Christmas Time is Here!

I love Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I really think they are such special days of the year.  We always manage to have so much fun on those days.  It is also a little bit of organized chaos, but still loads of fun.

We decided to ignore the move for Christmas Eve and Christmas day so we could just enjoy the days with each other and family.  It was probably the most relaxing days I've had since we decided to move.

Crepes for breakfast Christmas Eve.  Yummy!! We spent the rest of the day tracking Santa on NORAD and running last minute errands. 

Our theme for Christmas Eve dinner this year was American.  We had BBQ chicken, hamburgers, rolls,  mashed potatoes, salad and banana splits for dessert.  It was a bit low key since all the fancy dinnerware was packed.

Feeding the reindeer.  They work just as hard as Santa and need a little treat as well.

The view for our Christmas Eve program.  Lily and Adam sang a song.  The kids all played the piano.  We had some readings and some good laughs.

CHRISTMAS!!!

After we had Christmas here we headed over to Aunt Sue's to drop off Damon's parents and then to Mortensen Manor to celebrate with them.  It was a wonderful day.

Christmas Card Lane

 Almost every year we have lived in San Diego we go to Christmas Card Lane.  We love going there.  It's an added bonus that the kids teacher, Mrs. Watkins, lives there as well.

 We were able to see some of Adam's classmates and have hot cocoa and apple cider as we walked around the neighborhood. 

My Talented Children

We have had a whole bunch of concerts to go to over the past little bit.

Adam had his Winter Choir Concert

Noah had his Winter band Concert-all the videos were to big to upload.  (sigh)

I had my last recital for Piano at the Ranch.  It was also Lily's first recital. Letting go of my piano students has been hard.  They have been a part of my life for such a long time.  I know I am going to miss each and every one of them.  I was able to do something I've always wanted to do, but have never been brave enough to try.  I played my recital song from memory.  My fingers only freaked out once. 

 Lily and her friend Lucy.  They danced together and now they play piano together.

 The kids did well in all of their concerts and I couldn't have been happier or a more proud mom.

An Extra Special Weekend

The 14th of Dec. was the last day of school for my elementary kids.  And by last day, I mean the real last day since they aren't  going back to that school after the break.  I have a lot of emotions about that and the past few days have been extremely hard. 

On the 13th we did going away parties for both of their classes.  It was exhausting, but I am so glad I was able to do that for my kids.  I can't imagine what it's like to move in the middle of a school year, or actually at all since I never had to do it so I am trying to make it a little bit special for them.

So I picked up the kids a bit early on the 14th and we headed to Anaheim.  We spent the afternoon there and stayed at a hotel by Disneyland.  We didn't stay in the park long because it was wet and the kids were kind of tired. 

The next morning we headed in to Los Angeles to visit the American Girl Doll store.  Lily has been wanting to go so I decided we better do it before we left CA.  The boys were good sports about it.

After that we headed to the California Science Center.  It was a nice big museum with lots of cool things, but the best of all was the space shuttle Endeavor.  It was amazing seeing that.  We all enjoyed it.

 I saved once last surprise for the kids.  After LA we went to Malibu to visit our friends, the Shoff's.  The kids were so excited to go up and visit them.  Noah told me it was his favorite part of the whole weekend.  We spent the night with them and then headed home on Sunday.  I think it was a really nice treat.

Christmassing the House

We waited to decorate the house until Damon came home for a weekend.  It seems more Christmas-like with the tree up now.

It was Lily's turn to put up the star!

We were also able to squeeze in getting a family picture done.  We were glad to do that.  Here are some of the outtakes from that photo session.

 Damon left us and now we are all sad again.

Christmas Traditions

 I'm really trying hard to keep up with some of the Christmas traditions so the kids feel like life is "normal". It's exhausting, but I know they are enjoying it.  We have had some fun doing our favorite things.

Picking out our Christmas tree.  The kids called it the Charlie Brown Christmas tree because it is so small.  I didn't want to do a big one this year.  We still loved picking it out and smelling all the wonderful pine smells.

 It's not Christmas unless you decorate sugar cookies.  Well, that's what the kids think.  It's hard to make them though when all your cookie cutters are packed.  We tried our best though.

 The kids Christmas program at church is a tradition that is so wonderful.  We were especially glad this night because Damon was coming back to us for the weekend.  It was a great program and the kids always love when Santa shows up.  Every time we go to the Christmas program I think of the book, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", or was it the Worst.  One of those.  Does anyone else remember that book?

Bring in the experts

 I decided this move was going to require expert help while Damon was gone.  Who better to have help than the person who has helped me move 2 other times already.  Julie came down to visit from Oregon for a few days and helped me pack.  We managed to squeeze in some magic as well.

 Love this place at Christmas.  I could go once a week and not get tired of it.  Really I could.

 We also decided to stop by the Hotel Del Coronado while Julie was here.  She had never been to Coronado before and she loved it.