I just want everyone who reads my blog to know that our family had a beautiful ski day together with some of our friends. Holly, Greta and Maeve are currently enrolled in ski school on the weekends and the lessons have really helped them develop confidence and skills. It's been great to see. Maeve is pretty slow, but she loves going fast down the hills and she's improving so much! Maeve was in and out of the sled, sometimes on skis and sometimes riding. One time, when we insisted she ride in the trailer, she told Conor, "when I'm a mom, I'm going to say yes to everything my kids ask for." We skied around Shadow Mountain, had a snack break at the Nova Hut and then returned to the lodge. On our final trail, as the sun was setting and Maeve was happily skiing along, Conor turned to me and commented on how great it is that Maeve wants to ski. We did it. We made it.

One cute moment I don't want to forget, Ira rode on our friend, Parker's back. When I led Enoch to the sled to get in it, he stopped when he didn't see Ira and started repeating, "Ira, Ira" and tried to find him. There's a really beautiful brotherhood bond forming between those two.

These pictures may be from a Sunday afternoon when Conor and the girls watched a couple movies in a row. Maeve likes to tell me that we have three babies because we have Masha. And sometimes she wants me to take care of Masha and that's when I put my foot down.

Another round of sledding, this time with the new Christmas sleds and both the babies! E loved sledding, although it's all fun and games until his hands got cold! And Ira wasn't so into it. But he did enjoy me holding him. So, win? It takes an immense amount of effort to get 5 children to the sledding hill. Thank goodness for my big girls!

I love the way we roll on Christmas Day, nice and slow and we savor the day. Everyone was so excited to see that Santa had visited in the night, filling stockings. Honestly, watching Maeve open her stocking was a highlight! She was overjoyed with every item! Our daughters were really excited to exchange gifts and while some of the gifts were just right, some had to make us laugh. Maeve picked out her gifts all on her own with an elf at Santa Express. I likely would've steered her in a different direction for one of the gifts, but she was so excited to give it and confident that it would be well received! Maeve worked so hard to not tell what her gifts were and only gave "mints" (aka hints). But when I had just about opened the gift she gave to Conor and I, she couldn't hold it in any longer and told us all about it! So cute.

The rest of the day was filled with good food, family and games.

Our Christmas Eve was just lovely! I did a lot of food prep, but then we had some really wonderful moments together. Our friends' invited us to their Christmas Eve service and it was beautiful. Maeve participated in the nativity as an angel and even though the church and the people were unfamiliar to her, she marched herself up to the front of the congregation with the rest of the angels without any trepidation! That girl! It was a great service and I enjoyed all the carols.

Then, we went to our local park to carol with the neighbors and see Santa (!). The park was blanketed in snow and while we were there the weather gave us thick fluffy snowflakes. It was nothing shy of magical.

And then, we returned home and ate Tortierre and salad for dinner. We donned pajamas and took photos. I cannot wait to recreate the photos of E and Ira below in about 10-15 years. Ha! Those two. We read our traditional Christmas books (which I always hear in my Dad's voice) and laid out our stockings and went to bed. Christmas with children is the best.