not my gumdrop buttons!

whitney and quinn hosted a gingerbread house making day and it was really pretty fun. it is kind of gross how much candy beckett ate in a very short amount of time, but he was also very dedicated to making an entire roof out of marshmallows. it was impressive... he stayed at the table decorating long after his other friends had abandoned their houses. oh geez... i do just love every christmas activity. every. single. one.

gooey butter cookies

gooey butter cookies are hands down my favorite christmas time cookie. really you could make them whenever... i have no idea why i reserve them for christmas time, but it does make them even more special. the only thing better is my oma's christmas butter cookies... and they are shaped like ducks and i love them most of all, but i have no idea how to make them. maybe one day my grandchildren will wait with excitement for their gooey butter cookies to arrive in the mail. probably. anyways, this year i made a lot (the recipe makes soooo many cookies) and put them in jars and beckett took them to our neighbors. yum. you are welcome neighbors. you should go make some right away. really, why wouldn't you?

gooey butter cookies

garden d'lights

we went to check out garden d'lights at bellevue botanical garden. it's like... you know, a million christmas lights made to look like other things, like dragons and flowers. it was very cold, but beckett thought it was very cool. it is pretty cool. 

how lovely are your branches

once we had a christmas tree, we went extra crazy and decided to decorate it. maybe that was the plan all along. beckett had his annual first eggnog drink (man, he really loves eggnog) and we took lots of cute pictures. here they are. as a side note... i have no idea why i thought it was totally fine that beckett has no pants on. pregnancy brain?

oh tannenbaum

we usually get our christmas tree right after thanksgiving, but saige was slaving away at starbucks... so we had to wait until later in the week and go in the evening. we went to yakima fruit market because it is close and convenient and feels a little more authentic and less sad than a grocery store parking lot. saige's boyfriend, marcello, came with us and he had never been to get a tree before, even though his family does celebrate christmas. i know, craziness. anyways, it was freezing cold, but we picked out a perfect little tiny guy (nobody will be at our house for actual christmas) and i considered just skipping a tree, but matt and saige thought that was a terrible plan... so a baby tree won in the end. it looked extra silly on our big minivan, but i still love it.