Allen Extravaganza

Allen Extravaganza!  Such a fun day out of the year.  This year was a bit different because instead of having Allen Extravaganza for a couple days, it was just 1 day.  We started out the day with Breakfast at our house & then headed out for some good old fashioned ice skating.  London was so much better than she was a year ago.  She loved it.  Even tho she had blisters at the end, we had no idea because she just wanted to skate so hard the entire time.  Penny started out in the stroller & then ended up just running around on the ice with her shoes & a skater helper.  It was the cutest ever.  Blake had some serious moves & we all decided to reenact the utah blades.  I felt privileged to be a part of it this time-but only because Lynsi wasn't able to make it & I got to be Lynsi's part.  It's always a trip down memory lane when I go ice skating with Blake since that is what we did on our very first date. 

After ice skating, we went to Lee's and dodged the heck out of each other & bought our food gift items.  Bluebird was our lunch choice which most of us regretted because the food was not very good.  We ended the night by playing games & spending time at Blake's parents house.  It was perfect.  I love Allen Extravaganza!

Christmas Day 2016

London literately fell over when she saw what Santa brought her.  It was the cutest thing ever.  Gosh Christmas morning brings tears to my eyes every single year.  It's so magical & the best gift I could ever receive is watching my kids Christmas morning.  It's magical, it's spiritual, and it's absolutely the highlight of my whole entire year.  It was a barbie Christmas for my girls & they loved it so much.  I love watching them take out each stocking stuffer and unwrapping each present.  It's simply the cutest.  Penny got her much asked for bike from Santa & she was so happy about it.  Church landed on Sunday this year & it was perfect.  I love going to church on Sunday because it really sets the mood.  It was refreshing to sit & listen to the Christmas program.  After church, we headed out to my parents house & spent time with family.  Later that night after kids went to bed, we had all the Allens over for games & we were able to include Lynsi through face time.  It was so much fun. 

I wanted to write about how cute Christmas Eve was with my girls.  When we heard santa's bells that night, London was so intent on going to sleep and actually got a bit angry about going to sleep right away and not reading a story.  Good thing Santa's sleigh broke down in Richmond so that we could get a story in.  Christmas Eve is simply the best!

Silent Night Dinner

My most favorite Christmas tradition that I have started by far.  It's such a special night.  I look forward to it all year long.
We invite some of our family members over for dinner at our house (usually 4 different people each year since our house is small & we cannot fit many people). Everybody dresses up fancy & we have dinner by the light of candles, the Christmas tree, and Netflix fireplace-with Christmas music playing of course. I send out about 10 questions a few days before the dinner so that everybody has a chance to think about each question. The questions include stuff about the year-what was the best thing that happened to you this year? What was a spiritual experience you had this year? The most challenging thing about the year? A New Years resolution? Etc.  We all take turns discussing each question during dinner. Then after dinner, we each grab a candlestick & we read the Christmas story in Luke:2 by candlelight. It's the perfect evening to remember the reason for the season.

This year I invited Amy + David and dad + patty.  It was perfect.  It was so refreshing hearing what everyone said about their year.  One of the questions I asked was what is your favorite Christmas song & I absolutely loved Blake's response.  He said his was oh holy night because of the phrase fall on your knees.  I had never really thought about that phrase before.  I will know and it might be one of my very favorite songs now too.

A play day in December

I was able to s l o w down for a bit this December & just follow my babies around with my camera.  It's important for me to capture the way they play.  I love this time of my life & I want to look back on these pictures in 10 or 20 years and have all the memories come rushing back.  Capturing my babies playing just the way that they do makes my heart so happy.  I will forever cherish these photos & I'm so glad I decided to grab my camera to catch these.  Some of my favorites things I will remember from these moments + pictures are:
-The constant playing with the Christmas tree train & playing polar express on it with all their characters.
-London coloring
-Penny playing with her babies & pushing them around in her stroller.
-The way they play with one another & how London helps her little sister.