The Holidays

It is FREEZING here today. I think unless you live in California or Florida, it's freezing wherever you are today too. Maybe that means your kids are out of school and you have no clue what to do all day. We're going to the gym and then we'll be home. ALL DAY. Call us. Come over. We would LOVE to see you.

December came and went and all those posts I promised you never happened. Here's a run down on the past month. Warning: lots of pictures.

Christmas was wonderful this year. The kids are at AWESOME ages. They anticipated Christmas Day so much, they understood the Christmas story and what we were truly celebrating, they reacted with glee to each gift they opened and each special thing we did on Christmas Day.  Even without any Santa Claus shenanigans, Christmas is magical around here. I think we nailed the kids' gifts. Each kid had a stocking, which we opened before a breakfast of Gigi's cinnamon rolls, and then one gift under the tree (we went with a weapon theme this year - Nerf crossbow, nunchucks and Sais). We also gave a (very) small family gift to the kids (Candyland) and had their big surprise gift ready to go in the playroom.

The Squirt has been asking for bunk beds in his room since we took a trip last year and he slept in one for the first time. Since Ben should be ready for a big boy bed sometime in the next year, we went ahead and bit the bullet and bought all the kids twins beds.

We spent Christmas Eve setting them up in the playroom and then put wrapping paper over the doors so the kids would be surprised when they went in.

Their reaction was perfect.

We spent an hour or so playing around with the new toys and the new beds and then headed over to my parent's place for more chaos with my parents and the cousins. That meant that when we got home, late on Christmas evening, it was time to disassemble the beds and move them into the kids'  bedrooms before that long, wonderful day was over.

We were also given an amazing gift from B Daddy's grandmother for Christmas, two antique iron bed frames that are literally EXACTLY what I have been searching for for Sweet B's room for the past year.

Right now only one is set up, but eventually the plan is to have two twin beds in Sweet B's room. That way we could theoretically move all the kids into one room and have a guest room. If anyone was ever crazy enough to want to come stay with us for a night or two. Anyone? Anyone?

After Christmas we did a few family things that were out of the ordinary for us. We went downtown and rode the ferris wheel near Centennial Park. We took the kids to Legoland and to the local nature center. We slept in and stayed up, we roasted s'mores inside and went out to eat way more than usual. It was lovely.

I look super tired. Most likely I was.

Atlanta by night.

Little treehuggers

Then this was New Year's Eve:

That's right. We did Nothing. Exactly what I love doing on New Year's. New Year's Eve is SO overrated, right? Unless you're the type of person who likes standing in the freezing cold in Times Square for hours upon hours (which I did once in college - it was not fun) or you like paying way too much to get rip-roaring drunk with a bunch of strangers at fancy party...I don't see how anyone really finds this 'holiday' all that exciting.

But ringing in a New Year with my love on our couch? Perfectly my speed.

Now we're coming down from the chaos and getting back to normal. B Daddy was home for two entire weeks and while I absolutely loved it, it was hard not being on MY schedule every day. I'm looking forward to getting back to Bible study and Dance Battle Build, to having my early mornings alone with my coffee and hopefully to blogging more often.

Thanks for reading - I love you all!