One Giant Christmas Post

I originally had grand intentions of posting more often, but between the busyness of Christmas and my extreme lack of energy and motivation during these last few weeks of pregnancy, it just hasn't happened.  So here it is, in one gigantic post ... The Anderson Family Christmas

At the beginning of December we drove up to Falls Park where they literally have every tree in the park strung with Christmas lights.  It's pretty amazing to see.  On this particular night, it was actually around 40 degrees.  And we figured with snow and extreme cold (-10 and colder) on the way, we had better take advantage of the opportunity.  We bundled up in all our snow gear, and were actually too warm.  That's an odd problem to have during a South Dakota winter.

The view of the park from the top of the observation tower

crossing the bridge over the falls

aren't we cute??

On a totally non-Christmas related note ... the boys and I made pizza.  That was fun.

If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Oh, and I also turned 36 weeks.

I'm actually 38 weeks now, so this is a few weeks old.  I look about the same.  Just a little bigger and a bit more tired.

Ok, back to Christmas now.

Last week Monday it was wicked cold here.  Cold as in, at 9am it was -15 degrees.  With windchill it felt like -30.  So we stayed home.  (a fantastic perk of my job)  And made Christmas cookies.

Brooks is a great help in the kitchen.  The boy can crack eggs better than I can.  We normally save our cooking projects for when Carter is napping because, well .... Carter isn't such a great help.  But I didn't want to leave him out of this.  He actually took instructions really well and didn't make too big of a mess.

We moved to the kitchen table to roll out the dough and start the cookie cutter fun.  I set the boys up and left for about 15 seconds to grab something quick and this is what I returned to.

This, apparently, is a toddler's interpretation of "You can start making shapes with the cookie cutters.  I'll be right back".  I think we salvaged maybe two cookies out of this roll-out and then we started over.

It took us several tries, but we did eventually end up with something worth baking.  Mostly.

Some of them were a little maimed, but oh well.  I figured they were going to be covered with frosting anyway so it didn't matter

Oh, and all the little gingerbread boys?  Those were for the gingerbread houses we were planning to make on Christmas.  It was Brooks' idea.  He figured if we were making little houses, that we needed little people to go in them.  Smart kid. 

On Christmas Eve we all sat down and ate decorated ate the cookies.

With the exception of one Christmas two years ago, we've always spent the holiday with one side of the family or another.  And we love it.  We love spending time with family and doing Christmas together.  But this year it was just us.  I was 37+ weeks pregnant and was NOT going to travel.  And no one was coming here.  And that was ok.  In fact, I was kind of excited to start building some Christmas traditions of our own.  One of them being new jammies on Christmas eve.

Seriously?  Is this not the more adorable thing you've ever seen?  I mean, really.  We also gave the boys "The Legend of the Candy Cane" book that we promptly read three times before bed.  

We've been trying to be more intentional about not getting caught up in gifts and cookies and all the "stuff" that comes with Christmas.  I don't think we nailed it, but I feel like at least my attitude toward it was better this year.

Christmas day we spent the morning opening gifts, eating breakfast (yes in that order) and lounging in our jammies.  Two things we've learned about Christmas morning with kids.  1. Brooks is old enough to be excited about opening presents.  As in, let's wake up at 6:15am excited.  He "snuggled" in bed with us for a while, then we sent him downstairs to get himself breakfast.  2.  Carter, at 2 years old, has zero patience for waiting to open gifts.  Zero.  So we held him back just long enough to plug in the Christmas tree lights and start a pot of coffee before we let him tear into them.  And he was so excited to pass out gifts.  The boy can't read, but was he sure was enthusiastic when shoving a present in your hand, whether it belonged to you or not. "Here Daddy!  Es is your present"

We did eventually get dressed, and then we headed over to the Gale's for lunch and an afternoon of lounging and spending time with our "bonus" family.  Seriously, they're fantastic.  We're so blessed to be "adopted" into such a great family :)

Grandma Gale was wonderful and built graham cracker gingerbread houses with the kids.

Oh, and how could I forget this?  The Christmas mustache.

And if that's not enough ... there's the many faces of the mustache.

And then accessorized ...

He didn't have ANY fun with the mustache.  Clearly.  I did try to convince him to put on my Packers hat and go for the "Aaron Rogers" look, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

One of the best parts of Christmas this year (and no, it's not the mustache) was that Chris took off work for three days.  And we just played.  It was fantastic.  He took the boys out sledding and playing in the snow, we went to see the Christmas light show at the Western Mall, Chris and Brooks spent an afternoon at the arcade (a definite highlight for Brooks) and I took Carter out on a "date" for ice cream and then to Falls Park to see the lights again.

I was nervous about how the boys would handle Daddy going back to work on Monday after five straight days of playing, but they did well.  Overall, it was a fantastic Christmas!

Now we're down to just a few weeks to go before baby comes.  It isn't slowing down around here.  And that's ok :)