Carriage Ride

Josh, Maverik and I went on a carriage ride in Highland Park to see the Christmas lights and charming houses. Remember what happened last year when we went on this carriage ride with the entire family? Here's a refresher! This year was our do-over and it was AWESOME! Thank you Bruce, Jerri and Josh for the fun night! 

Christmas Day

Christmas was wonderful! We woke up around 8 and got on Skype with Bruce and Jerri. We watched them open their gift from us and the three of us opened our gifts too. After talking with them we opened gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Claus. It was fun to watch Maverik open his gifts from us, eh... Santa! He was really into drooling all over the wrapping paper.

 After opening presents we got ready for church. Our ward prepared an amazing musical program that really brought the spirit and reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas. After church we returned home, made a special salad and homemade peanut butter cups. Then we made our way to Sister and Brother Barr's house from our ward. It was so kind of them to invite us over for Christmas dinner so we wouldn't be alone. Dinner was wonderful and the company was fantastic. We spent a few hours at their home and then returned back to our own. We got back in our cozy's, curled up on the sofa, skyped with my mom and finally watched a few episodes of LOST.

It was a perfect day with my boys!

Josh and his stocking.

He got a new Ipod-nano and watch band to put it in when he goes running.

My stocking!

I've decided I want to paint my nails! Yay for new polish!

Maverik was thrilled to have yet another church shirt.

The real success of the day was a set of play keys. They are his new favorite toy!

He was even a fan of his new hat and mittens. 

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Christmas Eve

For a preview of Josh's advent calendar go HERE and HERE. 

Josh's 24th of December advent calendar activity was a trip to the Dallas Arboretum. (If you are ever in the Big D, you MUST visit the Arboretum. It's incredible.)

The theme at the garden for Christmas was fairy tales and princesses.

Josh and Maver infront of the Little Mermaid display.

Infront of Jack, from Jack in the Beanstalk's house. 

This is so beautiful no matter the time of year!

I love the look on Maverik's face in this one.

What a Stud!

When we returned home I had another surprise for Josh! He had told me earlier in the season how he had never made a gingerbread house. I have never made one either so I bought a cottage kit just to be safe. It turned out to be a really good decision! We had a blast decorating and sneaking little tasty treats.

Josh's end complete with flowers in the garden.

The side. Josh did a great job creating little flower boxes and outlining the windows as I decorated the roof. 

My end with mistletoe and Christmas lights.

The 17th of December

To view more from Josh's Advent Calendar go to THIS link and to view our other Christmas decorations go HERE. 

I tried to plan a fun field trip for each weekend of December. On the 10th we tried (key word here: tried) to go ice skating at the Galleria (big fancy mall in Dallas) around the 3 story Christmas tree... but everyone else had the exact same idea that weekend. So we stood in line the entire time I had scheduled a babysitter for. Bummer! But our activity for the 17th was a huge success!!! 

We went to the Gaylord hotel (MASSIVE hoity-toity hotel near the Big D- seriously you could live your entire life inside this place and never go outside. They have a grocery store, hospital, gym, restaurants, kinkos, you name it! ) and saw their larger than life Shrek themed ice sculpture display.  

Josh and Maver all bundled up to enter the 0* sculpture room.

It's so cold in at the display that the hotel provides parka's for everyone...they even had little bity baby sized one's. 

The sculptures were Ah-mazing! 

We are standing in front of a 10 foot tall Christmas tree made entirely of ice! 

At the end of the display they even had ice nativity. It was absolutely beautiful! 

It's really exciting to live somewhere with so many events and activities at our fingertips! 

Josh's Advent Calendar

This year for Christmas Maverik and I surprised Daddy/Josh with an advent calendar. It had compliments, service and field trips. The field trips, foot rubs and back massages were Josh's favorites. He read on every night describing something for the next day. 

Some nights it was as simple as watching a christmas movie or reading a classic Christmas Story as a family.

Day one was really special I planned a fun adventure to The City of Frisco Square where we took a carriage ride, went in all the little shops and watched an amazing computerized light show.

Christmas Decorations

We had a wonderful Christmas season! We had so much fun in fact that I simply didn't have the time to blog about all our adventures. The Monday night after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree for FHE. We used my late dear Ount Dawnie's handmade paper ornaments. Josh and I both prefer a chaos tree to a matchy matchy one. We have started the tradition of getting ornaments on trips or from special events that happen in our life. It will always be fun to reflect on our memories we have had as we decorate our tree each year. I also found a really fun and kid friendly tree skirt and "paper" chain garland made from fabric swatches. 

 Mav was really curious about the whole outside on the inside thing.

That's right Maverik (Josh) had to have a NBA championship ornament this year.

This is Mav's first ornament and our "paper" chain garland. 

Last year Josh and I got an "Our first Christmas" ornament, this year it's "And baby makes three"

Our tree skirt.

The finished product on Christmas Eve! I LOVE LOVE LOVE our snowflake topper!

The stockings were hung by the kitchen with care.

I embraced the Christmas card tradition this year by A) sending out some of our own and B) making a display ribbon to pin all the ones we received on. Now that Christmas is over I want to hole punch each of our cards and put them in a book to display year after year. It will be a fun Christmas coffee table book.

And of course we remembered the real reason for the season. Merry Christmas!