Christmastime Adventures

Earrings

I have wanted to get Megan's ears pierced for several months and never got around to doing it -really, I never could get a date set with my mom since I needed her moral and physical support (Matt doesn't care about it, his rule is just that he doesn't want to witness it.) Anyway, I definitely wanted her to have earrings before Christmas so we headed out right after Thanksgiving. As you can see, they're adorable!

Snow

I love letting the girls have fun playing outside in the snow, but I hate the effort that goes into bundling them up. This particular night in early December, we brought the snow inside to us and they were just as happy.

....And Anna did get an evening of the real thing sled riding with Daddy followed by a yummy mug of hot cocoa.


Saint Nicholas

St. Nick visited us on the evening of December 5 so the girls had some goodies in their stockings on the morning of December 6. Matt and I were very happy that he left Toy Story 3 because it made a great movie night for us all. By the way, it is a TEAR JERKER. Oh my - I can't remember crying that hard over a movie in a long time. (I'm already sad about the girls going away to Kindergarten one day, then Andy and his toys made me have to think about college! Really though, it was the sweet friendships between the toys that made me really lose it, not college :)

BUSY December

This December was a taste of wonderful for what lies ahead for the Zumbiel family. Christmastime with a 3 year old and almost 2 year old was unbelievably fun. It is incredible to see the magic of Christmas through tiny eyes that actually "get it" this year. We had the best time visiting local holiday events and spending time with family and friends. We had much on our list that we never got to, but we made some new memories too. For example, we didn't go to Festival of Lights because we were waiting for a "warmer" night (which never came) but we started a new Zumbiel family tradition of going downtown to visit the trains and enjoy a carriage ride.

Our holidays were crazy by most people's standards, but to us they were fantastic. The girls had a blast and we kept the true meaning at the forefront. One of the highlights this year: We were at a hardware store early in the month and Megan saw a lot of Christmas decorations on the shelf. She hadn't really seen any yet and as soon as she looked at them, she broke into her rendition of the Happy Birthday song singing "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus." It was so very cute. It made me smile and I really wanted to bottle up that moment.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Love, Matt, Jennifer, Anna and Megan