Our Christmas celebrations started right after Thanksgiving with a trip to downtown Littleton to see their Tree Lighting parade. It was a bit slow to get going for kids our age (and super crowded), but as soon as Santa came down the street everyone was happy!
This year we saw Santa S.I.X times! I wrote a whole other blog post about them so instead of going through them all again you can read about them here.
This year I went on a mommy/son Christmas adventure with Carson to the Denver Parade of Lights. We went with our friends who live in the neighborhood and Carson had so much fun. We rode the train in to downtown and was able to find a spot up on the curb for the kids to sit! Carson also got a really fun light-up Christmas tree which surprisingly lasted a few weeks in our house.
After our Santa visit at the Streets of SouthGlenn we walked around a bit and enjoyed all the Christmas lights they had up (sorry for all the blurry pictures here...my kids can't be still/I used the wrong camera #amateur).
We had planned to go to Hudson Gardens when Nonni came to town, but because her flight got cancelled from the weather we went a few days later on a very 'warm' Colorado evening. Cooper loved the lights as we knew he would.
Our daycare recently went under new ownership and we were very excited when they announced they would have a Christmas party this year. Reid and I both were able to go and have some fun with Carson (it was just for the older classrooms but we snuck Cooper in for a snowball fight). We went around to 4 different classrooms that had a craft in room. I love seeing how much all the teachers think Carson is the sweetest.
Some time last year we found the perfect old window to hang for a decoration. And when I started to put the first few Christmas cards we received on it, I loved how it looked. I love the way it turned out with more cards we received!
And now for the good stuff :) While we miss being around our family for the holidays, we have come up with a few traditions to start with our own little family. Christmas Eve we enjoyed a delicious Jack Stack dinner and for the first time we made cookies for Santa which the boys decorated. Carson loved putting them under the tree and then reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' with Reid. This was Cooper's first year enjoying some BBQ and he devoured the cheesy corn and burnt ends.
And the grand finale...CHRISTMAS DAY! We all woke up about 7am made our way to the living room for the stockings. The boys were good for the first few things they saw, then just wanted each other toys or Carson was whining about not wanting to open any more. After stockings we started cooking the cinnamon rolls and finished up the fruit salad and opened a few more gifts. Carson loved his crane truck, camera and frog light, and Cooper loved his drums and anything Carson was playing with, lol!
After our breakfast we headed out for an afternoon hike which probably wasn't the greatest idea. We knew it was windy, but had no idea how windy it actually was. The bad luck started just as we were heading up the highway in to the mountains when we got caught in a whirlwind and something flew in to our window leaving a big shatter. We got to the trail and it was so windy getting everyone ready we should have known better, but still went out anyways. Everyone did good for about 20-30 minutes so I'm glad I got our family picture in early. But then the tears set in about being cold and not wanting to walk on the ice and so eventually our 40 pound preschooler rode in the kid carrier and I just carried Cooper probably 1.5 miles. On another note Cooper was a trooper ;) and only started fussing at the end because he was ready for a nap! It's for the memories, right?!
We got home and our day shifted from Christmas to birthday celebrations for Reid. We had our pizza and holiday beer traditional dinner, opened gifts and (this is where Reid's family disowns me) ate an ice-cream cake from Magills. Happy Birthday Reido/Daddy! We hope 31 is filled with lots of love and memories!!
And finally for your viewing pleasure a view of Christmas through the eyes of our new photographer Carson (age 3). 'We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!'
