Oh December!

Well, apparently December happened...and so did friggin January!  I can barely keep up with things these days.  Life with 3 kids and a full-time job is busy and chaotic!  And December was no different, it was jam packed and flew by!

But here's a very quick look back at our busy end to 2013...

Putting up our Christmas tree...which is definitely one of my highlights each year and becoming a tradition!  The kids love it and it's our official kick-off to the holiday season!  Jack the Elf makes his appearance the following morning too and brings the kids some gifts to get them ready for the season!

Visiting with Santa...the Millennia Mall Santa, to be exact...which in my mind is the BEST Santa around!

To add a little country to our holidays, we took the kids up to Nashville to experience A Country Christmas at OpryLand.  We went with some of our good friends and their kids and it was a super fun weekend!  We saw the ICE exhibit, toured the hotel, had breakfast with Shrek and hit the bars on Broadway!

Kahn and Olivia had their Christmas pageant at school.  Olivia's class sang a few songs and Kahn's class sang and put on a little play.  Kahn was a shepherd and was definitely the most animated singer on stage!

We then headed to Orlando for the actual Christmas holiday.  My kids love Christmas down in Florida and I have said it before, but there's a reason I go home for Christmas...despite being in the 80s, it's a winter wonderland!  My dad spares no detail for Christmas and still makes it super special for us each year.

We were actually really busy when we were there...we went to the movies, bowling, miniature golf and just hung out at my mom's house.  I got to see all of my high school friends and just hung out with family.

On Christmas Eve morning, we went to breakfast with the characters at Disney...

(Note: Madeline did not like the characters; however, she did like the buffet.)

We attempted a picture of all 6 of the grandkids on the beach at the Grand Floridian...FAIL!!!  I can't get my own 3 kids to look at a camera, I'm not sure what ever made me think we'd get 6 kids to look at the camera, especially when 3 of them are one-years old!!

...Then there was Christmas morning...one of my favorite days of the year!  These little kids that we have been blessed with really do make the holidays so much more special.  

And our final night of 2013, was spent how it is every year...WITHOUT kids, with our very best friends, in the Minihan's basement!  It was ridiculously fun and we danced our way into 2014!

Wow, what an ending to a fantastic year!

More fun stuff to come in 2014!  Stay tuned...