Adventures in baby growing!: Christmas!!! And our family vacation

We had such a great Christmas! We stayed at home and just celebrated with us, which was a ton of fun. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service the night before, and Ruby sat with us because they only had childcare through age 2. Good thing we had a whole pew because she was up, down, and around all over. I forgot to bring coloring stuff for her, oops. But it was a really good service. Then the kids got to open one gift when we got home, and they both got new jammies.

We left a note for Santa, and cookies, milk, pretzels and beer (at his request when we met him). It was honestly pretty hard convincing Ruby that Santa isn't real since we met him, and then he ate the snacks we left for him... oh well. I'm not terribly concerned. She does know that Christmas is all about celebrating Jesus and not Santa.

Ruby posed with her Christmas letter to Santa.

All ready for the morning!

Christmas morning! Ruby woke up first and came in to get me. Then we all got up together and I made some hot chocolate and apple cider for everyone while Andy snapped some photos of the kids in front of the tree.

The kids got to open their stockings, which was fun.

I will get Ruby's stocking finished for next year. I didn't really want to stay up all night finishing it and be exhausted for Christmas. But Reid's is done! And it holds a lot of stuff!

Ruby got this Frozen crown in her stocking... which lasted about half of a day before it got stepped on and broken.

They loved their raisin boxes.

Eating raisins while Daddy read them the story of Jesus' birth.

Ruby helped Reid open all of his gifts.

Opening one of her own. They each got a new outfit, rain boots, a book, and a fun toy.

Reid's was this ukulele. He is obsessed with guitars and absolutely loves it! He has a few guitar shirts and pretty much wants to wear them every day. He points out guitars wherever we go. He really loves music, guitars, drums, pianos, you name it!

Ruby's fun gift was a Calico Critters house with a bunny. She has been loving playing with it!

Andy got these new drum brushes, and Reid tried them out.

Ruby got this Bilibo from Grandma and Grandpa Wetzig, and it is a lot of fun!

We went on a cold Christmas walk.

The kids enjoyed it! Reid is at the stage where he pulls off his mittens and hat on most walks though, so he was pretty cold when we got home.

Playing with their new toys.

So much fun!

The day after Christmas we bundled up and headed to the zoo! The new elephant land just opened, and it was fantastic! We got to see the elephants up close.

So fun!

The whole lion family was laying out on the rocks.

There is a mom, dad, and three large cubs.

The zoo was pretty empty of people, but there were a lot of animals out and about! We had fun playing.

The boa constrictor area had this inferred camera. It was so cold that my fingers and nose were blue. Andy's were still white/red! Here's our comparison. I knew that I am usually colder than him!

Watching the sleeping cheetahs.

We lost one of Reid's gloves, so he got to wear mine.

The porcupines were walking around! My favorite quote of the day...

A little girl read the porcupine sign and said, "These are African Porcupines."

And Ruby said, "No, they're Zoo Porcupines!"

These boys love to jam.

Ruby made us all soup for dinner.

My Potato, Strawberry, Ice Cream, Hot Dog Bun Soup was delicious.

Reid loves the nursery on Sundays! He told me afterward that he played with "Ball, bus, slide."

Tickle time in the bath.

Queen Ruby.

On Monday morning I did a ton of grocery shopping for our family's get together! Then Monday evening Randall and Sophie came in from New York, and Cindy and family came up from Medford. We had such a fun four days together! We rented a house in Hillsdale, which was great. I loved the neighborhood.

Then on Tuesday night we all drove down to Uncle Paul and Aunt Paula's house for dinner. Reid loved the fish tank.

On our way to the rental house Tuesday night, Ruby had fun reading with my reading light.

They had a keyboard there that got a lot of use!

We went out to a delicious breakfast on Wednesday morning to celebrate Dad's 65th birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!

We got a cute kids photo there too.

Then we went to Powell's to look at books.

I took Reid back to the car, and he climbed over the back seat all by himself.

Walking on the rocks together.

Mom, Cindy, Sophie, Quin and I went on a nice long walk that afternoon.

The girls.

Grandma went through the tunnel with the girls. Ruby and Lia had so much fun playing together.

Then of course, Ruby had to copy Grandma.

Post-nap snuggles with Grandpa!

On Wednesday evening Del and Patty came to put our kids to bed, and the rest of us all went to see Star Wars! It was so good.

Thursday morning we did Christmas gifts together.

One last Christmas celebration.

After all of that Christmasing, we did a group workout.

After Ruby woke up from her nap, we went to Wunderland to play some laser tag. We had a little bit of time to kill, so we got $1 worth of nickels to play games. This was Ruby's first game, and she hit the jack pot!

She got about 150 tickets.

Randall and Andy in a battle.

Getting ready for laser tag!

Little Ruby. She stayed with Andy during the first game, and then we traded off being with her during the second game. She loved it!! We all had a lot of fun.

Thursday night dinner! It was great planning the menu and all cooking together. I got to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with Cindy, Randall and Sophie, and that was fun.

Our long, long table.

We got these fans at Wunderland and decided to recreate this hilarious picture from when we were kids. It took about 100 tries, but I think we got pretty close!