The Days of Christmases

We spent our 1st Christmas in Dallas with my family the Saturday before Christmas. We spent the morning at my parents house. There was a lot of cousin fun and bonding.

Saturday night we went to my sister Jackie's house for our annual sibling gift exchange. (Apparently I didn't get the memo about wearing black!) The kids had a blast playing together, and the adults had quite a few laughs.

We left Christmas Eve morning to drive back to Austin. We got to Austin in time to clean up a bit and get the house ready for guests. We made it to the 4pm Christmas Eve service at church, a little late. Nicholas' parents and Laura came over afterwards for dinner and Christmas Eve fun. We opened presents from Laura, sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn, drew some pictures for Santa, left cookies and milk for Santa and 9 carrots out for each of the reindeer. We read "The Night Before Christmas," and the kids went to bed pretty easy. Then Santa came! (and Mommy finished wrapping presents *sigh)

Christmas morning, the boys slept in a little bit! It was after 7:30 when Lil' Bro came in. Nicholas' parents came over and the boys opened presents from Mommy and Daddy. We had a yummy breakfast and enjoyed playing with fun gifts!

Christmas afternoon, we went over to the Turmans house. First thing, Nicholas helped John fix the dishwasher.

Our last Christmas was the day after Christmas. Jeremy and Audrey flew in late afternoon so we all convened at the parents house for dinner and Christmas fun. Baby Bro was almost as excited as big brothers about opening presents!

It was a great evening. Everyone crashed way too late, but slept in a little bit the next morning!

2017 Christmas Decorations

Our 2017 Christmas decorations---We only put out about half our decorations this year. Because? Life!

Austin Central Library

We visited the new Austin Central Library the week of Christmas. We only made it to the children's section, but it is awesome, and we can't wait to go back!

Family Advent Camp

The second weekend of December, we attended Family Advent Camp at Camp Chrysalis with five other families from our church. This was our second Family Advent Camp, but first time with 3 kids! We arrived later on Friday night than we had wanted because I had a late flight back from Oregon, and we pretty much arrived in time for bed! Saturday morning we woke up and headed to breakfast. (Everyone loved the camp meals.) Then we enjoyed exploring camp before the kids and adults spent some time separately enjoying activities.

Before lunch, we (Daddy and the big boys) worked on building our family gingerbread house.

And the big boys got to practice some archery!

After lunch and a little rest time, we decorated our gingerbread house (and ate a lot of candy).

The we did the "big hike" up to the big cross. Lil' Bro hiked with Pastor Candice, his new best friend.

Then we squeezed in a little canoeing! Baby Bro and Lil' Bro rode with Mommy and Daddy while Big Bro rode with our friends. The life jacket fit Baby Bro okay when he was standing up, but when he sat down, it was a little big!

Daddy and Big Bro enjoyed some rock climbing. It was their favorite part of camp! Big Bro did a great job! Daddy went to the top and went down the zip line!

Sunday morning we did some ornament making before brunch. We enjoyed a little running around time before packing up and heading home.

It was a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends!