Christmas Card {2013}

Christmas Card {2012}

Christmas Eve {2012}

The boys were soooo excited for Christmas. Although I'm pretty sure the anticipation of a parent is just as exciting. We kept it simple during the day and then broke out the festivities that night. Fondue on Christmas Eve is a must and the boys loved it. The food and the "swords." Looking through my pictures I've decided that by next Christmas I'll 1) learn how to use my external flash and 2) dress up my table for Christmas Eve dinner. Keeping it classy with plastic this Christmas Eve. 

The boys get their Christmas jams on December 1 {when Dido, our elf, pops into town} so on Christmas Eve they get their ornaments. They were beyond thrilled to get train ornaments with moving wheels. We face timed a bunch of family which made us kind of feel like we weren't that far apart. 

 

A nativity puppet show and a plate of cookies for Santa ended our night. The boys were so curious how Santa was going to get through our fireplace screen {of course by pushing the magic button inside the fireplace, which only Santa can see}

Then Cameron and I got to work and were beyond giddy with excitement. We then crashed on the couch and watched our traditional Christmas Eve movie "Family Man."

Letters To Santa {2012}

Weston talked, I wrote {except he handled the "w" in his name}. Hilarious. He thought Santa would need to see the train tracks. Good thinking. 

Tilden Park Carousal and Santa

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to go see the Santa at Tilden Park. We love the carousal year round but at Christmas it's magical. Everything is all light up, Santa is soooo sweet, $1 hot chocolate, and carousaling till our boys hearts are content. I look forward to it every year. 

Weston was super talkative to this Santa.... letting him know he wanted "lots of trains and lots of tracks and Holdie wants a ball." I've never talked about what Holden may want so it was sweet to see him thinking about his brother.

Livermore Tree Lighting

We finally got it together and went to the tree lighting and parade this year. We've turned into crazy parade people that go in the morning, set up a ton of chairs for our crew, show up late, and then crawl over everyone to get to our chairs. Part of the memories I guess. Us and the neighbs all met up the Alehouse {along with everyone else in Livermore} to eat before the parade. Chaotic Fun. The boys loved the floats garbage trucks and trailers with lights. And then the icing on the cake was Santa riding up on a firetruck and lighting up the tree. Gotta love small town Christmas fun. 

Visiting Santa

We saw Santa over the weekend... when the night Santa was on shift. I'm a little annoyed. Night Santa is not very jolly, not very Santa-ish, doesn't ask what the kids want for Christmas, and just kind of boring. I want a re-do and I might talk myself into it before Christmas. Holden loved Santa and kept staring him down and smiling. Weston was unamused by the mute Santa who I had to do the talking for. For example, "Santa, can the boys tell you what they want?" Sigh. 

Chopping Down The Christmas Tree

I really wanted a white Christmas tree this year... so I spent a couple of weeks begging Cameron to invest in a white tree. That didn't go over so well. Something about me changing my mind every other day regarding my style and what I like. Hmmmmm. I plead the 5th. His peace offering was chopping down our own tree and I'm glad we did. Turns out we created a lot of fun memories, probably more than I would have pulling my fake white tree out of a box. 

A friend recommended Frosty's and it is such a gorgeous, family friendly farm. We'll be back. 

A few things I want to remember: 

-how Weston was so afraid we were lost as we wandered in and out of the trees

-how Cameron and I seriously examined each branch of each tree to make sure it was the right one... like we were choosing a house or something. 

-how much the boys loved the scalding hot chocolate

-how Cameron and I found "the perfect tree" right after we chopped ours down

-our new favorite breakfast joint, The Los Gatos Cafe

Christmas {2011}

Christmas was so, so, so fun... and I think the boys liked it too :) Weston jumped out of bed, only curious to see if Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. He was so excited to read the note Santa left him and we had to pry him away to look at what gifts Santa had left. 

The boys seemed to genuinely love everything Santa left. Weston's favorite thing were the chocolate Santa's in his stocking. Go figure. We'd ask him if he wanted to try one of his new toys and he'd say, "No, still eating chocolate." 

Holden's wagon was a big hit and we took ride after ride around the kitchen {while Weston ate his chocolate Santas, of course}

We ate our traditional baked french toast and fresh berries for breakfast and then headed to church. Church was really great and it's such a treat when Christmas falls on a Sunday. Not so sure I felt like that when I was a kid.... but I appreciate it now. After church we opened presents and it was so fun to see them love to play with each toy. Opening gifts lasted forever because Weston was so engaged with the toy he had just opened. Holden's favorite.... the boxes and any scrap of garbage laying around. 

Weston's completely obsessed with his garbage truck and backhoe loader. He slept with his garbage truck the first night which made for a bit of a tight squeeze. The thing is ginormous and he is in love. 

The aftermath. 

We had such a fun day... the boys seriously loved every second. We ate dinner with our good friends the Zalewski's that night and loved spending time with them. We missed our families like crazy and thought about them the entire day!!! We hope everyone had the best day! 

Christmas Eve {2011}

We were going to head into the city on Christmas Eve but the kids weren't feeling that great... I needed to know where bathrooms were at all moments so the city was out. Next best place.... Bass Pro Shop :) That place is actually awesome and we had so much fun looking around, visiting Santa, doing the Santa activities, shooting guns, etc. etc. 

 

Our fondue Christmas Eve tradition got scratched with too many upset stomachs so I made Ina's Tomato Soup on cinnamon rolls. Soup is a fav around our house so it was a hit. Then we did all the fun Christmas Eve things: puppet nativity, opened a few gifts,  watched the Grinch, read Christmas stories, and set out cookies for Santa.  It was so fun seeing how excited Weston was. 

Our elf, Dido, brought our Christmas jammies December first so they could wear them all month. Tonight they opened their ornaments. A truck for Weston and a baby in a stocking for Holden.

I think the part about Christmas that fascinated Weston the most was that Santa was going to eat the cookies he left out on the plate. He seriously couldn't stop talking about it. His nightly conversation throughout the month went something like this. "Santa down chimney, eat cookie, apple for rudolph, presents in stocking, go Brayden's house, go Evan's house, fly away."

Cameron and I loved our Santa duties.... except for when I decided to finish up the tee-pee Santa was giving the boys and was sewing and spray painting till 2 am. Sigh. We watched Christmas movies and Cameron dozed in and out of conscience on the couch.

I made a bunch of ornaments this year which was really fun. Our tree evolved over the month and I loved how it turned out. I have a lot more to add so I'm seriously working on things through 2012 so by December 1st our tree will start full! 

Sequin ornaments here

and the garland here.

Can't wait till Christmas morning!