Christmas Traditions

Christmas is undoubtedly my favorite season of the year. Now that we have the boys I love fitting as much Christmas-y stuff into the month as we can. I hope they grow up loving this time of year as much as I do!

Since James and I have been together we have started a few Christmas traditions of our own and incorporated ones from our childhoods; watching a Christmas movie Thanksgiving evening, Santa brunch, driving around looking at the Christmas lights, throwing our Christmas party, going to Longwood Gardens and gifting the boys a new Christmas book each week leading up to Christmas. This year we added two new activities to our busy month of December but we will absolutely we making them traditions for years to come.

Building a gingerbread house. As I was walking around the craft store I noticed these and thought Chase would love this idea, and turns out he did! We did it in stages this year. One evening we built the house and let it set and then we decorated it a few evenings later. The kit I picked up was very involved but we kept it simple this year by skipping the fondant.

Each day Chase oo's and ahh's over his house and I can't wait to see the creations that the kids come up with as they get older.

Santa Train

Everybody who knows our boys, know that trains are everything to them so when I heard about a Santa Train that runs about 15 mins from our house I knew we had to do it! It was a hit with everyone, not just the boys. It was a 2 hour train ride that included letter writing to Santa, cookies and hot cocoa, Christmas caroling and a visit from the jolly red guy himself. The train cars were beautifully decorated and were so ornately preserved. Chase was a little shy of Santa a first but warmed up and even gave him a high-five. Asher on the other hand, not so much a fan.
After this event we are all in the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving 2015

It's the middle of December and I'm just getting around to writing about Thanksgiving, a little behind on things, but that's what 2 kids and a husband with a crazy work schedule will do.

Thanksgiving was perfect; our family was together, we ate yummy food and shared many a laugh. We had a full house with Mom and Bill, Dad, Jen and the girls, and David, Amber and Annalise.

We have so much to be thankful for, but family easily tops the list. Without them and the love we bring into each other's lives, it would be a boring and quiet life.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015!

Winterthur in November

We got to spend an unseasonably warm day in November with Anita and the kids at Winterthur. It's hard to get all of us together with hectic schedules so we jump at any chance to spend time with them. The boys adore Jenna and Justin and I love seeing them grow closer and forming relationships. It's funny to see how Jenna pairs off with Chase and Justin with Asher.

 

I had never been to Winterthur before but after this visit we will be back. The grounds were huge and so many gardens to see but the main attraction was the children's garden. I can see us spending many days there, in the Spring and Fall especially. 

California stole our hearts

When asked if myself and the boys would like to join James out in California (he was out there for business) there was no way we could turn the opportunity down. California has always been on our list of places we would like to see; James has never been. I have been to southern Cali but never San Fran. It also is the first vacation we have taken just the four of us.

Let me start by saying we fell in love with California and will absolutely be going back in the future. The climate, the outdoor lifestyle, the laid back approach to life are all things we ate up during out time there.

We stayed in the town of Campbell, just outside of Santa Clara and San Jose. Adorable little town with the best breakfast place called Stacks. Even the boys approved as they were served Mickey Mouse pancakes both mornings.

Our trip was brief (Friday to Monday) but we packed a whole lot in. I traveled by myself with both boys and we had a layover. The boys did so well but about 7 hours into the trip they were done. If it had been a direct flight, there wouldn't have been any break downs or tantrums but we managed. We grabbed dinner in downtown San Jose and headed to the hotel as everyone was exhausted.

Yay for jet lag..Asher was wide awake at 3am, the up side was we skipped any lines at breakfast. Saturday we headed to Santa Cruz, a beach community. After spending the day there, it is a wonder I got on the plane to head home. We all know I'm a beach bum and that town just screamed my name. We spent some time on the beach and had a paddle in the freezing water. We then checked out the pier, or wharf as the locals called it and watched the seals and sea lions. While the boys took a nice nap James and I drove a along the coastline and then into Big Basin Redwood State Park. The trees there was unlike anything I've ever seen and the smell was divine. I so wish I could have bottled it and bought it home.

Sunday was spent the day in San Francisco. We took a bus tour, which while it was nice was a tad long while having the 2 boys with us. I kind of wished we have toured the city by ourselves but there is always next time. We did get to go over the Golden Gate Bridge and the views were astounding. The photos I took do not do it justice. We were sat on the top of the double decker bus for the tour and it was open air. The boys were loving sitting up there, until we got onto the highway and were going 55mph across the bridge! It was a tad windy and Asher completely lost it lol. We did the rest of the tour from the inside of the lower level bus.

We ended our time in San Francisco by having a nice dinner on Pier 39 at sunset to celebrate James passing his CCIE. He has been studying for this certification for the past 4 years. We have all sacrificed by lack of time as a family together so its an unreal feeling to know we have the main man in our lives back full time.

Halloween 2015

We had such high hopes for Halloween this year, unfortunately it ended up being a bit of a doozey. Both boys came down with the worst cold and cough they have ever had the beginning of Halloween week and is only just starting to ease up now!
Chase missed his Halloween parade and party at school. The day of Halloween James got stuck working all day and didn't make it home until 8:30pm and so didn't even see the boys in their costumes. I wasn't planning on letting Chase trick or treat at all because of how sick he was, yet the moment our doorbell started ringing with the neighborhood kids, he begged and begged to go. Because I'm an awesome (sucker) Mum I told him we could his a couple of houses and head home. So we threw on their costumes, piled in the wagon and off we went to a whopping 4 houses. He had a blast, and I so wanted to let him keep going on down the road but the coughing started and so we headed home, put on pjs and climbed into bed.

But the costumes, hands down the best yet. I think I'm going to dress the boys in them from time to time because they are so ridiculously handsome in the Top Gun outfits.

 

Maverick and Goose

Can't handle the cuteness