Christmas 2013

Well here is my starting place! It's fresh in our mind, we JUST completed all of our celebrations, and 2013 was a great Christmas.

This was our first Christmas in our new house and as a married couple/famly of 3. We had last Christmas to figure out some of the routines, but now on our own we had to make a few new ones, and it's always exhausting when it comes around for a week straight.

We celebrate Christmas with both sides of Dane's family and both sides of my family, all along with work parties, and having time for Brode to celebrate with Matt's family as well.

St. Nick coming kicked off the entire season.

The following weekend we celebrated with Dane's family and had an ugly sweater contest. Dane brought home the coveted "trophy" and we can't wait to pass it along next year.

Weekends continued with more of Dane's family, Brode being a shepard in the church Christmas play, and the day care Christmas concert.

We attended Christmas Eve mass with my parents in our church before going to my grandparents. We had a late night with lots of snacks and gifts but had to get home so Santa could come.

Dane, Brode and I exchanged presents at our house in the morning, then with my parents at their house before lunch. We tired to get Brode some play time as much as we could before we had another gathering.

The day continued with my dad's family at our house and Dane's parents and brother for some dessert and gifts.

Dane and I both went back to work on Thursday, but quickly rushed out to get a skate session in with Brode in the backyard. It was fun to turn on the Christmas music, bundle up, and skate for a few hours.

Friday and Sunday we had a few more Christmas gatherings to see more people, but we did get some down time to rest, open new toys to play with, and hit the snow hill to sled.

I spent a lot of this Christmas thinking about that Walmart commercial with the song that says;
"Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up, won't you stay this little...." and shows home videos of kids on Christmas morning. Brode is growing up so fast and between our work schedules and only getting a few days off together I tried to savor the moment and watch him enjoy it. Before I know it he'll be in Kindergarten and I don't have the choice to pick up him and play whenever I want. The good news is with baby on the way we'll get to do it all again and still have toddlers around for Christmas, but it is a reminder of how fast it really does go!