ChristSMITH Recap!

Happy New Year friends and family! You should know that as I'm typing this, I'm currently "working" on 2 of my New Year's Resolutions. 1- Blog more. (Check!) 2- Try a new recipe from one of our cookbooks each week... currently Chris and I (well mostly Chris) are whipping up a new pasta dish. I'm sitting on the counter drinking wine and typing while he cooks. It's a win-win...(Check!)

I just thought I'd do a quick post to recap our holiday season. It was SO much fun this year with both boys. Sure, holidays can be stressful, but it was so neat to see Christmas through Brady's little 2 1/2 year old eyes. He loved anything revolving around Santa, lights, presents, and "Jingle Bells." Nolan was mostly interested in anything that he could put in his mouth (the boy completely mastered the art of finger foods this past month and hasn't looked back since.)



Littlest man was quite fascinated with Christmas lights and SO wanted to eat them!

I made it my mission to fill my advent calendar with treats and activities for Brady and documented each day on Instagram. Some of the things we did were; pet a live reindeer, visit a Christmas tree farm, ride the Santa Express train, and had a Polar Express party with his friends. Here's some of our advent activities that I documented...



Riding the Santa Express! Brady wanted to hurry up and get this Santa picture over with so he could get back to looking out the window.



Polar Express Party with our playgroup pals. PJ's, cookie decorating, food, book exchange, and the Polar Express movie!



Brady picked out a present to put under the giving tree at school for one of our advent days.

  

 

Movie night! Popcorn and the Elf on the Shelf movie.

Speaking of Elf on the Shelf...this gal (Pixie) made an appearance every day during the month of December.



Our Christmas season was exceptionally special because we had visits from my mom (over Christmas week) and dad and step-mom (over New Year's week). The kids were completely spoiled and it was a blast to see them go from gift to gift and spend time with their grandparents. It's hard to believe that Nolan's 1st Christmas has already come and gone. Where has the time gone?!

This was Brady's face the exact moment he saw the train set that Santa brought him!

I think he could have just fallen asleep watching Thomas...

My mom with her grandbabies

I couldn't have gotten a more "Nolan" picture.

Now that January is here (usually my most detested month of the year) and the holidays are behind us, I'm actually looking forward to this new year. It feels like a fresh start and a good excuse to get organized, simplify some things in our life, and just make the most of our moments as a family. As I mentioned before, we have a few New Year's Resolutions we are working on. I'm going to attempt to blog more (per request of family members who want to keep up with our far too long distance boys), we are trying new recipes each week (we have tons of cookbooks, need to put them to good use!), we are de-cluttering (we WILL be ready for the neighborhood garage sale this Spring), and we're re-joining our rec center (those Zumba classes won't know what hit them!) We hope everyone had a great holiday season and that 2014 is full of amazing blessings for you and your family!