Christmas 2016

This post is about 2 months late.  I would like to blame this on my two busy boys and the giant baby I'm carrying in my womb.  I have been writing a weekly blog post for my boss for a little over a year, I think maybe this has caused me to slack a bit in my personal blog writing.  I am going to make an effort to update my blog regularly.

So if I can get my memory to work correctly we did a lot of fun things over the holidays to celebrate this magical season with Owen and Grayson.

Of course once our elf, Dewey made his debut we knew it was time to let the Christmas fun begin...

 Owen watched a lot of Home Alone to prepare for this holiday season.  I think he perfected his Kevin face...

Our first real event of the season was the Carmel Christmas tree lighting.  We went with Allie and Nolan this year, both of our husbands happened to be out of town and this being one of my most favorite events, I did not want to miss it!

 Reindeer kisses with the elf...

Next we went to the Zionsville Christmas parade, this was our first year experiencing it and I have to say it came a close second to my other favorite event.  Fake snow falling from the town square buildings, hot cocoa, train rides, trolly rides and seeing so many of our favorite characters.  I am not sure why I don't have any more pictures of this night, except this one of my sister and I...

Our first real celebration this year was Christmas with the Drapp family.  They usually come to Carmel and stay for a weekend in December.  We have a nice dinner and open presents while enjoying our time together.  This year we celebrated a little early because Brian and Lauren are getting married the first week of January so they were in full wedding planning mode...

The day after the Drapp family left we had our neighborhood Christmas party at a local pizza place.  Santa came without his beloved Mrs. Clause, she was sick.  Santa still did a great job entertaining everyone but we definitely missed seeing his adorable wife.

It snowed a bit in December, which made me especially happy so of course we spent a lot of time playing in the snow...

 Building snow caves with our neighbors...

Going to Connor Prairie with our friend Hogan to see what Christmas was like on the prairie...

And sledding of course...

The following weekend our elf Dewey packed our bags and left us some very special tickets to go on our first ever Polar Express event....

Funny enough our neighbors, the Bell family and the Grelecki family were given the same tickets from their elves so we all got to go together.

We spent the night in French Lick, Indiana at a waterpark hotel and went on the Polar Express that night.  The boys loved the elves, and the train ride.  It was all very authentic to the book and real to them!

Next we celebrated with the Prather family in Martinsville....

 One of the boys got the Pie in the Face game, I think the adults had the most fun...

The next day was Christmas eve.  We went to mass at our church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  Again due to the huge crowds we were in the gymnasium for this service.  At this point I think unless you camp out in the church Christmas eve morning you don't get a seat for the 4:30 service anywhere but the gym.  We still arrived 20 minutes early and the four of us had to share 2 seats.  Which ended up being Brad in one seat and Grayson, Owen and I sharing another.  I don't think I will have room for another boy on my lap come next Christmas.

We came home, ordered pizza and the boys opened their presents from each other.  Then we left cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer next to the chimney of course...

 Grayson was exhausted and wouldn't cooperate for photos...

 Or for our annual reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, so off to bed he went without reading books that night...

We woke up the next morning and Owen was super excited and could hardly wait until brother woke up to open their presents.

They opened presents, played for a long time and were so thankful for all that they have this year.

Then we left everything behind and set out for our last and final Christmas celebration in Lexington.

When we lived in Lexington we would celebrate with the Majors family every Christmas night.  We really missed doing that since moving to Indiana so this year we decided to go.  We left around lunch time and made it just in time for dinner and playtime with the cousins.

We stayed at a hotel in Lexington and let the boys swim with their cousins...

We even got to visit Kiki for a bit while we were in town...

This was our last Christmas as a family of four and I think we made the most of it.  I can't wait to have our complete family next holiday season.  Now still trying to come up with a name, all suggestions are welcome.  I want something that feels perfect because I just know this rainbow baby will be absolute perfection!