We Found Santa

Santa came to town, and the kids were way too excited to see him!

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin

I tried to wait. I really did.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever this year. I planned to hold off on the Christmas decorating, so my home could feel all Thanksgiving-y while family came to feast.

I couldn't do it!

Yesterday I pulled all of my Christmas stuff out of the garage, put five trees up, decorated one, and made a huge mess of my house. I still have a LONG way to go until everything is done, which is one reason I like to get an early start. The other reason: CHRISTMAS IS AMAZING!

The kids were so excited to see Christmas stuff everywhere. Cayben said, "I just get so excited! I love this time of year!"

Me too, kid!

Shay and I even had a romantic dance sess while listening to Christmas tunes. Then we finished off our day with a family hot chocolate date, at McDonalds. We're classy like that.

While I was taking this picture...

...this hot chocolate was being dumped into my lap.

Wild Family Selfies

Roller Skating

We got invited to a birthday party for one of Cayben's friends. We like to rock the party and celebrate the birthdays of people we like, so of course we showed up!

The party was at Roller Kingdom, a skating rink that is all too similar to the rink I frequented in my youth. Were all skating rinks built in the same time period and each vowed to never update the rink and especially the skates?

I used to pride myself on being a good skater. Seriously. It's silly, but I've got to grasp for the few things I'm awesome at. Well my sore butt would tell you I no longer hold the title of good skater. Oh well. We still had a wonderful time!

Don't mind the fact that my hair looks like I went swimming in a vat of movie theater popcorn. Greas-say!

Bravery?

I took three beginner skiers to Mt. Rose by myself. Some called it bravery. It was more likely stupidity.

Cayben forgot how to ski from last year. I'm sure it will come back quickly, but for today, he couldn't ski on his own. Embrie had never been alpine skiing before today. Solee has skied once, and she's three.

Embrie's first time making snow angels & first time skiing.

I took turns skiing with one kid at a time while the others waited. It was a beautifully sunny day, so the kids didn't mind waiting and playing in the snow. It actually went really well for a while.

Then Solee said she was ready to go home. Cayben said he was done too. Embrie wanted to go down one more time, but this time she wanted to ride "Flying Jenny" a conveyor belt up a small hill. Cayben and Solee agreed to wait.

I should have trusted my instinct at this point and just went home. Instead I took Embrie up Flying Jenny.

That's one worn out boy.

By the time we were ready to go, the kids were tired and hungry. Walking UP to our Jeep in poofy clothes and ski boots while trying to carry skis was a difficult task. We had some serious melt downs, but we lived to tell about it, so all is well.

So many stairs to walk up to get to our Jeep. This is just part of them.