School Christmas Sing-In and Making Treats

The elementary school has a Christmas "Sing-In" where each grade performs a Christmas song or two for the parents. I thought the little Kindergartners were so cute.
They sang "Must Be Santa."

Allary's class Christmas party...

I always go a little crazy with making Christmas treats. I am not a huge fan of baking or cooking, but I am a huge fan of chocolate. Thus, for Christmas, my theme is usually "what can I dip in chocolate this year?" :) We dipped marshmallows, pretzels, cinnamon bears, etc.

Allary's Letter to Santa

This is Allary's letter to Santa..."zhu zhu babies, a dollhouse, and an inkoos"

 

We made a special trip to the mall so she could put her letter in Santa's special mailbox. She also got to see Santa Claus, sit on his lap, and tell him in person what she wanted.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The day we came back from Thanksgiving with Jason's family, we put up and decorated our Christmas tree. Okay, so I already had most of my Christmas decorations up before we even left. It makes me happy. :)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving 2011 with Jason's side of the family. I don't know why, but I didn't take a single picture. We had the traditional big meal at Jason's grandparents' house and had fun spending time with family.
I did, however, take lots of pictures of Allary's class program and party...

It was a fun holiday and a wonderful thing to reflect on our many many many blessings. If I was on top of things, I would have shared a whole Thanksgiving post of all the many things I am grateful for...ah well. I am grateful and so so blessed, and so very behind on blogging.

Luxurious Weekend

It is rare that Allary and I travel with Jason on any of his out-of-town gigs, but we do try to take advantage of a free hotel room when we can. Back in November, Jason was working for the week at a really nice resort about 1 1/2 hours away and so Allary and I went up and spent a few days there. Let me tell you, this hotel was the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. We're talking huge bedroom, luxurious king-size bed, fireplace, multiple balconies, walk-in closets, huge bathroom with jetted tub, ginormous shower, and a sauna, plus heated tile floors, huge full kitchen, family sitting room, etc etc etc. It was amazing. The concierge saw me come in with my cute little Allary and arranged to have a special small-sized plush robe and slippers delivered to our door. Ahhh, luxurious, and ridiculously cute.

Pretty much all we did all weekend was relax in the amazing hotel accommodations, swim in the hotel pool, eat out, and go shopping. Seriously awesome.

Oh yeah, and we also had our own private hot tub out on one of the balconies. Being pregnant and not able to get all the way in, I opted to stay inside in the warmth, but Jason and Allary were all over it. And yes, it was snowing.

Witches!

Also, back around Halloween-time, I took Allary to a fun little shopping village full of witches and fun festive decor.

Here we are trying on witch hats...

 

Disneyland Day 4

I bet you thought we only spent 3 days at Disneyland...nope, we spent 4! I have just been super slow to post the last of them. I have a lot of catching up to do on blogging since this trip.

Day 4 - We went first thing in the morning to get in line for Tinkerbell. Allary is still a huge fan of her's.

Ally, Megan, and Allary.

Allary, Paige, and Megan. The little kids loved to sit out the big rides and hang out with

Grandma and Grandpa because of awesome treats like this.

Winnie the Pooh ride...again.

Waiting for the parade.

Our big group took up a good portion of the sidewalk.

Allary, Paige, and Megan sat there with their princess ears on and waved at everyone (and I mean

everyone) in the parade. They were so cute and so excited and I think just about every character

looked right at them and waved. It was really cute.

I thought Allary was excited to see the float with all the princesses. But then, oh my goodness, you should have seen her excitement level when she saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook coming. She screamed like a 13 year old girl getting to see Justin Bieber. It was so funny and a highlight of the whole trip for me. I love to see my sweet girl with that kind of joy and excitement. And, I love that she loves Peter Pan so much. It's a sweet, classic, timeless story.

What a cute bunch of princesses. Paige, Allary, Megan, Ally.

This was Allary on the shuttle-ride back to our hotel that last night. We were all so exhausted. We packed as much fun as we possibly could into those four days, and it was awesome! What wonderful family memories with everyone!