The Holiday Season

I can't believe it's almost the end of January and I'm just now getting to our holiday season wrap up!

Some day I'll catch up 😉

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. My sisters are really good about getting pictures of my mom with her grandkids!

Even though it was Thanksgiving, my house was decorated for Christmas and we did gingerbread houses! 

We had a few early snow storms that brought lots of FUN.

Kendry & I had played hooky from school and had our own little snow day. I love my days with him!

We kicked off December with our North Pole breakfast and our elf, Buddy, came to hang with us!

Every year when I do North Pole breakfast, I give the boys matching pajamas and an ornament that somehow represents something about their year. We then hang up the ornaments on their "kid" tree, and then they get in their matching jammies & then pictures turn into a wrestling match haha 😜

Friday night dinners out with my family. I love all 4 of these boys!

Kendry had a Christmas program that was so sweet. It was our official last preschool Christmas program. All of these "lasts" with Kendry are bittersweet!

He wanted to be Santa but was missing the beard. Thankfully his daddy came to the rescue and made him a beard from Kleenex :) 

I have so many sweet pictures from our days together. I'm really soaking in these days.

We took in all the Christmas lights we could...

we visited Santa...

and got to decorate & eat giant cookies!

The boys were in school until the 23rd and then they had their "first day of break" sleepover! They love it and I hope it's a memory they'll always treasure. 

We made lots of Christmas goodies...

went to Christmas Eve service dressed in our best ;) 

and remembered the real reason for the season.

The reading of the Christmas story on Christmas morning 💓

Benny got a sweatshirt this year & I think it was Maddox's favorite gift hahaha.

A couple days after Christmas, we had some of Nate's family, who were visiting from Brazil, stay with us for about 2 weeks. We had SO MUCH fun!!! I miss them :) We spent lots of time hanging out, went with Nate's dad's whole side of the family to camp for a few days, we went sledding & ice skating, snuck in a double date night & even a really special cousin dinner. 

It was a really special Christmas season for us and I'll forever treasure all of the family time with both of our families. 

New Year's Eve was spent with my family for Christmas and then we came back here to put the boys down, and hop in the hot tub with a few friends & family to watch the ball drop. It was a really great way to finish up the year & think about what we want this coming year! I don't have many pictures because I was living in the moment & also, hot tubs are not good for phones & my clumsy self! haha.

It was a beautiful, fun, & relaxing Christmas season and now that it's over, I'm ready for my birthday and then summer haha! Unfortunately, we live in northern Indiana so we will have many more weeks of cold snowy weather :) We are going to make the best of it!

xox,

Naomi

Christmas 2021

Christmas 2021 and the rest of the holiday season was a good one! The week of Christmas felt busy with all the fun activities, kids home, double checking the lists, etc. The week between Christmas and New Years was full of doing nothing and it was beautiful! Nate had the week off so we woke up late, hung around, played with the kids' new toys, read a lot, watched holiday movies, snuggled, played games, and just spent a lot of family time together at home. We don't usually get that and it felt really nice to spend that time together to wrap up the year. We talked about some of our goals for the next year and some of our favorite parts of the Christmas break. We are starting this year off with rested minds and I'm looking forward to a great year. We are planning some trips, hopeful for covid to chill out, and ready for sports and fun activities to kick in again. Here's a quick look over our Christmas Bucket List and the ways we celebrated the season. 

We kicked off December with our North Pole Breakfast. It was made into a brinner this year because of scheduling, but it's always a good way to start it all off!

The boys got matching jammies and wore them while they decorated their tree in the upstairs loft. 

We visited the Fernwood Botanical Gardens with friends

We drank hot cocoa after snow ball fights...

We built a snowman...and then drank more hot cocoa ;)

we did our yearly driving around and looking at Christmas lights

made lots of Christmas cookies

and went ice skating with my family.

we watched lots of Christmas movies and went to the threatre to see Sing 2 (which is SO cute)!

We decorated gingerbread houses with friends, went to the downtown Christmas parade, and watched Kendry at his Christmas program (so.stinkin.cute.).

The boys' Papa & Cici took them to see the zoo lights while Nate & I celebrated a friends wedding...

We visited Santa, of course, and read lots of Christmas books...

we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, which is a favorite of mine every year!

Christmas day was filled with lots of fun family time and the joy of gifts :) 

We read the Christmas story and prayed and this is what the boys looked like during the prayer...haha.

New Year's Eve was spent at another wedding and at midnight we were at a friend's house with some of our very favorites, welcoming in the new year. 

2021 was a YEAR...but it was pretty good to my little family. I'm ready for more JOY this year and ready to see what all is in store. 2022, here we go!

xox,

Naomi