christmas 2013 and a new tradition

christmas came and went all too quickly again this year. but, we had a special celebration, nonetheless, remembering and honoring the birth of Jesus our Savior! we had a full house on christmas with my sister and nate, my cousin and her family, and my aunt and uncle from california over to celebrate. we went out and got a tree the weekend just after thanksgiving. the kids were so excited that we even got them colored lights for the tree this year. i gave up my white lights! allan strung the lights and we let the kids decorate the tree all on their own, however they liked. they did a great job! and, i loved every minute of sitting on the couch with my hot coffee watching them dance around the tree trying to scatter the ornaments all over. well, about two weeks after this, we discovered that our tree had died. :(  i was not about to take down all of the ornaments, get a new tree, and put all of the ornaments back on.  plus, the year before, our tree actually toppled over in the middle of the night scaring me and allan to death and causing us some middle-of-the-night clean up duty.  as a result, we decided to start a new tradition of having our manger scene be the center of our celebration and i LOVED it. we set it up more prominently in the room and put our gifts to one another under it. it was a great way for us to remember the most amazing gift of all, our Savior Jesus Christ, whom God sent us over two thousand years ago.  it was a great way for us to fix our eyes on the true meaning of christmas.  and, i think i'm gonna love our new tradition.

 

our manger scene

opening stockings on christmas eve

 

christmas eve dinner...hot pot!

family quiet time

shoeboxes for operation christmas child.  we found out they got sent to peru!  :)

topping off our tree (that died!)

   

light show at senske in kennewick.  the lights are timed to go along with music.  lucas, emma, and allan jumped into the bed of the truck and started dancing to the music!  i was too cold, brrrrr.  elise fell asleep.

 

my sweet aunt...so glad she came to visit!

date night with my boy!

lucas has been dying to do cub scouts, but the den that he wanted to join (because of a friend) always met on thursday nights, which conflicted with the bible study group allan and i led that also met on thursday nights.  well, this year, after many years of leading, allan and i decided to take a break from leading.  thankfully, two awesome couples stepped up to take over the group.  this freed us up enough to let lucas join the den that he wanted!  the first time i saw him in all his get-up, my heart melted and i did what many moms do...i swooned over how adorable and handsome he looked in his uniform!  so stinking cute!  

 

he was going to a camp-in at a church tonight, but we needed to grab dinner before dropping him off.  and, since the girls were at a sleepover at my friend's house and allan was on his way home from china, i got to go on a date night with my boy!  it was loooong overdue and made me realize that they need to be regularly scheduled into my calendar.  i had a great time chatting with lucas and hearing his thoughts on a number of things.  loved every minute of it.  :)  can't wait to do it again soon!

 

if you think you see something in my teeth, you're right! :(  

didn't want to leave you guessing.  :)

blast from the past, part 1

back in march 2011, we went to visit my side of the family in northern california.  my mom had come down with a health condition that made us unable to go on our family vacation to china.  luckily we were able to postpone it and ended up going in november instead.  (pictures to come!)  so, instead of china, we loaded up into our van and drove to visit my family for a few days.  it was a whirlwind trip with all 7 of us in the van.  but it was AWESOME to surprise my mom...she had no idea!  i also loved seeing my dad and, most importantly, my grandma.  i don't get to see her often enough, which makes me very sad.  i would love for her to move here so we can help take care of her and see her more often.  we were able to do a few touristy things like visit the golden gate bridge and ride the cable car.  fun!  

emma and elise with kiwi.

lucas is learning to play mahjong.

elise with her po-po!

love this girl's smile!

the girls helping vicky clean.  where was i?  oh yeah, taking pictures.  :)

elise is giving her great-grandma a big kiss on the nose.  so sweet!

trying to snag one from lucas, too!

just the grandkids and great grandkids.

three generations...love it.

golden gate bridge, here we come!

cable car ride.  we almost left without nate, who went off 

to buy a bottle of water JUST before we were about to take off.

celebrating emma's 5th birthday!

look at this darling!

handsome!

my sweet grandma, back at home for the evening.