Oh Blessed Christmas!

Here are some of my favorites...

*stockings*

I think I woke him up from his nap a little too early =o)

It snowed in Hoodsport on Christmas morning! It sure was beautiful but it also held up some of our family. Once they got there were so excited to see them... and open presents! Tavian checking out his new books from Santa.

The next morning we picked up my mom in Seattle & drove home in snow. The pass was requiring chains on all vehicles (except for all wheel drive) so it took a while to get through the check point. I rather enjoyed it though! It was absolutely beautiful! I just couldn't resist taking a million pictures... Snoqualmie Pass The Summit

Near Ellensburg We returned home to Spokane with my mom to celebrate at our place with Monica, TJ & Jen. Quyen assembling Olivia's new hoop from Auntie Mo & Uncle Mike."Sharing." Yeah right! My mom got the kids the cutest towels with their names on the back. We had to test them out. Olivia performed for us in her new princess accessories from Grammy & Granddad. And I saved my favorite for the end. This is priceless! Princess heels, gardening tools and snow. We were all getting dinner when I noticed the front door was open...

Christmas Eve Fun

Olivia & Grammy started the morning off with a little baking... And we ended the day checking out this very cool house in Olympia decorated in all it's Christmas glory. You must see this!

Christmas at the beach

The following pictures were taken on grammy & granddad's deck on Christmas Eve. What a gorgeous day on the Hood Canal!

The next morning we had snow. A white Christmas on the Puget Sound? What a treat!

Merry Christmas to all...

School Christmas Party

Olivia's class had a Christmas party the week before the holiday. They kids wrapped gifts of ornaments they'd created with their pictures on them for us. They got to make cookies and sang Christmas songs for us. It was too cute and I have video to prove it!

RUDOLPH...

JINGLE BELLS...

Giggles!

'Tis the season!

I have always truly loved this time of year. After I met Quyen I fell even more in love with Christmas. He enjoys it as much as I do. His family had the tradition of going out the weekend after Thanksgiving and cutting down their tree and the first year we were together I joined them. We had so much fun that day! We then adopted this fabulous tradition in to our own family after we were married. Decorating for this holiday has always been a fun time for us to spend together and we make a day of it. This year however our kids were very sick and we just could not rationalize trucking them through the woods in the bitter cold wind. So instead we bought our tree at Walmart! I know, I know, I feel like such a sell out! It really is a beautiful tree though. We spent the day decorating our tree, our house and enjoying good food together just the four of us. I feel complete and overwhelmingly blessed! I think I may enjoy this day more than Christmas itself. Olivia is really in to the holiday this year and it is so much fun. We've been watching all of the classic Christmas specials together and she talks about Frosty the Snowman and Santa all the time. She had a great time helping me hang the ornaments (many of which are have her name and/or picture on them and she gets a kick out of that. "Mine mama?") Tavian has been very good thus far about leaving the tree alone but he did enjoy all of the boxes and commotion today.