My fav by far was the yard with JUST a Yoda, a Polar Bear, and 3 crosses.  That was it.  Random.  Awesome.
Its so hard to see but I want to remember it forever.


We added a new family tradition that we will try to keep up as long as possible, and that was taking Gabe, Angel, and Anahi out for lunch.  It was great to be able to see them.


I recorded every Christmas movie I felt was age appropriate onto our DVR and we watched them.  A lot.  Movie nights are apparently a big holiday tradition here.  With popcorn (or its just an excuse for Leah to get popcorn).

And even though this was technically done AFTER Christmas, it was the final thing on the list that the girls kept reminding me we had yet to do.  Make gingerbread houses.


I tried!  I really did!  All in all, we got it in and as hectic as it is, the memories we make are always priceless.