Xmas!

How gorgeous is this smiley face?!?!

Elliot reading Santa's letter about  . . . 

. . .  the ski holiday that he gave to our family! I think he's excited!

LEGO with Grumpy

Slot car racing (which led to some pretty great arguments!)

And then Jen brought out my old hair clip and headband collection . . . 

. . . too much prettiness for words!

Happy happy Christmas!!

Biking, climbing, geocaching and just hanging with our cousins

In between all the holiday stuff, we still had plenty of time for some good old-fashioned playing. We biked, and climbed and taught Evan, Claire and Kathryn all about geocaching.

Cara and her bubbies

And in the middle of all of this holiday wonderment, I jetted off to Medford for the day to catch up with Cara and these two little sweethearts. It was awesome getting to see Cara in all of her mama-hood glory and play and cuddle with Ezra and Chloe. We even ventured out to the mall and I got my first taste of an infamous In-N-Out burger. Thanks for the visit, my friend!

Holiday fun

The holiday fun continued with a family matinee of the Nutcracker. I wasn't sure if the boys would stay interested, but they didn't get too fidgety, and I really loved getting to go to the ballet. 

And then there was the Holiday Express steam train ride

Followed by the Christmas boat parade from the windows of the Old Spaghetti Factory. 

And baking up some holiday yumminess. It's no wonder I love Christmas so much!

Zoo lights

After a day to catch up with the family (and the sleep we lacked during the flight), we hit the ground running doing some of the awesome Xmas activities that Jen organised for us.

First stop: Zoo lights at the Portland Zoo. It was bloody cold, but my heart was warm watching the boys running around and checking out all the amazing lights with their cousins. 

Look out USA, here we come . . .

. . . but not before a lengthy layover in Brisbane first. Lucky for us, we discovered a mini-golf course just a free bus ride away from the airport. How lucky is that?!?!

Australian Early-Xmas

Daycare Xmas pageant - the year of Oh Christmas Tree!

Ollie's been singing Oh Christmas Tree (or at least the same two lines of the song over and over) for weeks, and finally we got to see the big result of all that practice!

Elliot, on the other hand, kept his Winter Wonderland medley a bit more under wraps.