It all kicked off with our annual visit to Snowflake Lane. As per usual, the boys loved it. We lucked out this year with close parking, light crowds and rain that stopped just as the show started.
Then we spent one evening driving around looking at all. the.lights. One of our favorite houses with lights set to music that plays on the radio was no longer participating, but we did find some other nicely decorated places, and even another house with coordinated lights and music.
As usual, we visited Santa. Happy to report no tears from Cole this year, and Jackson actually had specific gifts to ask for, for the first time ever (a remote control train, magnetic calendar (like the one in his class), and Jack & Annie books).
Gramma Joan and I took the boys to A Very Merry Sammamish earlier this month, where they saw a real live camel, played in fake snow, had their faces painted and heard local elementary schools performing Christmas songs. It was a fun event to help us get into the holiday spirit.
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is receiving holidays cards/photos from friends and family near and far, which we display in our kitchen and often look at and discuss during meals.
Elvis the elf made his annual appearance on December 1st. Jackson has enjoyed the whole Elf on the Shelf thing for a few years now but it was fun to see Cole get excited this year to get ready in the a.m. so he could come downstairs to help Jackson find him. I wised up this year and saved some ideas on Pinterest since I remember running out of fun hiding places and activities pretty quickly in years past. After finding Elvis each day, the boys enjoyed opening their chocolate advent calendar.
We attended the Gossetts' annual holiday party and had a blast. Even Santa made an appearance (and brought gifts!), which was an amazing surprise for all the kiddos.
We enjoyed a play date/gift exchange with Hadley one morning, and everyone loved trying out the Pie in the Face game Hadley gifted the boys.
The boys played at Ellie's and made gingerbread houses one morning, which they loved!
The boys helped me decorate the tree, and loved every minute. We always decorate over Thanksgiving weekend so we have time to enjoy it, but I'm not going to lie, after 5 weeks of the tree and decorations taking over, I think I'm ready to take everything down and get organized this weekend.
We all enjoyed lots of time with Gramma Joan, Uncle Elliott (who was in town for two weeks!), my parents, Grandma, Scott & Anya.
J & Cole decorated sugar cookies - a favorite activity for them, and lucky for me, it leads to lots of delicious sugar cookies for me to enjoy (they're one of my fave desserts!)
We spent Christmas Eve with Elliott and Joan, and the boys received their first round (of three --- they're so spoiled!) of presents. Jackson was SO excited about Christmas and Santa's arrival, he spent much of the day tracking Santa's progress around the world online. He wrote Santa a note and left out cookies and milk for him to enjoy, while Cole left carrots, pretzels and water outside for the reindeer.
On Christmas morning, it was just the four of us and J & Cole opened their presents from Santa and from us. They had a blast opening everything and then playing with all their loot. Later that day, my family arrived for gifts and lunch, and then Joan and Elliott joined all of us that evening for dinner. I just love spending time with family during the holidays.
Corey couldn't help but buy J his own Tesla as our main gift this year. #likefatherlikeson
I still can't quite believe Christmas is over and we're nearly into 2017, but we've had a great few weeks, and are looking forward to a yummy dinner at John Howie on New Years Eve with the Reeders.
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