It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

We get really excited for Christmas around here.  Craig begins playing those special tunes and decorating as soon as he possibly can.  We love it.  But I don't usually manage to blog a single thing about it until the middle of January.  So for what is probably the first time ever, here are a few pictures of our pre-holiday celebrating!!!  There will be many more to come as Craig's family rolls into town and we REALLY begin partying Smith do-stuff-every-single-day style!

But here's what we've already been up to:

Ryder climbs into the Christmas tree box, making it now look like a coffin.  Happy Holidays!

Colton's first look at a Christmas tree: absolute magic.  Baby's first Christmas is special no matter how old that baby is, but there is something fun about having a baby old enough to get excited about a glowing, ornamented tree!

Followed quickly by Colton's first try at grabbing ornaments off the tree.  They've all been moved to higher ground now.

Then Colton proceeded to get into a wrestling match with the tree skirt.

It was touch and go for a while

Yes, he actually did this to himself.  We did not pose him.

I think he finally beat it, fair and square!

Peace, good will towards men.

And women.

The finished product!

Let it snow!  And let school be cancelled!

I love that the kids put an extra carrot in his stick arms, looking like a fat cigar or something.  But if you start to really think about it, it gets weirder and weirder: he's holding an extra nose????  Creepy...

And what's Christmas without a white elephant gift exchange?  I got this treasure.  The kids are afraid of it.  I'm kind of afraid of it, too, actually.  Craig took it to school and plans to make a sign that reads, "Unruly students will be fed to Lenee."

We busted out our soft and cozy jammies.  And napped in them.

{Sigh}

Bentley got to ride the Santa Train with his friend Liam (and Liam's big sisters)

Craig did a heck of a lot of baking.  Featured here: spritz cookies, bark, triple chunk cookies, gingerbread man, fudge, and salted caramel Rice Krispie treats.  Most recipes can be found on my recipe blog!

We had moments of brotherly love (and notice all the snowflakes in the background!)

Colton turned 9 months old, and got to have his portrait done!

I was beyond excited when I found this outfit for him-- he looks like he could be in Newsies!

Rocking the backwards hat look, even as a Newsie.

And just because I can't resist...

We also attended the Cub Scout Christmas party.  Here Grandma helps Ryder with a sticker nativity set

Kendra is hard at work on hers, too.

And Bentley and Peter, of course!

I was experimenting with holding Colton in the Ergo on my hip.  I think I may need to watch the video again, though...

Grandpa also helps out

Three of the four went to see Santa.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get that dumb scout out of the background!

Afterwards, Kendra wanted to have a few words with Santa without those pesky brothers around

Too precious.

Colton clapping his hands and other general merriment.

And no Christmas is complete without a trip to see the temple lights (and the Capitol Clarion Bell Choir!!!)

It actually was super warm; they didn't need those coats at all.

The whole gang

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope your holidays are jolly and full of fun and a few moments of peace and goodwill!

And a Thanksgiving Video

Here are the kids dancing.  I don't think I would be exaggerating if I said that they are all crazy in their own unique and wonderful way:



Just because I can't help it, I'm going to add my own commentary: don't you just love how Ryder is simply walking in circles like some sort of bizarre automaton? And I found out later that what Eliot is doing is actually a monkey walk.  Not a duck walk.  And Kendra.  Dear sweet Kendra.  I love how she's just sitting there calmly, waiting for an invitation to join in the dancing.  And how she pops up as soon as it is extended and proceeds to prance all over the room like a fairy on crack.

This video makes me laugh every single time I watch it.  Every single time.

Pictures from Thanksgiving

We went up to New York again for Thanksgiving this year, and enjoyed spending the holiday with three of my four sisters (plus Juliana and her husband Jeff and my "Aunt" Jan, none of whom managed to be in any of my pictures!). The drive there was even more horrendous than last year's, which is saying something.  If you ask Google Maps how long it will take to drive to Leah's house, they estimate it at 4-and-a-half hours.  But throw in DC's horrendous beltway traffic, freezing rain, a major holiday that makes the beltway even worse than usual, and a baby who needs to be fed every now and then, and we're talking a VERY long and tedious trip.  We left at 5pm.  We arrived at 2am.  Yes, it took us double the estimated time to get there.  Ugh.

The good news was that the kids were sleeping for a decent chunk of that time:

L-R: Bentley Kendra (barely visible, wrapped in her pink blankie), and Ryder

I'm leaning way over the seat to take this one of the baby sleeping.  We had stopped to get new windshield wipers because the ones we had were streaking.  The new ones weren't any better.  We could barely see for the entire drive...

This may be my favorite picture of Colton ever:

Apparently it was "No Shave" November for Uncle Ian.  Colton was fascinated-- it was the first mustache he'd ever seen!  For me, it was the first time I'd ever seen a real live version of Super Mario!

Fascinated.  Or possibly horrified...

But he still slept in Aunt Tracy's arms just fine...  So apparently the mustache did NOT give him nightmares.

Ryder and Eliot in a rare moment of sharing!

The kids watching TV

Eliot liked playing with his youngest cousin!

Ryder pretty much stopped sleeping while we were there, so here he is being a snuggle bug!

And one more favorite: Ian managed to snap this picture of Craig with his own phone and change it to his screen background.  I liked what it did then when Craig plugged it in so it then read "100% Charged."  Sure, Siri, he looks totally charged...

Those are all the pictures I have.  Which is terrible because most of the people who were there aren't in them!  Where is Rachael?  Juliana?  Jeff?  Leah and Brian, whose house we were staying at?????  I should not go into the documentary business.  Unless I want to create VERY dishonest documentaries.

Suffice it to say, there were a lot more people there than what you're seeing here.  And we all sat around eating and talking a lot.  And cooking all of the yummy Thanksgiving food we all love.  Oodles of all that stuff.  So much cooking that when we were done with the main feast, you couldn't tell that we'd made much of a dent in it.  It was that awesome!  My children did NOT spend very much time sleeping, and we're just now getting them back into good sleeping habits again (just in time for Christmas to knock them all out of whack!).

We left Saturday morning and drove into Manhattan, hoping to eat a couple of our favorite foods while there: we met up with Tracy, Rachael and Ian at the Shake Shack and had a splendid lunch, and Tracy was sweet and brought us cookies from Levaine Bakery so we wouldn't have to stop by there, too.  The drive home was slow, but not as bad as the drive there had been.

And I learned, when we arrived back at home, that setting the thermostat at 55 degrees was a bad idea.  But it warmed up eventually!

It was a lovely break-- I'm always so excited to see my sisters!  Now if only we could convince Natalie to come along, too, it would be perfect!