December

12/5

He is fun to shop with.

Again on the shopping.

12/7

I sure did enjoy all 3 of my boys in the dentist seat at the same time.

No cavities!

12/7

Tried out the neighbor's laser lights.

Santa came to the Carmel library for story time.

12/9

Like last year, Auggie followed him as long as possible as he rode away.

Paid off with some Lula's peppermint bark.

12/9

Ugly sweater day at school.

12/11

A late start getting the outside lights up.

12/12

Owen's first campout with the young men was to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

Lucky kid got to camp and hike in the redwoods.

I made him a tinfoil dinner with a lot of love (and butter).

But he ate a bag of Doritos instead.

I brought this taco truck to a white elephant party at the Brown's.

And won it back.

Owen did the same...won back the melting snowman he brought as a gift to a YM/YW party.

12/13

We just like to buy our own gifts apparently.

12/13

Drew has at least 50 selfies on my phone at any given time.

12/16

Getting ready to sing their little hearts out at the school winter concert.

It was cute.

Drew did NOT want to be a part of it this year and I didn't make him. Kind of wish I did.

12/19

Stopped by The Inn at Spanish Bay on Pebble Beach to check out their Christmas decor.

Tes + Sally is always a party.

Their gingerbread display is always amazing.

Sarah can do a lot with a little. Loved her graham cracker house.

12/22

12/23

I took family pictures for the Carters and Drew was my assistant and random dog attracter.

12/23

A crazy day at the aquarium.

12/26

Justin took this on the way home from a college football game he & Drew went to.

12/28

Did a little hiking at Fort Ord National Monument with the Wades.

It was beautiful!

Not beautiful was the choice to go during A's nap time and having to carry him up some major hills.

12/29

Sand sledded/boarded, also with the Wades, at the Marina Sand Dunes.

Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra

Usually we go out for Chinese food on Christmas Day, but we switched it to Christmas Eve this year in hopes of having better restaurant options. Plan failed and this year's food was the grossest yet.

At least we got to Skype Cole on his Singapore mission. 

And had our Christmas Eve nativity.

Christmas Day:

Santa brought science experiments (Mentos/Diet Coke, snow crystals).

Owen reached his step goal for the day using his new watch.

This Christmas season was pretty stressful for me. Shopping wasn't done till very last minute. I was working all month, but it was the working the week of Christmas (with all the kids out of school) that put me over the edge. Just too much got in the way. We did a lot of fun things, and we used the 25 Days of Christ scriptures and videos as our scripture study for the month. We had a great, musical Christmas program at church. But it wasn't until Christmas Day that I was able to just relax and enjoy it all. The kids were happy and grateful. We stayed home all day. And I loved reading this article before going to sleep that night. Wish I had found it sooner in the month. 

Candy Cane Lane

We are walking distance from Candy Cane Lane, an extra festive neighborhood.

We paid it a visit Saturday night to greet Santa, who rode in on his Harley.

Maybe not the most photogenic Santa, but he was a friendly guy.

We heard that just down the street there was another Santa.

So we detoured on the way home to visit him.

It turned out this was a real estate open house.

Super clever of them.

The kids were pretty excited about the free cookies and hot chocolate.

(notice the clarinet player in the background - he was great)

12/19

And now I'm trying to figure out how to get that $1.2 million home.

Christmas Time Is Here

11/30

Thank you Costco, one again for our tree.

Another repeat: 25 days of advent calendar chocolate eaten the first day.

12/1

Enjoying the newly put up tree:

And re-discovering the snow globe.

12/1