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.

Merry Christmas from this full house to yours!

Some snaps of our winter break cookie factory. The girls prefer Swedish Gingerbread Cookies over Sugar Cookies (that's my girls!), but Conor loves sugar cookies so... both! We (I) had lots of fun making and baking and then delivering.

Sledding with my girls at the local hill while the babies nap. This year, Maeve can walk herself and a sled back up the hill! This feels like a huge milestone. Last year, I had to help her back up the hill and my pregnant body had a problem with that. And bonus, Maeve thinks sledding is really fun.

Ira wants to pull himself up to kneeling all the time these days! His favorite is when I'm sitting on the floor and he can pull himself up to kneeling on my legs. And, he can pull himself up to standing too! I'm so proud of him and I want to push him over all at the same time. He's growing up too fast and not fast enough.