The Christmas Season

December has flown by, so here is a recap of the entire month!

I really wanted to send out Christmas cards this year since I didn't do any last year because of the move. Andrew had the idea of putting the kiddos in Christmas color tie-dyes, made by him of course, and I thought it was a great idea! The weekend after Thanksgiving he tie-dyed the shirts, and Ryder and Harper did a few extras while all of the supplies were out. We had a huge snowstorm that same weekend, so between the tie-dyes and some snowy winter pictures, our Christmas card was finished!

Shepherd's shirt turned out the most vibrant, so we decided his organic cotton onesie absorbed more color than the big kids' shirts.

eating a Christmas book

Garcia's most recent trip to the groomer included a festive scarf and jingle bell. 

Pops and Grann flew in a couple of weeks before Christmas to spend a week with us. We were able to celebrate Christmas early, enjoy a snow/ice day, celebrate Andrew's birthday, and attend Ryder's holiday program at school. The cold was definitely a shock to their systems, and we spent most of our time sitting by the fire and being lazy.

Christmas #1

Shepherd was thrilled with the Rudolph gift bag and spent quite a while just gumming it.

a competitive game of NFL Game Day 

Andrew's annual birthday pose 😂

Pictionary game night! 

Harper and Grann snuggled in my bed one afternoon to watch a movie. I'm pretty sure the heating blanket was on too!

Garcia found a new friend. :)

Pops, Grann, Ryder and Harper spent an entire morning doing watercolor paintings...

...and Harper made the biggest mess!

The kids shopped for Andrew's birthday presents at their school holiday fair. Harper gave him a football-themed platter, and Ryder bought him a "Dad" keychain that has a little screwdriver set included.

Two of my flannel-clad boys at Ryder's holiday program

Ryder is in the front row in his red and black flannel!

Ryder and Harper's winter break officially started on Monday the 23rd, so we got busy baking some Christmas cookies! Harper helped me make candy cane cookies (her first time!) and both she and Ryder helped make my Grandma's sugar cookies. I even went the extra step and made some red and green frosting so they could decorate the cookies. It was a delicious mess!

Yum!!

Shepherd is into everything now...including my rug!

a Christmas Eve game of Monopoly

Shepherd loves grabbing Andrew's hat and trying to chew on the brim.

Christmas morning! Stockings and Santa bags were left by the coffee table, and the rest of the presents were under the tree.

Look at those sleepy little faces! They listened well and didn't come downstairs until 7am because I didn't want them to wake up Shepherd. 

Shepherd loves his new toys!

My mom got Andrew a pair of Ove Gloves to use with our cast iron pans and when he is grilling, and we both love them!

I'm so glad Andrew bought this foot massager. Shepherd loves it! 😍

It was a wonderful, relaxing Christmas, and we were so blessed to be able to spend time together as a family. For the second year in a row, we didn't go crazy with gifts; I really like keeping things simple and being able to appreciate what we do receive from each other. Now we are gearing up for Ryder's birthday and another new year! 😮