The holidays (and things in between)

For Halloween, the we had a pilot and a dragon traipsing door to door in search of treats. (And we allowed them just small samples at their treat bags over the last few months. They seriously just finished the last treat last night.)

Then we did the very special task of finding our Christmas tree. (The kids were not so into it at first.)

But warmed up to the idea when there was hot chocolate and candy canes at the end.
(Admittedly, it was really cold. But not raining!)

Then, we celebrate Greg's 30th birthday, almost 30 days early...

But it was a special surprise celebration, bringing together friends recently returned from deployments, friends from highschool, pilot training and family.  It was a blast to plan something that Greg had no idea about, and a super fun night celebrating just him, and all that he does for our family.








Then, it snowed! 

And the kids met Santa, and Nate got to tell him that for Christmas, he would very much like to havea  new set of gold clubs "because my mom ran over my other golf club."

(True story. We were getting in the car one day, and he put his golf club next to the car as he climbed in - instead of in the correct place as I had asked him. Everyone was buckled, and I put the car in reverse, and the most horrendus crunch sounded out from under the car. I thought for sure something punctured the tire, but no, it was Nate's golf club completely in half, not at all fixable. He waited three whole weeks to tell Santa he needed new clubs, and another 2 weeks after that for Santa to bring him clubs for Christmas. We are, however, still reviewing the lessons about putting our toys away...)

We made sugar cookies (heavy emphasis on the sugar. Can you see the piles of sprinkles on those cookies up there?!?!), wrapped presents, counted down on the Advent Calendar, and re-created the nativity with magnets on our fridge. Brooke is still carrying Baby Jesus around the house, and sticking the Baby Jesus magnet on all things magnetic.