Last Year...

The Holidays happened at our house. Just because I haven't posted about them doesn't mean I canceled Christmas or anything. Hmmm...maybe that will be my new threat this year. Since we don't promote believing in Santa Claus coming down our chimney and leaving presents I can't tell my kids that they'd better be good because Santa's watching. Maybe now I will just threaten to cancel Christmas.

I guess that was a pretty Grinchy way to start off this Holiday post, but when you get a good idea you gotta write it down, otherwise it will just get lost in the cluttered room of my brain where I keep all my good ideas. I can't find anything in there.

We kept Thanksgiving simple this year. Noah was here though, so that made it extra special. We did do some Christmas decorating though, as per our family tradition.

Here Eden is looking through the black Friday ads with Ben in the middle of the floor. I still don't understand why they chose to do it there, but it turned out to make a cute picture.

Here are more Thanksgiving photos.

*Just a note: Last Thanksgiving I specifically remember thinking that Miss Chevious would surely have calm down by Thanksgiving 2012. Boy was I wrong, and here is to hoping I am not wrong for next year!*

 Hope had a kindergarten Christmas program mid December which was adorable to watch. There were so many kids stuffed onto the stage that she was visibly uncomfortable and kept folding her arms to make herself as small as possible. She has been learning and singing the songs for a couple of months, which means that Eden and I know some of the songs too. I love to hear Hope and Eden singing the Christmas songs, but my favorite is "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas."

*Hope is in the front row wearing a cream colored dress.*

Christmas is always a busy day because we either pick up or drop off Noah at 1:00 and then we go see both of Ben's grandparents. This Christmas since we didn't get to be with Noah until 1:00, we woke up, went to Grandma Verla's, then to pick up Noah, and then to Grandma Hammond's. The girls handled not opening presents first thing in the morning surprisingly well. I was very proud of them. By the time we got back home it was 4 or 5:00 so we opened presents then and had a late dinner. Everyone got spoiled as usual, and just like last year, Eden decided mid-present opening that she was no longer interested and daddy had to encourage/help her open her remaining presents.

 Ben and I decided that we would no longer be party poopers for New Year's Eve. Ben basically did everything, including entertaining everyone with his famous dance moves. We played board games, watched a wonderful video (that Ben put together with all the videos we took in 2012 and some pictures) and ate root beer floats, had lots of snacks and laughs, wrote out some resolutions and even a balloon drop! Of course we did the balloon drop at 10 so the girls could go to bed. They were getting pretty cranky by then.

 

 
After that Noah watched a movie in his room and Ben and I did our nightly routine of watching a show and then bed. Thrilling, I know, but as you can see from the last picture we were pretty exhausted by that point. Actually, Ben is making a snow angel in the confetti (packing peanuts). The night was full of great traditions to add to our list!