Holiday Round Up

December came and went so quickly this year.  I can hardly believe it is over.  There was so much anticipation for Christmas this year, and now that it's over, I definitely have the post holiday blues, but have some great memories to look back on. 

We kicked off the holiday season with a visit from Adam's parents.  Our Disneyland passes were expiring and they hadn't been to Disneyland at Christmas time, so they came down to join us for a Disney weekend.
We had so much fun, and loved having Disneyland passes for a year! 

Disney really does Christmas best!



We got stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean for about 15 minutes, we tried to make the most of it!

 I wasn't very great about taking pictures at any point of the month, I just wanted to enjoy the moments, rather than be stuck worrying about snapping another picture.  But Christmas was a grand celebration!  Truly it was one of the most memorable in a long time.  21 people filled my parents home.  All four of my siblings, plus all our spouses and nephews and niece and having my Grandma visit from Texas was a special treat.  My Mom and Dad truly out did themselves.  We are all so lucky to have a mom who loves Christmas and a Dad who would do anything to make sure everyone is having fun.  What a perfect combination! 

Day 1: Disney on Ice and Cafe Rio - I didn't take any pictures
Day 2: Christmas Eve - Gingerbread house building, adventures in the Papa Jeff's tree house, a stroll through Naples Canals and songs around the Christmas tree.

Nana Carol in the tree house with some of the grandkids

Mia and me in the tree house



2 new nephews, Eli and Seth on their first Christmas!

 Day 3: Christmas! My mom was in charge of the Christmas program at church and did a wonderful job, I loved being able to feel the true spirit of Christmas since it was on Sunday and we were able to take a break from opening presents to go and worship and feel joy of the true meaning of Christmas.    

That said - Christmas certainly was filled with generous gift giving and delicious food and fun! 

Santa came!

Christmas joy!

We couldn't fit all 21 stockings over the fireplace, so we had an overflow

Stockings are my favorite part!

Doing a puzzle with my sweet grandma



The boys playing with Marshall's bug maker that Santa brought.

 Day 4: The men went off to shoot guns and the women stayed home to play with the kids.

Day 5: Our last day before people started heading home.  With a the perfect weather we had we made it down to Seal Beach to play in the sun and enjoy lunch at Ruby's! 

I'll leave you with a little video, because Christmas wouldn't be complete without a Karaoke machine! 

New Year's Eve on the other hand was a quiet night for Adam and me.  We ran 19 miles that morning and didn't want to do anything but sit in our PJs and watch movies and play games, so that's what we did.  We did manage to take a picture in front of our cute little Christmas tree, although it was very dead at this point. 

Thanks for the memories Mom and Dad and all who traveled from far away to make Christmas so special.  Now send me your pictures!  Happy 2012!