Merry Christmas!

Ahhh...Christmas time! I love Christmas, the spirit, the meaning, the fun, the coziness, the all around joyfulness of people. Such a special time of year. We started off the holiday with Josh's squadron Christmas party, which was pretty good, then some great family fun on Christmas Eve. This year it was just our little family and although I kind of missed the busyness and fun of being around our extended family, there is something quite special about a nice quiet Christmas with just Josh and the kids. Josh actually prefers it this way, we have a little of a debate going on that :) The kids were great, it was so much fun with Bella being old enough to really get more of what was going on. Getting excited about Santa, picking out presents and most importantly, understanding that we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are really trying to balance that out, you know, really focus on the true meaning not getting lost as we enjoy some of the commercialized aspect of this time of year as well. I hope we can all keep that spirit in our hearts and enjoy giving to others. Merry Christmas everyone!

Josh's only food request....a trifle like his Nanny, then his Mom always made every year. This was my first one and I have to say it turned out pretty yummy!
On Christmas Eve, we spent some time outside playing in the snow just in our front yard. Carson didn't last too long, especially because he wouldn't keep gloves on so his hands were freezing. Despite that and getting very frustrated he cried and cried when we went in...sorry can't have it both ways kiddo!
Me pulling the kids around the front yard, it was harder than it looks because it was so deep. Josh took over pretty quick.

Scary, I know! He looks like the shrunken head man from beatlejuice!
We are trying to make it a tradition to build a gingerbread house every year. This is our creation from this year! I think the kids got more of a sugar high than anything else, continually licking the icing from everything and sneaking candy, but we had a good time!

Josh's very sweet brother and sister-in-law, Andrew and Ali, sent the kids this very cute little kit with a jar of sparkly "reindeer food" to sprinkle on your front porch so they will come to your house first. It was such a cute idea and the kids loved putting it out for them. I guess we always put out cookies for Santa, but you forget those reindeer must need a snack too! :)

The one and ONLY thing Bella wanted for Christmas this year was the set of all the Disney princess barbies sold only at Target. We ended up having to drive all the way to the target in Wasilla to find one, ours was stayed completely sold out. She was so excited to see them the next morning.

Oh, our little princess! Nonna sent a great tinker bell dress up, which she ate Christmas dinner in and refused to take off all day.

Carson desperately trying to get into Bella's tinker bell nightlight!

Yummy Christmas dinner, I tried to keep it pretty simple since it was just us, but still throw in some classics that I couldn't live without on Christmas.

Thank you Papi and Memaw for the great gift card for Christmas! This is everything I got with it and boy, was it fun shopping for myself! A ballerina tutu outfit, fairy wings, princess and the frog purse and Thumbalina! You can tell mom didn't have much say in what I got :)