Merry Christmas!

Despite not being able to be with our families for Christmas, we've had a wonderful holiday here in beautiful, wintery SoCal.


There was snow...

and presents....

and an obscene amount of Christmas cookies ;)

ok I admit, it wasn't very wintery. It was in the mid-60s and sunny the past few days ;) but we tried our best to make it feel like a Northeast winter.

Christmas Eve we made our big family dinner then hit the slopes at our neighbors church. Her dad is the pastor and he brings in a big truck of snow from the mountains and they create some sled hills for the kids to enjoy.

The twins got to ride down the little slope with daddy. I didn't think it was the best idea for me to do, being 35+ weeks pregnant and all ;) they had hot chocolate and cotton candy and all kinds of treats for everyone so we had a fun time hanging out for a bit on a beautiful sunny (not at all blustery or cold) afternoon.

We then ran home to change and hit up Christmas Eve mass at the base.

After talk the day before of where all the overflow rooms would be for the early evening mass at our regular church, we opted for the smaller base church to avoid the crowds, not getting a seat, and having to show up 2 hours early to even get in the church. I'm glad it's such a big church and there are so many people, but holidays aren't the best for that ;)

Luckily, the twins were pretty worn out when we got home so there were only a few threats of Santa not visiting them while we put them to bed. Then Tom hit the living room to get out all the presents and finish putting a few things together. He was excited to watch Scrooge (his family's tradition) and it was the first year we had to "hide away" presents so the twins wouldn't get into them before hand ;) so we felt like quite the grown ups. After many cookies and some hot chocolate, I went off to bed and let Tom finish putting together the cardboard blocks ;)

Finally, it was Christmas morning :)

 We attempted my family's "stair picture" of the kids waiting to run downstairs for presents. It didn't go so well. My children don't sit still...ever.

 Then it was time for presents. Once they warmed up to it all, they were really excited.

They loved all their gifts. Considering Tom and I bought them 4 things total, they sure did make out with lots of great presents. I know 2 little babies very spoiled by their grandparents and uncles ;)

After presents and skyping we ate our traditional Christmas breakfast. I had woken up early to make the aebleskiver so it was waiting for us in the oven when the presents were done :)

Our last Christmas activity was lunch and hanging out with friends from church. A couple with grandkids the twins age invited us over to their house and we knew the twins would have fun playing. The couple's older daughter and her 2 sons actually go to preschool with the twins so we already knew each other :) (random because the parents invited us over, not knowing we knew any of their family already haha) The twins played, we ate and hung out, and had a fun afternoon.

Overall, it was a very busy and exciting Christmas. Very different from last year. The twins don't understand the whole Santa story, but they sure do get new toys, opening presents, food and of course cookies. I know next year will be even crazier. The twins will probably be a lot more into it and we'll have a new baby to share the holiday with! Tom has off work for another week so we're going to enjoy some quiet family time and relax. Probably our last chance to relax before baby 3 makes his/her debut in just a few weeks!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a safe New Years! Maybe next year we'll get to go home for Christmas...