Christmas 2014

We had a fabulous Christmas break. It was so nice to have Travis home all week. We were able to spend time as a family, and visit extended family as well. Here's a look at what our Christmas was like:

After a visit with the Andersons early Christmas Eve, and that evening with my parents, the kids were tuckered out and we let them sleep in on Christmas day (mostly because we didn't want to have tired, fussy kids on Christmas!). Jaxon's not a toy kid, but Santa did get him a bike with training wheels. He's looking forward to trying it out once the snow is gone.

Excuse our bed hair...

This little princess just got her first tooth a week ago and has continued to chew on anything and everything. Presents were no exception. Violet mostly received clothes for Christmas- girl clothes, since she's always wearing her brother's things.

After almost two months of nothing, we woke up to a very white Christmas! It snowed non-stop all day long! Jaxon loved playing in the snow with his cousin, papa, and Uncle Bridger. So glad he got snow pants for Christmas. :)

Being pulled by Britain

Unfortunately, he loved being outside so much that he caught a cold and has had a miserable couple of days cooped up inside post-Christmas. But we've had lots of fun making homemade pasta with the Kitchen Aid pasta maker extension Travis got me for Christmas. SO much better than store-bought pasta!

We hope you were also able to have a fun holiday break like we did!

Getting into the Spirit of Things...

We're super excited for Christmas!

We were able to decorate the tree as a family and started a new tradition of eating "Christmas cake" afterwards.

I don't have pictures of the cake, but it was basically a red velvet cake roll. My first attempt was something you'd see on a "pinterest fail" meme. I ended up tossing it and making a second one into an easy bundt cake. This is what I'd like to remember it looking like:

Next year. Next year it'll look like that. :)

Our Thankful Tree

I heard of this idea of making a  "Thankful Tree" and thought it would be a fun, new tradition for our kids.

Basically, you cut out a "tree" from brown butcher paper and tape it to your wall. Then every day from Nov. 1 to Thanksgiving you and your kids think of something you're grateful for and write it on a "leaf" and tape it to a branch. Sometimes we missed a day here and there, but we were pretty good for the most part. Next year, I want to have enough leaves to where I have some "falling" from the tree and into piles since it's fall.

It was fun hearing some of the things Jaxon was grateful for, like toilet paper and the storage room in the cultural hall. And it was a great tool for teaching gratitude. :)

I'm grateful for these kiddos. :)