Holi-daze

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! It's been a crazy month.  Here are the highlights:

As soon as we got back from Thanksgiving vacation, Norah penned this note for Santa.  Freckles is her American Girl doll, by the way.

We hosted our Daisy Scout troop's holiday party.  A lot of fun was had by all (but as per troop rules I can't post any photos of the girls).

Reid turned four and had a Batman party.  Stephanie made the cake and cupcakes and I did the stands and background.  It looked awesome.

Batmans!

We gave Reid stormtrooper pajamas for his birthday.  That face.

No one could possibly love anyone as much as Norah loves Megan.

We have had a handful of chilly cold days around here.

I cry for the day they are too old for matching holiday pajamas.

My BFF from law school got married in a two-day Indian wedding extravaganza.  I wasn't sure he would ever get married and it was well worth the wait.  Norah insisted on taking photos of us with my phone before we left for the reception.  She had us make "angry" face.

We went to one of those pseudo-professional places in the mall to take a cousin picture for Bubby. These boys clean up nicely.

Best school photo ever.

Speaking of school, Lou had his holiday program where his class sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in Spanish.  I love his school.  It's finally the perfect fit.

I am the class parent for Norah's class this year and so was in charge of the holiday party.  I killed it, if I do say so myself.  It was also her teacher's birthday, so we threw in a few surprises for that as well.  It was a ton of fun and a great end to the first half of first grade.

Norah and I went to see beautiful Megan dance in the Nutcracker.

Then at dinner afterward, Megan tried to school me in the art of taking selfies.

We did a lackluster job of decorating this year--time just got away from me.  Norah said our outdoor decorations were "pitiful."  She was right.

The cousins all had a holiday party at Bubby's where they had an awesome time and ate a ton of sugar.

Bubby took Norah to a painting class and she produced this gem.  I think it's really good.

Kiki was in town so we went drunk bowling and practiced selfies.  Clearly we have a lot to learn.

Norah helped me make chocolate pie for Christmas dinner by licking the bowl clean.

Christmas Eve was at our house with tamales, soup, wine, and the fourth annual Baby Olympics (ie, Lou v. Reid).

There were nine events ranging from twerking to telling a joke.  I thought Reid had it when he KILLED it in the eating contest (green beans), but then Lou made a comeback in the 100 meter dash and took the crown at the last minute.  They celebrated with a frosty brew (ie, sparking juice).

Christmas Eve bedtime is a piece of cake.  They can't wait to go to sleep.

By early the next morning the cookies and carrots were gone.

We had a leisurely breakfast just the four of us with nutella pancakes and egg casserole.

We don't do a ton of presents at Christmas because I find it all to be very overwhelming.  They get one gift from Santa and then one from each person in the family (so each kid gets four things total). Norah ended up with a doll closet, roller skates, a kitchen science kit, and a spin art contraption.

Lou got a race car, a stormtrooper, stormtrooper pajamas, and a whoopee cushion (the $6 runaway gift of the season).

We also bought Trevor's old wii system off of him and we are slowly getting acclimated to it.

Post breakfast we took Kiki to the park with us.

And someone needed a ride on the way back.

Christmas Day at Bubby's house is loud, chaotic, drunk, and fun.

Dinner was awesome.  I may have had thirds.

Thirds necessitates a post-dinner walk where children may or may not have invaded a nativity scene or two.

Saturday was our annual cooking competition and BVZ and I not only lost our title but came in fourth (out of four).  To our credit, everyone else's was just that good.  We recovered by letting Megn curl everyone's hair with Amy's new curling wand.

Saturday night was the final get-together (that's a lot of family time-shockingly all good!) and an early birthday party for Kiki.

It was a whirlwind of a season, but full of fun and festivities.  My favorite part of this time of year is the pantry door that fills up with the faces of friends and family from around the country (and world!).  What a joyous time of year.