Annual Ornament Exchange

Woohoo - another one of my favorite traditions of Christmas; my annual Ornament Exchange Christmas party!  Every year the guest list grows and grows and we have more and more kids join us - it's so much fun!  I had to cancel last year's last minute due a puking kiddo - but we were all over the party this year!

I wish I would've taken more photos, but I guess I was too busy having fun!

As usual, I had too much prepping and setting up for the party...

Crispy

Day 4: Crispy took pictures of his friends...

the boys were pretty excited to see that he really did take a picture when we looked at my camera!

Day 5: Peek-A-Boo in toilet paper

Day 6: Hiding out in our tree...he was a little too tired last night to be more creative I think ;)

Letter to Santa

While waiting for Snowflake Lane to start we hopped into Macy's to write a quick wish list to Santa - I love this set up!

Snowflake Lane

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to Snowflake Lane!  This was the first year that Josh was actually able to join us though - usually his work is always in the way!  We met up with the Dyk's (just like last year) and had Red Robin for dinner, then enjoyed the show together!  The boys had a front row spot to the dancers and Snow Storm band - they.loved.it!  They were even asked to go out and dance with the dancers at one point - they were pretty stoked about that!!

Can't wait to go again year after year!

My cell phone has decided to take really crappy photos - so I apologize for the quality!

Crispy the Elf

Crispy is back...

December 1: He was going over the naughty & nice list in his new chair!

December 2: Elves poop too ya know...they just poop peppermints though :)

December 3: Crispy build a snowman out of Hotwheels!

Stay tuned to see what other kind of mischief or fun Crispy gets into!

Decorating

I LOVE Christmas time & I LOVE decorating for it!  It is definitely my favorite time of the year!

Pretty much in love with the wreath I made - so simple, yet so perfect :)

As per any normal 3 year old...all 100 ornaments must go on one branch :)
Thankfully he didn't notice when I moved them every time he put one on!

He's a LITTLE excited for Christmas this year!  Every year it just gets better and better!

Introducing Clark Griswald Alexander :)

Ok - not quite Clark, but still pretty in my opinion!

 This is a new place for our tree this year and I love it.  But because it's not squished between two big chairs like usual, it looks so small.  I think I'll be on the hunt for a bigger tree during the after Christmas sales this year!

Snow

Snow in November on the west side of the state is almost unheard of, so when there was a prediction for snow last Saturday - I laughed!

Then I woke up to this:

I'm not complaining, I love the snow!  And this snow was the best kind of snow in my book.  It looked beautiful falling, it stuck only to the grass and the streets stayed pretty clear - and it melted within 2 days!  I remember going to school in Ellensburg and getting pounded with snow...I loved it when the season first started, but then it just fell cold and the snow froze and stuck around for.ever! The pretty white snow became gross dirty snow and again, stuck around for.ever!  This west-side snow is more my type!

I drove to pick up the boys and they were so excited to get home and see how much snow we had - they just had a little dusting at grandma and papa's I guess.  This picture above is on our drive back on Hwy 18.  I had to pull over and take a photo, it was just so pretty to me!

The boys couldn't get into their snow clothes fast enough!

Josh and our neighbor Jim keeping warm with some ice cold beers while keeping an eye on the kids :)

I hope this was the first of many snow falls this season - last year we were pretty jipped!