Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Pennsylvania. We didn't get the white Christmas that I was hoping for, but it is a beautiful day so no complaints. This is the first year that Madeline has really understood the Christmas season so we we were able to enjoy the anticipation of Christmas as a family in a new way. It's so true that Christmas is so much more fun through the eyes of a child. Here's a look at the last month.

We'll start at Thanksgiving, because, well, the Christmas season basically starts on Thanksgiving. This year, we traveled to my Aunt Lesley's house in Syracuse, NY. We didn't get a white Christmas, but we definitely got a white Thanksgiving. We arrived the day before Thanksgiving to about 3 feet of snow in their yard! My Aunt Lesley made a delicious dinner and we enjoyed the company of Sarah, DJ, Grandma Clark, and Aunt Lesley.

Madeline was all about the snow and we came prepared with all of the gear so she was able to get out there and play in it. George and Madeline made this awesome snowman! 

We nailed the automatic timer iPhone group pic :) 

The week after Thanksgiving, we flew to Colorado for our annual ski trip in Beaver Creek. Madeline was so excited to be reunited with her best friends, Paisley and Parker.

 

If you've heard anyone in my family talk about our trips to Colorado and the Timbers, you know about the famous grotto. Here are George and I all ready to relax in the grotto! 

 

Also, the cookies are pretty famous. The way to do it is grab a cookie on the way to the grotto....it's Timbers' protocol. 

 Paisley impressed the entire group with her skills on the mountain. She really took to skiing this year and will be on black diamonds in no time! 

Parker and Madeline enjoyed going up the bunny hill "magic carpet" and then either running down or having someone ski down with them. They did this again and again and again.....and again.

The rest of the family (minus Terrisa since she was 8 months pregnant) hit the slopes. I didn't ski at all last winter since I was pregnant with Luke, so it felt good to get back out there. 

 

 These two were all about riding the elevator and more specifically, pressing the buttons on the elevator. It's a big deal, ya know. 

 The Timbers has a great play/game room so we spent a lot of time in there.

Some family pics before we left...
(note the picture of George and Brian. Haha!!) 

 

 The travel and cold caught up with us throughout mid December. We all got bad colds and the kids were home sick for a couple of days. The good news is that we got it out of the way and we are now healthy. We are heading back to AZ in January for Nick and Shelby's wedding and to see our new nephew, so we must stay healthy. Lots of vegetables and vitamins for us!

We picked out a real Christmas tree at a local tree farm. Three years ago, I picked out a tree that didn't fit in our house. It was a 10 ft tree for a house with 9 ft ceilings. Oops! Ever since, George is very strict with me on the height of the tree. This little "shrimp" as I've been calling it, is actually just right for our apartment :) 

 We did a gingerbread house this year, which I think will become a new family tradition. The three of us worked on it together after Luke went to bed. Madeline is a just tad heavy handed with the sprinkles.

This might be the coolest thing we did this Christmas. Last Saturday, we went to the White House! Way back in August when we first moved here, I sent our a note to our senator's office requesting tickets. They ended up having availability on December 17 so we did a day trip to DC. It was so exciting to see the White House all decorated for Christmas.

Christmas cards from different administrations...

 

After the White House, we explored the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for a couple of hours. Luke and I joined a free tour while Madeline and George went exploring. 

 The Spirit of St. Louis hangs in the their main atrium. 

 This past week, Madeline and I did some baking! She loves to help me cook/bake. In case you're wondering, it's incredibly messy to bake with a three year old. My mom made dough for cut-out cookies when she was here in October and we froze it until this week. We frosted cookies for Santa and daddy. 

The sprinkles in all their glory!

I also made cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy on Christmas Eve. Cinnamon rolls are my favorite Christmas treat! My mom normally makes them for us on Christmas morning so we had to carry on the tradition here in PA. Here is the recipe: 

http://lovelylittlekitchen.com/overnight-cinnamon-rolls-cream-cheese-frosting/

I'm excited to share this video with you all. On Friday night, we went to the Macy's in Center City Philadelphia to hear the Wanamaker Organ. It's the largest functioning pipe organ in the world. My parents and I saw it back in October when they were in town and ever since, I've wanted to hear it played. We both had half days on Friday so we ventured down to the Please Touch Children's Museum, Reading Terminal Market for dinner, and then ended the evening listening to Christmas carols played by the Wanamaker organist. It was ahhhh-mazing. I loved it!

We had a relaxing Christmas Eve. We went to the 3PM service at church and then came back and made ourselves a pizza! It was very low key, but perfect for us. 

It hit me last night that it's Luke's First Christmas! 

Once the kids were in bed, Santa's elves put together the cars that Grandma and Grandpa Lucas got for the kids! 

We had to store them in our bathroom because in a two bedroom apartment, there aren't many places to hide things. 

And the big reveal...

Grandma and Grandpa Warren got Madeline (and Luke) tickets to Disney on Ice. We just got back and Madeline LOVED it. Disney movies and music are her absolute favorite so this was the perfect gift. She sang and danced the entire show. It was so fun for us to watch her. I made a little scavenger hunt to reveal the tickets on Christmas morning :)