Christmas in C-ville

We had a great time in Centreville for Christmas.  We did puzzles, and ate good food and had a great time with everyone.  This year Addie actually got into the big puzzles and was able to really help.  I was surprised how long she sat there with Kim looking for pieces. 

Jason and I went out for our anniversary while we were there, and Jeff and John did a lot more than they probably wanted to.

We had a great time and forgot to take a lot of pictures.  So here are the random ones that we took:

Pajama Travel

One thing we decided to do to cheer ourselves up about not getting to Virginia until right before Christmas was to wear our Christmas pajamas on the plane.  It was Christmas Eve afterall.  So, we opened them in the morning and wore them all day.

 

The little guys got a ton of comments about their cute outfits.  One of the flight attendants even suggested that Dexter get out and push to help us get there faster.  Everyone loved the cape.  No one said anything about my cute outfit.  Rude.

Geese and Blizzards

So this is somewhat random, but I thought it was cool.  When we first moved on Goose Lake Circle, I thought that was a silly name.  I mean, really.  The 'lake' is more like a big pond, and are there ever really any geese on it?  The answer is a definite yes.  And, I know that they're just geese and probably not exciting to anyone else, but I find it so cool that every year in the fall we have lots of geese on our little body of water.  We hear them passing over-head the whole season long.  This year, it started to get crazy.  I looked out our front window and there were literally hundreds if not thousands of geese landing on the lake at the same time.  The sky was full of them.  Later that morning we drove past and the whole lake was full of geese.  So we decided to get the camera and walk back.  By the time it took us to get back, there was not even a tenth of what had been there before:

 

 

We were very sad but took pictures anyway.

There were a ton of geese for several days, and then we got hit with a blizzard.  They must have known it was coming.  We wished that we had known when we were booking our flight to get home for Christmas, because we instead were not able to get there until Christmas Eve.  So we played in the snow for a couple days.

It's Christmastime!

After we got home from our trip we decided it was time to get in the Christmas spirit.  So we got out all of our stuff (we've got quite a bit for our little family) and started decorating.  Here are some pictures of the festivities.

 

 



Look at that perfect cowlick right in the middle of his head.

 

Jason saw Addie doing something weird with the Nativity pieces and asked what she was doing.  She said she was putting them to sleep.  It's hard to see, but you can make out the outlines of the ones that are all the way past her knee in her pants.  I'm not sure why she thought that would be a good place for them.

Thanksgiving 2012

This year for Thanksgiving we headed to the windy city to visit some of our Christensen cousins.  We had a really great meal and wonderful company.  Based on the first few hours, we thought that Addie and Braden were going to be the best of friends.  They played great, but also seemed to bring out the contentious in each other.  After thinking about it, I think it was just two strong-willed oldest children at a 'fun' stage.  Anyway, we still had lots of fun.  We went to their ginormous mall and even visited Santa and we also went into the city which Addie and Andres thought was awesome.

 

These two guys are just a few weeks apart and spent the weekend crawling all over the place.

This picture kind of shows how most of the time was - Addie and Braden being goofy and crazy and Andres . . . just . . . there.

The whole group (sleeping Dexter's foot can be seen in the stroller on the left) in front of Santa's wonderland.

In front of the Cloud Gate (we called it the big bean) and I love this picture because I couldn't get Braden to stop dancing because he was so cold - so funny!

Love those faces.

We had so much fun exploring a little of Chicago with this bunch!

The whole family (even though Addie and Andres have no clue) on the streets of Chicago.

We went to a German Christmas market that they had downtown and it was very nostalgic for me and Jason.  The cold, the crowds, and full of Christmas cheer.



Thought I'd end the post with this fabulous picture.  It reminded me of a Christmas Story.  He didn't like being in the suit until we hit the cold, then he didn't seem to mind a bit.  He was probably the warmest of the whole bunch.