I can't believe it has been so long since I posted! I am going to attempt to do some catching up.....let's see how well my memory serves me! ;)
I'll start with Halloween....
Raegan dressed as a pirate, and Owen dressed as Tigger. The anticipation of trick-or-treating was almost more than Raegan could bare. She was so excited! Matt came and walked with us, along with Grandma Shari. It happened to be raining on and off that day, so we stayed in our small area of the neighborhood. I carried owen in the front carrier, and Raegan walked with her heavy bucket full of candy! There was no "helping" her carry it. At the end of the night, she had quite the loot. Luckily she is pretty good about sharing it!
Thanksgiving.....
We hosted at our house, per usual. We had most of Jasen's family, along with Meghan and Tarik. Everything turned out delicious! For the first year, I added a pumpkin cheesecake to the dessert menu and it was everything I had hoped....and gluten free of course! The following day Meghan, Raegan, and I did some black friday shopping. Nothing really too noteworthy about that, except that this is the first year Raegan has gone with us, so that was fun. I'm pretty sure R's favorite part was the scone she got at starbucks....which is our FIRST stop on black Friday shopping morning!
8th Annual Christmas Party....
We celebrated our 8th annual Christmas party at our house. With a 3 year old and an infant, I was ready to pull the plug on the whole thing about a week out. Besides, we had recently hosted a Packers Football party, AND Thanksgiving. I was partied OUT! But, Jasen insisted, and encouraged me. We downsized the prep and the menu. Meg and I did all of the cookies over Thanksgiving and then froze them. The only hitch was the oven going out 2 hours before then party, when I went to heat up the spinach and artichoke dip! So, Jasen cooked it on the grill....and all was well....except the $400 bill to actually fix the oven later. Ugh.
Christmas.....and Dad's 60th Birthday Party....
The kids, Jasen, and I went back to Illinois this year BEFORE Christmas so that we could be there to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. We threw a huge party for him at the press club, including catered appetizers, and keg. The theme of the party was "Timeless" so we enlarged about 30 photos from his childhood to mid 30s and hung them around the room. We also added a current event or pop history fact about that year. Per our request, many of the guests also sent in favorite memories or stories about Dad. We read several of them as part of the toast. All in all it was a really wonderful party!
We celebrated Christmas with the Trutter's on December 23, and of course the kids ended up with suitcases full of toys and gifts! In all, we brought back 6 bags of stuff. I'm still trying to organize it all now! We are very grateful and blessed. :) Instead of the traditional homemade dinner that Mom makes for our Christmas, we went to Lake Pointe Grill. I think we were all just too worn out from the party planning. And, as a mother of 2, I totally understand going to a restaurant for the holidays now! We had a great visit with my whole family, even Lindsey and Trevor were there! We enjoyed the party planning, eating out, and hanging with family! It was a great trip! We got a small amount of snow, just enough for sissy to make a snow angel (according to her)! We miss everyone already :(
And as if that wasn't busy enough, we then flew back to California and celebrated our Christmas traditions here. This was of course Owen's first Christmas and he enjoyed all of the boxes and wrapping paper! He surprised us all by crawling for the first time on Christmas Day! Next, we went to grandma Shari's where we opened presents, ate a delicious meal, and celebrateed with the Smith family!
No comments:
Post a Comment