Christmas Season!

 This Christmas we stayed here in Washington and truly had a good time! For Christmas Eve, we had a mix of traditional Puerto Rican food and we watch the classic "A Christmas Story"...which by the way, was more worldly that I remember and it wasn't edited!  But here is some of the food we had for our dinner.

 I wanted a family photo of us at dinner, so I put the camera on the tri-pod and this was the best of all the photos I took....not the best photo of me but cute of the the kids.

One of our tradition for Christmas Eve, is that the kids get to open one gift and it's their Christmas pj and this year it was the warm and cozy pj pants.

 Before bed, we had to prepare a snack for Santa.

 Ahh, our pretty Christmas tree.

 So, we made a deal with the kids...they could get up at 7:30 but not before!!! The boys were up early and when 7:30 rounded around Mya was still sleeping....so the boys had to wait until their sister wake up and she did at 8:40...we were mean parents making them wait!

 Christmas morning and Santa came!

 Opening their presents

The kids with all their presents...they SCORED.

The last year, we had Christmas bunch with our friends and played games and this year was no exception. We had a great time spending our Christmas day with friends and are very fortunate to be so BLESSED!

Tis The Season

December is one of our favorite month...These are a few of our favorite things to do before Christmas!

First: Decorating the house for the holidays, the feeling of entering a home that shows that Christmas is coming, is so great and helps you get in the mood.

Second: Sending and receiving Christmas cards! I love getting Christmas cards from my family and friends. I also love displaying them...even though my cedar tree card holder isn't holding up many(need to make a bigger on next year), I love looking at those cards.

Third: Getting a new ornaments every year for our family. As many of you know, we have a tradition of getting a new ornament every year for each member of our family and when my kids are married, they will get their ornaments for their tree and hopefully continue the tradition with their families.

 

Fourth: Attending Christmas Programs! We went to support some of my friends in my hula troop that were performing for their church and it was truly AMAZING and COLD!(It was outdoors and it was freezing! Good thing I made all of us wear our snow pants and cold weather gear!)

Fifth: Helping set up, hosting and attending "The Nativities from Around The World", that our community and the lds members put together....it's truly a sight to see, this year one of the focus were Joseph holding the baby Jesus, truly beautiful!!! This is the third year I have helped and I enjoy every minute of it. The kids enjoy the children area, especially the dress ups. I truly love how these photos turned out!

Sixth: The Ward Christmas Party! This year was especially fun and the food was YUMMY!!! A Christmas party isn't a party without Santa.

Seventh: Making crafts and this year were sock snowmen, we had a great time being creative and they made great friends gifts

Eighth: Being with friends! Attending white elephants parties are truly the best with great friends.

Ninth: Sledding! This year we had enough snow to truly have fun with it and we did!

Tenth: Caroling! We caroled with my hula troop and their families at a retirement home. We truly had a great time and the audience requested a hula, so we did but the surprise was Mya dancing her first hula and solo!(this wasn't planned!) She was AWESOME!!!! The other highlight of the night was when Isaac told us that he felt good singing to the elderly..... PRICELESS!

Eleventh: Making Ginger Bread Houses! This is one our traditions that we do every year and the kids have a blast making their own houses.

 

Finally, remembering why we celebrate Christmas....because of HIM!

Thanksgiving Season!

For Thanksgiving Season, we stayed home and had a great time spending together as a family....we continued our Family Tradition of inviting neighbors for our "Pie Party Before Thanksgiving" and had a BLAST! Sorry, no photos...forgot to get the camera out but we had some yummy pies! We normally have Thanksgiving dinner for lunch, so we can get a nice nap...which we did and had leftover for dinner.

My family, I have been truly BLESSED to have!!!! We all told each other, what we were grateful for....Isaac was grateful for our dog Bean, Nathan was grateful for the Earth, and Mya was grateful for her family and yummy food.

My kids and my life...they have truly been a blessing in my life...they taught me that you can truly love someone unconditionally and the same.

 

This year, it SNOWED! Not just a little but a ton and we took advantage of it and played in the snow! It was the first Thanksgiving for us here, that it snowed.

Nathan and Bean...best buds!

Isaac playing peek a boo with mom in the trees.

 

 Even Bean, had a great time! He looked like a rabbit hopping in the snow!

The snow made for great pictures of my kids, in our forest and also of our trees.

Nathan and Mya attempting to build a snowman...so Blake taught the kids how to really build one and it was huge!!!

 

To say that we had a good Thanksgiving was a understatement....we truly had a BLAST!!!