Is it Christmas yet?

Even though I originally intended to post a holiday summary in the week after Christmas, I am having fun looking at these pictures and re-living the holiday season.  Here's my December 2013 recap.  

As ever, the holiday began with tree day and a visit from Grandpa.  Elijah was so excited he could hardly contain himself…

His shirt says "no mistletoe required", and he has a reindeer on his bum

My dad hit a lot of traffic, so I took the kids in the wagon over to the tree lot around the corner and started picking out a tree and paying for it before he arrived.

Abigail is giving that look to a friendly dog

Dad arrived just as they were trimming the trunk and was able to haul it home while I rolled the kids around the block

Then at home we commenced tree decorating with a tired little baby and an eager toddler to contend with.  I remember a time when he and I would chat about family members and eat dinner at the local Mexican food joint with a margarita.  

Every year is a new experience, which is one of the things I love about our tree day.  One year my little sister and her husband happened to be in San Diego and joined us, another time a neighbor knocked on the door and came in for dinner.  We go with the flow, get the tree looking beautiful, and mark another year past with a little father-daughter time.

Love you, Dad!

The morning after tree day the love affair with the Christmas tree continued.  But almost immediately Abigail refused to leave the tree on in the day time.  As soon as the sun set and the room darkened she would run over and turn it on, but she protested loudly if the tree was lit when it wasn't dark.  Ultimately this was obviously good for energy conservation, but I happen to love spending the early morning hours with the tree lit.

They are so sweet together

As ever, we did a lot of baking in December.  I decided this year that my favorite holiday cookie is gingerbread.  This statement doesn't come easily, as I generally reject desserts that don't contain chocolate as not worth the calories.  But add the perfect frosting and some green and red M&Ms, and these cookies are irresistible.  

The candy cane cookie cutter is like the straight block in Tetris, to be used for space filling whenever needed.

Abigail spent an entire hour putting M&Ms on cookies that I frosted.  It was adorable, and amazing that she didn't just shove the candy in her mouth.

Random adorable photo of Elijah

Cookie decorating with Abigail's play group

Whenever I work with dough Abigail gets a chunk to play with or roll out.  She usually spends a good bit of time manipulating it and ultimately throwing it away, but just before Christmas she was doing such a good job rolling out a circle that I decided to let her make her own mini pie.  She was very excited by the end result.

We almost didn't go to our holiday "fancy lunch" this year.  Jake really had to talk me into it, as I was not keen on the idea of taking Elijah to a restaurant an hour before his regular nap time and expecting to have a good time. I had a laundry list of reasons why it could go wrong, but Jake insisted that it would all be fine and it was important to him to make the tradition an annual event.  I conceded, and Elijah slept in that morning.  We proceeded to have a lovely lunch, during which both our children behaved admirably and the random women I saw in the bathroom complimented me on the little cherub baby I was holding.  I did grab the wrong bag and had to put Elijah's dirty cloth diaper back on him in the bathroom, because I didn't have a new one, but worse things have happened.

Before heading out

The boys

Da da's little girl

Elijah is definitely more interested in eating than taking pictures

This year she didn't pose with her chocolate--she just started eating it

Later in the month Jake took Abigail to a symphony entitled "Christmas Pops".  Everyone had high hopes for the event because Abigail loves holiday music.  She enjoys picking out familiar melodies from instrumental tracks, and she knows dozens of Christmas songs, some of them quite obscure.  Her favorite of this year was "Boar's Head", which we listened to on repeat every morning for an hour or so during breakfast and while I was putting Elijah down for his nap.

Someone loves to get dressed up and was the hit of the symphony intermission

Unfortunately, the song selection was a bit of a disappointment.  They played French carols and songs written for Home Alone, of all things.  Abigail really only got excited about "Carol of the Bells", but she referred to that dress as her symphony dress thereafter.

We had the pleasure of watching Abigail's class perform a little song about Gingerbread cookies this year at her school (last year her class was too young and did not participate).  I must say that the lead-up to this event was far superior to the actual performance.  She sang that song every day, under her breath or loud as can be, depending on her mood.  She was just adorable.  Of course she was great on stage, too, but I couldn't hear her voice and she wasn't as boisterous or hammy as some of the other kids, so at times it was difficult to even see her.  It was fun, but the highlight was definitely in the practicing.

One of the boys was in the restroom the first time they performed, so this was the repeat act

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Jake's family at Barbara's house, which was just lovely.  We were able to spend the whole day together, enjoying the children, good food, and of course opening gifts--man were my kids spoiled!

Abigail and her uncle acting wild with an exercise ball

The Moely and Wiener families, and Charity :) 

Cherry pie and more gingerbread

Then in the evening we headed down to the beach as a family to watch the sunset.

Christmas was a whirlwind of fun and craziness.  We had a great morning at home and then headed out to Riverside.  I have a really bad tendency these days of bringing my camera to Riverside with me and never touching it.  But I did capture some morning moments with the kiddos.

Abigail was obsessed with Santa Claus this year, and a stuffed Santa was  the second most important item on her Christmas list.  So sweet.

Elijah was a little stunned by the whole experience.  He was quietly enjoying some wrapping paper, but his sister didn't allow that to last long as she "helped" him unwrap his gifts.

Here she is in her new Rapunzel dress admiring her villain lip glosses -- it was a happy morning.

This year the holiday was pretty relaxed.  I didn't end up caroling, as the schedule felt impossible with a nursing child to care for.  We missed that aspect on one hand, but it was nice to be on our own schedule throughout the season.  I cherish this time of year for it's warmth, excitement, music, lights, and love.  How fun that we will do it all again in a blink of an eye.  It's almost Valentine's day already, after all.