A Day In The Life Of...: Holiday Happiness

The most wonderful time of the year spending quality time with family came upon us. We packed our car and headed North to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our cuties dressed in their holiday finest for the occasion.

Besides dresses and dress shirts, our kids were able to don snow boots and gloves, even if it was just for a short time. They were so excited to see snow!! Snowballs, snow angles and snowman made their fist dip in the snow this season complete. Papa Hutch even helped create our very first Snow Avenger, SnowHulk. When we awoke the next morning, most of the snow was gone and SnowHulk looked a little less buff. Hopefully our friend Jack Frost will grace us with some more snow to play in before winter is over.

All the kids were surprised to see Santa make an appearance at our Thanksgiving celebration. Bennett, who is not typically fond of photographs, made sure to be the first to sit on the big mans lap and give him hugs. Since their visit with Santa came early this year, they all made sure to take time when we got home to write a letter with their Christmas wishes. The letters were signed, sealed and magically delivered to the North Pole to ensure Santa knew they were good.

During all the hustle and bustle, both of the boys reached a couple milestones. For starters, ConMan turned another year older. He celebrated his 7th birthday with a Batman themed party with a bunch of friends. I hope his sweet smile and his silly personality continue to make everyone smile at whatever age he may be. Here is to many years filled with fun, laughter and memories!

Next, Bennett took center stage for his first Christmas concert. We all couldn't have been more proud of him. He sang his songs and shook his jingle bells for all to see and hear.

Even though Christmas had already been all around us, we needed to officially make our house Tinsel worthy. The kids did a wonderful job decorating the tree this year. I think this was the first time, in about 7 years, that we actually had ornaments hung throughout the whole tree from top to bottom.

After the decorations were complete, we moved on to the next tradition that we needed to honor; decorating and baking our Spritz cookies. Each child had their own unique approach; Corynn,ever so delicately placed the sprinkles on each cookie, Bennett ate the sprinkles, and Connor, who had run a temperature earlier in the day, found a way to partake in the process while learning that sprinkles are hard to pick up with rubber gloves:)

The daily Christmas countdown was now complete, and on the Eve of my favorite holiday of the year, myself and a couple other of Santa's elves could hardly wait for the children to wake up. The Amazon Prime orders had been received, wrapping was complete, breakfast was ready to bake, and now it was time for the most important thing, spending the occasion with the ones we love. Each year I appreciate the great family I have and the life we are blessed to live. So as the sun, hadn't risen yet, but the children had risen from their beds, it was now Christmas day.

It is truly amazing to watch Christmas happen through a child's eyes. From the moment they realize their delectable cookies are gone to the moment they unwrap a coveted gift.

Holiday happiness enveloped the room, along with the beautiful music of the season; or maybe it was the sound coming from our children, playing air hockey, zooming cars down a race track or singing loudly with their new Karaoke machine.