christmas (x3).

We decided to take advantage of Henry flying free this Christmas and head to Florida for the week (many pics to come!) so we opened gifts a little early.  I am obsessed with my Christmas decorations and tree.  I completely forgot about some ornaments & decor I purchased last year from CB2 on sale so I had a mini Christmas opening by myself when I found them in storage!  I also did a few new projects (painting ornaments, stringing pom pom garland & making the wall art) which kept me busy all December long.  I was happy to have family over to see it before I had to take it down.

The first of three celebrations was with my parents and brother.  They came up for the afternoon and we just ate and hung around the house while Henry opened his gifts.  He loved his new tool set and the blue bear sleeping bag.  Lots of books and clothes kept him busy too... He always says "so cute" or "that cute" when he gets new clothes.  Henry also made Aaron some artwork for his new house (he might be the next picasso :)  

The next day we opened gifts once we all woke up.  Henry did a much better job at tearing open the wrapping paper, but was ticked when we wouldn't let him open the boxes and build them all immediately.  If we did that, we would still be opening stuff today... It is tough to get a toddler to understand that though!  The pop-up Thomas tent and his name/shape puzzles were a huge hit.  He was also into the Duplo Legos with numbers on them.

The last Christmas celebration was with Darin's family after we returned from Florida.  It was another fun day of gifts, good food and Henry the Entertainer.  He learned some killer dance moves from his Aunt Kari to the Thomas theme song from his new book.  I received an awesome NAP blanket from Brookstone for our bed from my in-laws... It is seriously the most amazing blanket ever.

We had such a great holiday and the new year is off to a great start!  Happy New Year to everyone!

thanksgiving(s) 2014.

I can't believe it is almost Christmas, which means this post is really late, but I have been a crazy woman running around and packing for our Florida trip next week.  Also, my computer was acting up and thanks to my wonderful husband, he installed a new, bigger & better hard drive and now it's like a brand new machine.  

Anyways, back to Thanksgiving... I had to work the day before and day after, which isn't exactly a good schedule for traveling to Lafayette to see both families, so we decided to host at our house!  This was my second time cooking a turkey this year and thankfully it was a success!  Meal planning was tricky bc Thanksgiving fell on day 15 of my Whole30 challenge, so everything had to be gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and alcohol free :(   Even with all of the rules, I think it turned out pretty great!  And we had some of the good, standard turkey day food for everyone else not being tortured by the diet.  Maybe everyone else thought it was gross, who knows, but they didn't tell me that :)  

After work on Friday, we headed to Lafayette for a dinner out w/ friends and then another Thanksgiving day celebration on Saturday with Darin's family.  We ended the weekend with a trip to Indy with our friends Tait & Natalie to sit in the second row, on the 40 yard line at the Colts game, which was SO fun.  Watching football that close is a totally different experience.  We sat on the opposing side, so the players were all upset b/c they were losing pretty badly.  A few helmets were thrown and several cuss words could be heard... :)  It was a great Christmas present for us!