zoo lights

we went with the pierces to check out zoo lights at the woodland park zoo. it was flippin' cold, but we were prepared and bundled up and got expensive hot cocoa (except pat who had clam chowder because he is a weirdy!) and it was pretty fun. the children were pretty much just humoring us while we looked at christmas lights and nocturnal animals, biding their time until we let them ride the carousel. carousels are pretty great, i guess. after zoo lights we headed back home and made personal pizzas and exchanged gifts, but i'm a bum who took no photos of that. you can imagine in your mind, what that must have looked like. penelope got beckett the game, hoot owl hoot and i highly recommend it. it's a cooperative game, but it isn't super lame like i imagined cooperative games might be. this was our official last christmas activity... bye bye holidays, see you in 11 short months. 

merry christmas!

no time for words... only time for 100 pictures of us dressed like elves. merry christmas, merry christmas!

christmas eve

i love, love, love christmas eve! growing up christmas eve was a way bigger deal than actual christmas evening. also, christmas with two kids? just... i can't even. 

i am trying to figure out our traditions still... but the past few years we have had my oma's beef stroganoff for dinner with egg noodles. it has always been one of my favorite things that she makes. besides her schnitzel... and waffles... and pancakes... and rouladen... and really i like all the things she makes. heath loved it too. just kidding. he had sweet potatoes. 

here are some weirdos taking selfies after dinner. beckett also got to open his last advent sock. i just did candy this year in his socks because geez... with the kindness elves, there was a lot going on. i also wrap all our gifts in the same plain paper and use photo tags to label them. of course beckett sat around counting how many gifts each person had under the tree and comparing his gifts to everybody else's. oh, our little dudley dursley... don't worry, we nipped that right in the bud. 

for christmas we get the boys 5 gifts. something to wear, something to read, something they want, something they need, and something from santa. the something to wear is always christmas jammies and the something to read is a christmas book and they get to open those on christmas eve. they also opened their gifts from aunt saige on christmas eve. she got them books and stuffed animals. 

we made gooey butter cookies for santa, per the usual. did you know that santa looooooves gooey butter cookies? he really does. then we set out some cookies, carrots, and eggnog. beckett put it out by the fireplace and then the boys were so cute and i almost passed out from cuteness overload. 

 having a kid for christmas makes christmas SO much better. having kidS for christmas, i just can not handle it. you can feel the excitement running through the house. and it's not just because heath was going to wake up to this rocking pig!!! that's a big part of it though. obvs. merry christmas eve!!!