Merry Christmas!

I was worried about what it would be like to celebrate the holiday season in warm weather with palm trees as opposed to our usual cold and snow.  I can say that although at times it's weird to be wearing shorts and flip flops while listening to Christmas music, overall, it's awesome.  I love seeing all the Christmas lights wrapped around the palm trees.  It's so pretty!  And shopping without freezing?  Amazing!  Trimming the tree while a warm breeze blows through your window?  Awesome!  Putting your daughter in a pretty Christmas dress without having to cover it with a sweater and worry about big fuzzy tights?  Perfect!  Seriously though...I like it.  It's not as weird as I thought it would be.  I think it helps that we are getting ready to go to Ohio for a visit and we will still get to experience our 'normal' Christmas stuff too.  Honestly, the one thing I really miss is having a fire in the fireplace and the stockings hanging from the mantle.  But other than that, we have really been enjoying the Christmas season here.  I know I will really be loving it when we get back from Ohio and I won't be freezing for the next 3 months like I would there!

So...I meant to send Christmas cards this year...but I never did get around to it.  I am so sorry!  I feel like a bad friend / relative!  I even took my kids out and took special photos of them with the distinct purpose of doing a card.  Actually, I did that twice!  The first time, I got them all ready and we drove over to the beach with it timed to be there around sunset.  Only on our way there it kept getting foggier and foggier to the point where I could barely see 10 feet in front of the car!  I kept driving though thinking we were going through a low area or something and crazy optimist that I am I kept thinking that surely by the time we got to the beach the fog will have lifted.  Um...yeah...there is this thing called 'sea fog'.  You can google it and find out why it forms and all that if you are interested in weather stuff.  It's apparently rather rare as the conditions have to be just so for it to happen.  It is seriously thick weird fog.  When we got to the beach (yep, I still drove all the way there!) you couldn't even see where the sky ended and the water began.  Just one giant grey blob with some sand.  So, obviously we didn't do photos that day.  I went back a couple days later and the weather was fine, but we forgot our Santa hats.  I got home and looked at the photos and didn't really like them because they weren't what I was picturing in my head with the Santa hats.   So, I was going to do another photo shoot...but who am I kidding, I didn't have time and the kids were not in the mood to do it again.   I sat down and looked at the photos again this week and realized that they weren't really all that bad.  They are actually pretty good, just not what I had planned in my head.  So, I'm gonna share them with you today. Aren't you lucky?! ;)

Cuties.  Just picture them wearing Santa hats, okay?

Her shirt has little gold sparkly thread woven through it but it didn't show up in the photos.  I need to remember to take photos of the outfits before I do a shoot in the future.

This kid was in a very silly mood that day.  I have tons of photos of him laughing at himself.

I don't usually do this, but I had so many outtakes from this shoot that I thought I'd share some.  Just in case you were under some illusion that my kids are super cooperative during photo shoots.  Yeah, they're not.  Especially this one...  He thinks he's so funny...

Yes, that's spit in the bottom photo...boys are so gross...

My girl isn't quite so bad, but she does have a tendency to do her super dramatic, super fake, super giant smile.  And her frowny eyebrows are another favorite.

After all that I almost forgot to share my 'card'!  Here you go!

I really want to wish everyone that reads this blog a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you have an awesome time with family and friends and that you truly experience the joy that comes from knowing that your Savior came to Earth as a tiny baby in order to grow into a man who would die for your sins that you might have eternal life. I mean, really, when you think about it, it's the most amazing thing!  It's definitely cause for a celebration.  Merry Christmas!