Christmas 2013 (Adrian's First)

Merry Christmas!

I'm sorely behind on blogging, but I just have to get a post up about all the festivities we've been partaking in this season!

 

Aaron has taken a lot of time off during this off-season of training and it's been wonderful to have him around to enjoy the season with us.

 

As a family we've taken the boys to have special breakfasts out and for walks in the park.

 

Mac and I have had fun making Christmas crafts to use as decoration around the house.

 

See them in action!

Our tradition of cutting down a tree each year didn't go as well as in previous years.  We tried a newer (bigger) farm and were very disappointed.  The smaller farm we go to is just more homey and they do a lot to make it festive and special, the new tree farm was about business and only business.  We had fun spending time together, but when we got the tree home we realized how important it is to shake a tree (which they do at our old farm)! 

 

The 9ft tree we bought was crawling with bugs and we had a total Christmas fiasco the night we brought it in!

 

We ended up chucking the tree and buying a new one.  So this was an expensive year when it comes to Christmas trees, but it was totally worth it to see this little guys face light up!

 

Hanging our 2013 ornament.

Our community managers held their annual Holiday Party and we heard Santa would be there so we had to take the boys.

 

To our surprise they had horse drawn carriages and were giving free rides (actually everything was free, compliments of our management team).

 

And when Santa made his appearance, Mac was in awe.  Adrian didn't know him from Adam!

 

He loves the little car that Santa gave him.

 

We discovered that one of the museums here in town does a Polar Express reenactment with a train ride in your pjs and all!  Unfortunately we were too late to buy tickets for this year, but we decided to go check out the scenes one night and send off the passengers.

 

Mac makes the season so fun because of his innocent enthusiasm.  He was happy just to take pictures with the train and the polar express ticket.  I can't wait until next year when he actually gets to take a ride on the train!

 

 

We stopped that night for hot chocolate and a quick dinner before the lights show began.  There were a couple of booms that startled the boys, but all in all they really enjoyed it.

 

About half-way through the month, my camera broke, so I used my phone to try and get some nice pictures for our Christmas card.

 

I was worried the photo quality would be bad, but that turned out to be the least of my worries. Ha!

 

As you can tell from my Christmas card (above) I did get some useable shots, but I totally loved all of them!

We felt pretty adventurous and decided to treat our nephews to a visit with Santa and a viewing of the lights show.

It was so fun to have all the boys together for a special Christmas outing!

 

On another night, we took the boys to buy their Christmas sweaters.  It has become a little tradition for us to buy them each a Christmas sweater.  I'd like to give them each all of their sweaters when they are older so rather than pass down Mac's sweaters to Adrian he will get his own each year too! 

 

I like that he gets to have something new every now and then!

 

Mac wanted to wear his sweater right away and of course, we let him!

 



Tonight, we're making cookies for Santa and possibly taking a ride in one of the more upscale neighborhoods to see the extraordinary lights displays. 

 

Then tomorrow we will be hosting Christmas at our place!  I have already cleared space on my phone so that I can take plenty of pictures to share later.