It all happened so fast- both the year and also the Christmas season. After so many years of parenting, this year felt like I finally had it down. We made a list of important traditions, planned parties and celebrated with everyone we loved.

We kicked it off with our Christmas card and mailed them the night before Thanksgiving. Planning was involved because for the second year in a row, Brendan was cast as the Boy in The Velveteen Rabbit. It’s such a special show and has quickly become part of our holiday celebration (and our friends and family too!).

We hosted my mom’s family Christmas Party (and it snowed!!) and the O’Brien’s hosted their friends’ party. Both were a lot of fun to see people.

The Enchanted Village is always a favorite tradition. This year we went on December 23rd. There was no one there! There was no line for the Enchanted Village or ice skating. By the time the boys finished skating it was time for the Polar Express. It was a great day! Separately the boys also humored me and visited Santa.

Christmas Eve was the Christmas Pageant. It was Brendan’s last year in the Pageant (he also sang) and it was also Emilee’s first pageant- she was Baby Jesus! It’s so much fun having a new baby in the family.

Christmas Day we spent time with family. We stayed in PJs most of the day (again they humored me and wore matching ones!), enjoyed each other and our families. We even had Chinese food as Christmas dinner!

And then our adventure  began….