It's Christmas Time

November and December is crazy for everyone. However, in our house, those months bring 2 birthdays, 3 major holidays, and an anniversary. This means we cram an obnoxious amount of good times into these two months. The kickoff to the season this year was getting the lights up on the house. Things went much quicker this year (and by quicker I mean slower) thanks to the addition of three "helpers." They each had a job to do while on the roof. Noah brought dad each new strand of lights, Aidan was responsible for the zip ties, and Ryla was on clipper duty so dad could trim the ends of the zip ties. 

What is Christmas without eggnog with good friends. This crew of 7 always has a great time together. And their good times usually end to two sets of very tired parents. But they're just so cute!

And how could we forget about the school programs. Ryla switched Preschools at the end of her semester. She was done early enough with one school that she could make the program for the new school. She had only been to school there one day, but that didn't stop her from finding her way to the spotlight with her bestie Adalyn. 

So Noah was an "angel" for his program. What's completely ironic about this role is that when he's at school he really is an angel. He's the kid in class that drives everyone else nuts because he's so good. We've learned to use this to our advantage, though. Whenever he's having a particularly devlish day at home, we just tell him we're going to call his teachers. He miraculously changes his little attitude immediately.

It's pretty normal for someone in our family to get sick around this time of year. Between the kiddos being little and the incredible pace at which we live during this season, it's inevitable that someone comes down with something. This year Aidan was the one whose lucky number came up. Three days before Christmas he got slammed by Strep. Since he's super tough, though, he was back to 100% in less than 24 hours.

When Christmas Eve rolled around it was time to make some Santa cookies. Again, the three little "helpers' really streamlined the process....

And of course we had to take a trip to see Santa.

Since we've moved to Austin we've adopted the tradition of a Christmas Eve service. Because of it's proximity to Christmas morning it's pretty easy to coerce the kids to get dressed up and smile for pictures. We're still not really sure what we'll do when they figure out the whole Santa myth.

By all accounts we had a fantastic Christmas season. We've got one more birthday coming up in January before we enter our "Ordinary" season. Thanks to all our friends and family who have made this a great time of year.