Silver Bells

This year Christmas was spent with my family in Boise. We were there a few days before it even happened because we decided to just come from Rexburg (see post below.) So we did a lot of hanging out. 

June did crafts with Grandma

And she helped her make treats. Her favorite was the pink divinity.

The girls had plenty of toys to play with.

We watched the birds every monring from the kitchen window.

June coaxed anyone she could out to the trampoline, even though it was like 20 degrees outside.

We played with the ice on the pool. June loved breaking chunks off and then shattering them on the surface.

We pretended to go to the beach

We gazed at the presents

June even got a special Christmas Eve play date with her bestie Georgia who was also in town visiting her grandma.

Dancing with grandpa

Hazel just chilled

June helped make the yule log cake.

I also got my hair done, meet up with a few different friends, and did two photo shoots while I was in town! One night we went on a little date with Carrie and Scott who were also in town visiting. We went to the fancy mall area and window shopped (and bought candy and bath bombs...)

Christmas Eve
We had a great evening! Erin and Dan showed up! They drove across the country, moving to Boise from DC. So that was exciting! Now they will be much closer! 
And anyway, Hazel got to hang upside down, her favorite thing:

Then we had a feast! We had triple cheese fondu with french bread, apples, broccoli, and shrimp. There were stuffed mushrooms as well and crab and lobster wontons. It was great! June loved the fancy candles that lighted the room. And she got to drink her sparkling cider out of a real glass.

Then we did the tradition of all Americans and opened Christmas pajamas. 

And here is a photo also of the girl's stockings (that I still want to get their names embroidered on.)

After that June opened a new present that was a Children's bible and we read Christ's birth story from that.

June left Santa some milk, cookies, and peppermints -and colored carrots for the reindeer.

The stockings were hung by the chimney....with care...

And then to bed the girls went. The adults stayed up and watched "The Nativity Story" which is my favorite of all favorite Christmas movies.

And then it was time to be Santa! This was super weird for me. It was the first time being home that I was up with my parents setting gifts up. Even though I obviously don't believe in Santa anymore it still seemed to bust open the magic that lingered for me. But I guess now I am a parent it's my turn to make that magic happen. It was weird! But it was also fun. We got the girls stuff all set up and then I had a hard time falling asleep because I was too excited for them.

June's stash//// Hazel's stash

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was a blast! Both of the girls had fun, although overwhelmed by all the unwrapping. And after that we spent the whole day relaxing and playing with new toys.

 

I got the complete series of I Love Lucy! Finally! So I guess it's time I came clean and admitted to you all of the massive collection of Lucy stuff that I have. It's still all set up at my parent's house so I took a photo of it because it's kind of random to me that I have this.

And while I'm admitting to childhood (and okay, adult) collections, did you know that I have about 200 more of these comics stored? Archie comics! I loved them! Please tell me I'm not alone in this...

And... anyway, more hanging out photos...

This is how I looked alllll day.

Hazel decided to become a crawler during the break! 

 

Playing games

Then my sister's husband's parents came for dinner that night. They brought party poppers so we all looked great with our crowns.

It was a great week and day and everything! The merriest!

And there is one more post about some extra exciting things from Idaho!