Holiday Highlights 2014

Happy New Year! Hope you’ve enjoyed the holidays and that your year is off to a great start so far! I’ve been doing my best to step away from the computer a bit (though not from the camera… or Instagram), so allow me to ease back in with some photos from the break? I admit I sometimes fear these family-photo posts are too self-indulgent, but I love having them to look back on! They’re my favorite.

So, here’s what we’ve been up to since that last holiday re-cap…

We watched lots of holiday movies. The Grinch (the old one) made repeat appearances & we learned that the abominable snowman in the 1964-Rudolph is still pretty scary. We also watched Frozen a couple of times—and listened the soundtrack at least a dozen.

We met with friends for pizza and gingerbread houses. (Sadly, Hudson burnt his hand and I fumbled his on his behalf.)

We felt sorry for him and decorated one at home the next night. And then he got one more chance to perfect his shingle-laying skills later that week.

With so many sweets, we baked fewer cookies this year, but couldn’t pass up our favorite Pecan Puffs.

Train tracks and puzzles kept Hudson busy. Skyler climbed our chairs, over and over. Podcasts of Serial were Aron’s and my preference. (I binged 11 episodes in one weekend so I could catch up and we could listen to the final episode over a bottle of Educated Guess together.)

Everyone busted out ivory knit sweaters.

We learned from our friend Meredith that the trick to getting stubborn kids to smile in group pictures is to tell them to stop smiling.

Or to place Skyler beside them. (I mean, who can be immune to her charm?)

Hudson tried ice skating for the first time, in downtown Sacramento. He found it far too frustrating. Maybe next year…

Aron and I celebrated two anniversaries in December (combined into one): we started dating (for good) 14 years ago and got engaged 9 years ago.

I took the kids over to the Amtrak station and we rode the train into Sacramento. It’s a short walk into Old Town where, every holiday season, they put on “Theatre of Lights”—a retelling of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas. (We had also planned a trip on The Polar Express, but cancelled at the last minute due to storm warnings related to The Pineapple Express, though the warnings were overblown.)

With the much-needed rain came snow in the Sierras and we made a few daytrips up to the snow (it’s about a 90 minute drive to the summit).

First came sledding.

And then skiing!

Hudson swapped “sleepytime” for “quiet time” over the break, and we’re officially still in the ‘yuck zone.’ There were plenty of antics, many involving dramatic drops to the floor.

We took the kids to the Davis Fellow’s Hall breakfast with Santa. Hudson requested “a toy coffee toy” and the “‘Let it Go’-guys” (which we understood to be Anna and Elsa of Frozen).

And the big guy delivered.

With the exception of our dog running away and disappearing for about four hours, it was a great Christmas day—much of it spent with our families. And I felt as mushy as you’d expect about it being Skyler’s first.

And then even mushier yet to think that the year in which she was born was coming to an end.

We wished our two little ones a happy New Year on European time and then celebrated kidless over dinner and drinks with our friends (and slept in until 8am!), all thanks to Aron’s parents, who had both of them over to spend the night! (Woohoo!!)