The Christmas Season

There is no question about it, though fall is my favorite season, Christmas is my favorite holiday. Not only do we celebrate our Savior's birth and all that entails with my faith, but much of the secular parts of Christmas are fun too. I love the decorations, the traditions, giving gifts (my love language is to give gifts), the music, everything about Christmas is fun to me. Ok, maybe not the long lines and the materialism, but the parts that I try to be a part of. With that said, I'm a little pouty Christmas 2013 has already come and gone and to think that Sadie has already experienced her first Christmas is beyond me. I'm so thankful we were able to start off our Christmas season with my Mom here to decorate and Jillian and Eli visiting (as seen in earlier posts). Since then, here is how we "decked our halls"...

 We enjoyed a snow day of December 20th. It was the perfect kind of snow. About 2-3 inches, just right to make snow balls, still fine to drive, and gone by dinner time. :)

 Jude loved throwing snow balls and his first time sledding down a hill by himself. He was so pumped! He told me, "I not cry Mommy. I do it myself. I not afraid!"

 This sweet gal gets bigger and bigger. Her newborn clothes are already put away, tear. She has started to ooh and ahh and share some smiles.

 This is her 5 week photo before church last week. I won't lie, I really do love dressing her all cutesie and stuff. :) (And yes, Jude shared a horse with her.)

 Jude and I baked and decorated cupcakes for Jesus' birthday, even though this poor guy had a temperature of 101 in this picture. Thankfully his high fever we experienced was apparently a 24 hour bug.

 We enjoyed a lovely service at church on Christmas Eve. Jude didn't want to leave his new movies, Cars 2 and Planes behind, hence the sad face.

 Everything was ready before we went to bed...

 Jude loved all his gifts. Holy Cow! Having everything shipped here made it seem like he got 10 times the gifts he normally gets. Since we're usually home, his gifts are all spread out because we go to so many different settings, but this year, everyone sent things here. It took us almost 3 hours to go through presents. He kept wanting to play with whatever he opened and not open the next gift.

 Ready for his first scooter ride.

 In her lovely Christmas bow.

 On Christmas Day, we stayed around after opening gifts. No big deal if I was still in my pj's after lunch. Friends stopped by around lunch to exchange gifts and visit and then we enjoyed Christmas dinner with sweet friends from church.

Christmas was very different this year, having never been away from family. We've always been home for the holidays, but with Sadie so small, we did not feel comfortable flying this year, as well as with Justin's work schedule, it just wasn't possible. Thankfully, we were able to see my Mom and sister before the holidays and we'll see Justin's family soon in the coming months.

I am so thankful for the gift of our Savior and the joy He brings. I pray every day that our children understand this gift and receive it. We had a beautiful Christmas in 2013!

And yeah, this cutie is ready for 2014...she doesn't look like her brother at all, not one bit...