Twas the Night Before Christmas (2016)

Oh my goodness, Christmas was amazing.....even if it is the middle of February and I am just barely getting around to writing about it.... I am afraid that most of this post will be pictures because nap time is almost over (Austin is the only one sleeping today) and pictures can say 1,000 words anyway ;). Oh and I am going to split it up into segments to make it feel less daunting of a task for me since EVERYTHING on my checklist feels that way these days. 

Twas the night before Christmas....

Our Christmas Eve was fabulous! I was exhausted by the end of it though because I was trying so hard to make everything so memorable and Josh was too sick to be a part of any of it. He decorated a few cookies, but besides that, he was out for the count :(. So the kids and I flew solo and it was tiring but so great!! They are my greatest gift and the memories I make with them will forever be my greatest treasure!

He was so excited to finally be making cookies for Santa so he gave his Mama a BIG ol' kiss!

We spent the whole day in the kitchen baking homemade sugar cookies for Santa! Austin had been asking to do this every single day since the beginning of December so he was pretty dang excited to finally be told "YES!" :) After making the dough, rolling it out after it chilled and cutting them into fun Christmas shapes, and then decorating them, we then took a ride in the car around the neighborhood with hot cocoa in each of our hands to look at all the pretty lights! The kids were so tired after that, that it didn't take much coaxing to get them to sleep. After we left milk and cookies by the tree for Santa of course. Then it was Mom and Dad time! We had our egg nog and our snuggle time while we watched a Christmas movie and waited for Santa to arrive ;).

My busy bees!

Oh. My. Goodness. THAT LITTLE BUM AND THIGHS! I'm dying!

Proudly showing his floury hands :).

Forming the dough.

FLOUR EVERYWHERE!!!

Even the Wisemen from our nativity scene came to check out what all the commotion was about ;).

Rolling out the dough...

Cutting all the fun shapes!

Some of the sweetest moments as a Mother have happened to me while we are baking together in the kitchen. It is our happy place.

Look at that girl and her mad rolling pin skills! Bet you wouldn't believe she's not even two years old yet!

Decoration time!

Austin took this part VERY seriously :).

And of course there was the sampling.... hehe!