December Things

We had a pretty exciting December this year! We kicked off the month by decorating the house & putting up our Christmas tree.

We LOVE our Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments & this little ham had a ball putting them on the tree:)

We are lucky enough to have a fireplace again but this baby is a gas fireplace & fires up nicely without smoking us out! Yay! For some reason we've accumulated a lot of stockings over the years so the kids have plenty to choose from each year. This year Dylan decided to go with the red snowflake stocking &Claira went with the classic Care Bear.

There was a Creche Festival at church so we went to enjoy all the pretty nativities & the beautiful music

Can you believe someone made this by hand?! So cute!

We got a little silly with the hot pink vampire teeth:)

playing dress up in costumes that are 3 sizes too small:)

We made sugar cookies & had a blast decorating them for Santa! Unfortunately we made the cookies a week before Christmas so Santa was out of luck in the cookie department, they were gone, gone, gone! Mmmmm:) I just noticed that my kids are always wearing "nightgowns" aka my old shirts that they now use for pj's. We make them wear these anytime we're doing something messy...dying easter eggs, when bright colored frosting is involved...etc. So that explains their lack of clothing during these types of events:)

The finished product! Aren't they FUN?! The peppermint wheels were Dylan's idea, you gotta have wheels on a truck cookie!

We went to Disneyland on Christmas Eve with Ben's parents, his Uncle Glenn & cousins! We had SUCH A BLAST! It's awesome when you go with a big group, I love how crazy everyone gets on the rides:) I was super bummed that I completely forgot my camera at home for that but here are some Disneyland pictures from another day (we have annual passports so we get to go all the time!)

Ben was in charge of getting pictures of Christmas morning so this picture is pretty much it. Ha ha! Grandma & Grandpa Miller were with us so it made Christmas morning so special!

After presents we sat down for our traditional Christmas breakfast! I made a fresh fruit salad along with a little egg dish we have named Christmas Breakfast Bake because I usually make it every Christmas morning:) Yum!

On Christmas day we headed up to Ben's aunt's house in Santa Barbara & spent the day playing games, visiting, laughing, & eating delicious mexican food! Once again I was having so much fun that the camera didn't come out! We stayed a few days at Ben's parents house & I had a huge get together with some of my besties from high school! It was so much fun! From left to right: Jenae, Lucinda, J.T., Meaghan, Bekah, me, & Kasey. I love these guys!

I got to hang out with my sister Ashley, her boyfriend Arturo & my nephew Vinnie

We HAD to have a little DDR showdown. I think she won. Look at those game faces!

Ben vs. my mom!

We wrapped up the year & started the new one with a quiet party at home. We ate lots of chips, dips, and of course drank martinelli's & settled in for a quiet night with just the four of us & watched movies. Ahh, it was great!

Happy New Year everybody!