Christmas Recap and NYE

I am realizing lately that I am behind on my blog updates and have a harder time sitting down at the computer. We had a very sweet little Christmas at home with the kids. Santa came and spoiled them rotten, and by rotten I mean, they were little angels most of the day and then started suffering from the "I got too many presents" meltdowns that always seem to occur with little kids on holidays and their birthdays.

It was a pretty laid back day as I had been gone the days prior and wasn't around to meal plan or have the house in tip top condition. It was nice though. We just hung out in our jammies all day and played with the new toys. A very relaxing day overall.

Christmas was on a Wednesday this year and Tim had the whole week off. On Friday we loaded up the car to celebrate Christmas with Tim's family at the cabin. Grandma Sue and Papa Wayne had the cabin all decorated for Christmas with a fun all white Christmas tree dressed up as a snowman. The kids decorated cookies with Grandma Sue and we celebrated by opening lots and lots of presents and having a "French" meal. Tim's family does a different theme meal every Christmas and lots of planning go into the menu. It was quite a success this year I think. I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures. Must get better at that!!! Another thing to add to my 2014 list.

Evie and Cousin Mara

Grandma Sue and the grandkids frosting cookies.

For New Year's Eve we rung in the new year with what is becoming a new little family tradition of ours and made our own pizza from scratch. I broke out the bread machine and made a fresh batch of dough, then we topped it with sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, spinach, olives and mushrooms. It was pretty delicious. The kids helped with the toppings of course. We had movie night and watched Despicable Me 2 (which Miles LOVES right now). Kids were in bed by 8:30 and Tim and I were both lights out by 10:30. I love being old, married with kids. It is quite nice. 2104 is going to be a good year.

Ringing in 2014 with a home made pizza!

Surprise! Off to WA I go!

So I was spoiled rotten for Christmas this year. I don't know why because I don't remember being very nice this year, with all the yelling, crabbiness, sleep deprivation and frustration of the terrible 2's (Evie). But somehow I got on the super nice list and was showered with all kinds of lovely things, the best being my surprise trip to Washington to visit my family ALONE this past weekend, right before Christmas!!! And if that wasn't awesome enough Tim flew me out there first class. It was my very first time flying first class, and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. I almost wish I wouldn't have gotten to experience how fantastic it was because now flying coach will seem even worse then it already is. I spent 4 days in Olympia with my family, enjoying the nice break from the daily grind of motherhood and Minnesota winter - um, it was 50 degrees pretty much the whole 4 days I was there. Anyway, it was such a great trip and much needed as I hadn't been out to WA to visit my family in over a year and a half.  I hope we can all be in the same state or at the very least, region in 2014.  I got back to MN right in time to celebrate Christmas Eve with Tim and the kids, and it was so cold here my car wouldn't start. I really extra appreciated not traveling with the kids during my flight back on the 24th as I witnessed so many stressed out families trying to get somewhere for Christmas while their children screamed and cried in the airport and on my flight.

New Traditions

This year we are making new little family traditions to mark the start of the Christmas holiday season.  I'm not really a traditional girl in any sense but for some reason the holidays spark this feeling within me and I want to create these little traditions for my kids. I have always loved Christmas time. It is such a special time and I don't think I am alone with this. Memories from my childhood make me feel warm and fuzzy when it comes to this time of year. My parents were always really into it too from what I remember.  I just love this time of year!!

Shopping with wine...

First on the list of new traditions is starting the shopping season off with the after hours night at Creative Kidstuff in Linden Hills with my friend Kat.  She got me to sign up for this event and it was SO MUCH FUN. I picked her up on the Saturday night before Thanksgiving and we went to our neighborhood toy store. It is such a fantastic store for so many reasons and I am lucky enough to live just blocks from one. We signed up for the after hours event and had 2 hours to shop while the store was closed and the best part was we had endless free wine and cookies, and of course the helpful staff and 20% off our entire purchase. It was really fun and a great way to get started with the holiday gift shopping. After we left the store, we figured it was so rare we actually got to hang out without the kids (Kat has 4 year old twins) that Kat and I decided to have a glass of wine at her place.  Her husband had a fire going in the living room and glasses of wine waiting for us. It was perfect. We had such a great night that we decided that it was going to be an annual tradition for us.

Looking for "our" perfect little tree.

No big deal, just walking with a tree.

Next up on the list of new traditions for our family is walking down to the little tree lot that goes up across the street from Turtle Bread and picking out our Christmas tree, then heading over to Turtle Bread to warm up with some yummy food. This year however went better in our minds then it did in real life. Evie cried the whole time we were picking out our tree, and it was busy so we were trying to stand by the tree we had picked out while waiting for the tree guy to help us out.  Since Evie was throwing a fit, we walked away and then someone else tried to take our tree. Luckily we were up next so we got the tree we had wanted, but I was already stressing someone else was going to take our tree (that is how I roll these days).  Then we found out it was cash only so we sent Tim off running to an ATM while the kids and I went over to the restaurant since it was freezing out and I needed to get the kids inside to warm up.  Tim and I have this ongoing little joke about Turtle Bread. We have wanted to go there for soup and a sandwich the entire year+ we have lived in our home, and we have never been able to with the kids. It's just too hard at the stage they are at. And they have all these amazing baked goods sitting out (croissants, rolls, cookies, you name it) and you have to keep the kids and their hands away from them or you are going broke buying all these goodies. Anyway, due to the situation of Evie's mood we grabbed a large chocolate pretzel shaped pastry and sat at the table fighting over it while we waited for Tim. Once he arrived we got the hell out of there!! Some day we will have our nice Turtle Bread lunch, but it wasn't happening today. Tim carried our tree home (3 blocks) and was a true lumberjack man. It was a fun walk home watching "daddy" carry our Christmas tree. He is one strong guy!

Miles helped me decorate the tree while Evie took a nap. We put some Christmas music on and got the whole tree decorated just the two of us. He was so cute helping. He did a great job and really got into it. He also helped Tim put up lights outside. Tim didn't test the lights out first and put them all up to find out that only part of one strand worked. He was not happy. Ahhhh time for new lights I guess. Love the holidays!!  

Looking forward to many more traditions this year.