Christmas 2013

We spent Christmas at my parent's house. The whole family was there! It was a lot of fun to spend so much time with everyone. We had fun watching Cordin and Doran play.

Christmas Eve, we opened presents from each other and the babies opened Christmas pajamas. Doran gave Cordin Gymboree bubbles, which are the coolest indoor bubbles ever. If you have little ones, you should buy them.

Doran and Cordin were frequently the center of attention. Can you tell which feet are mine?

As kids, my family had a tradition (or rule, which Matt ALWAYS broke) that we couldn't leave the stairs until Mom and Dad woke up. We still sit on the stairs and wait for Mom and Dad. This is our little family on the stairs. So lovely looking in the mornings. And the picture to the right is our view of the Christmas tree from the stairs.

I tried to take a few pictures of Doran in front of the Christmas tree, but all those "pins" I read about how to take a picture of your kid in front of the Christmas tree didn't work.

Opening presents! Doran was interested half of the time. He really liked a present Cordin got, it had buttons and made sounds. He, of course, loved the paper, boxes, and bows.

And we ate lots of good food. Every kid took a night being in charge of dinner. Doran loves food!

And we played fun games!

It was a great Christmas with family!

Then we hurried home and I did the biggest wedding of my career! I had mastitis during the whole thing and Doran had a reaction to the chicken pox shots. It was a long weekend, but the wedding turned out beautiful! You can see pictures here:

Festival of the Nativities

We went to the Festival of the Nativities in Bellevue this year. It was great way to feel the true Christmas spirit. They had hundreds of Nativities from all over the world!

There was a room the depicted scenes from the Savior's life. This was a really neat room!

This is one of our favorite nativities, made out of recycled pop cans! It is from Zimbabwe.

Garden d'lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden

On of the things on our Christmas to-do list was to see the Garden d'lights in Bellevue. We have heard so much about it, but haven't gone until this year. I have to admit, it wasn't as cool as I was expecting (I think our expectations were too high), but it is pretty amazing what they did with the lights. Here are some of our favorites.

Christmas Activity List

Christmas time is here and we have a full size Christmas tree for the first time! He actually doesn't bother it as much as I thought he would. Maybe that is because I trapped behind our coach and recliner.

There are so many fun activities to do in the area! I don't know if we'll get to them all this year, but this is my

2013 Christmas Bucket List

Get a Christmas Tree
Go to Snowflake Lane
See the Garden d'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens
Drive around the city and look at Christmas lights on houses.
Visit the Nativity Festival
Go Caroling
Look at the Gingerbread Village in Seattle
Make a gingerbread house
Take Doran to see Santa Clause (just wish it wasn't so expensive to take a picture with him!)
Read the story of the Savior's birth

And if Doran was a little older, these two would be on my list too. Next year!
Reindeer Festival at the Cougar Mountian Zoo.
Ride the Santa Clause train  in North Bend.

Movies to watch:
The Grinch
Polar Express
Santa Clause
Frosty the Snow Man
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

What fun Christmas activities are you doing this year?