The 12 Things I Love About Christmas Time

This is such a joyous, yet rushed season. This year we had the day I've always dreamt of. We put the tree up with the boys, decorated the house, listened to Christmas music & watched Christmas movies, S.Jessen went out in the snow for the first time, and Tate got to bake Christmas cookies for the first time (with S.Jessen and myself of course)!

I thought I would take a few moments (or hours) to share the 12 things I love about Christmas time. I had planned to do this on the 13th, but that came and went so here it is better late than never.

1. The Nativity (It wouldn't be Christ-mas without it)

2. The birth of our son, Tater (he'll be 2 on the 20th)

3. The birth of my mom (50 something on the 23rd) and my parents' anniversary (36 yrs on the 18th)

4. The birth of my brother Adam (he'll be 19 on the 27th)

5. Getting the Christmas tree ready and taking pictures in Christmas jammies under it

6. Baking Christmas cookies

7. Playing in the snow

8. Christmas decorations/music/movies

9. Santa pics

10. Christmas trains under the tree

11. Snow globes

12. Togetherness

Tate's bib says, "Are these people really my relatives?"
I hope you all have things you can take a moment and enjoy during this season. I feel truly blessed with all my "things" and enjoy sharing the true meaning of Christmas with our "happy fanily."

Dancing Kolosik grandsons/elves :)

If you have not seen these, you have to! They are hilarious! Thanks, Jen for sharing yours and Brandee, too! This is the order of our boys: Luke, Tate, S.Jessen, and Isaac

(They love watching themselves)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1111889216

You have to see this interview!

Tis the season... I love this and him!

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/

Belated Thanksgiving

Daddy, S.Jessen, Mommy, and Tater

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house last week. The boys were pretty great, but Tate is definitely 2! He was into everything from the computer to the dog food. I felt like the most commonly used word for the week was, "no!" I don't remember S.Jessen being like this at 2, but I probably blocked it out because I had a new 3 month old and we were in the midst of moving to our new home. Tate did find the time to be a sweetie, too. He's just so busy!

Tate feeding Annie her food

Tate taking a break to snuggle Adam

No, we did not have ninjas to dinner, but we kept running into these guys on the play porch, aren't they adorable? (Thanks, Granny and Pops for the costumes!) Tater does have one, too, but he was not interested in wearing it at the moment. He'd have to slow down to put it on.

We were also able to celebrate Isaac's 6th birthday. 6 years ago he was born on Thanksgiving morning. It's hard to believe he is already 6 and we are back to Thanksgiving on his birthday again. He is so grown up and really let the little boys do whatever they wanted to him, without retaliation.

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Roger, Aron, Adam watching Isaac on his big day.

Mom, Ayla, and I did try to brave the Midnight Madness at the Tanger Outlet Mall. We made it to 3 stores. The lines were exhausting and the deals were not good enough to lose any more sleep. Ayla and I went the next night to Coral Ridge and were pleased with our findings. There were some really nice sales.

Before we came home on Saturday, Roger and I were able to bring the boys over to Jayme and Al's to see their 3 girlie girls: Clara, Gwen, and Ada. They are so much fun and so the opposite of our household! S.Jessen has been very opinionated lately about pink and purple being "girl" colors and that he doesn't like girl toys. By the time we left, he was pretty convinced that the ballerina toy they had was pretty Awesome! It was nice to relax and hang out with our families for a couple hours.

Gwen, Clara, Tate, S.Jessen, and Ada

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We are thankful for so much! It sure was nice to come back Saturday, to ease our way back to normalcy before the first real school week at work since before conferences at the beginning of the month!