'Tis the season

I've been trying to sum up my thoughts on Christmas and I think the best way to explain how things went this year would be "seasonally challenged." I guess last year I was too caught up w/ the tail end of my pregnancy to notice Christmas (okay I was just extremely impatient and wanted to get on with life and not be pregnant any more). But this year when we pulled out our fake Warehouse Christmas tree and our sad decorations both Dan and I went, "Humm... it just doesn't do it for me." But I'm happy to report that with the addition of a few new Christmas decorations (a Kiwi and a Pukeko) and the all important Denver Broncos santa hat on top of the tree we started to feel better.

We started a new tradition of having one very large (and very cheesey) stocking for the whole family. Dan painted our names on it w/ puff paint and we both thought it was so over the top that it was perfect.

The boys definitely got into the swing of things with all the fun new toys. Dan decided that this was the year of the dinosaurs.

We thoroughly enjoyed our bbq at Bonnie and Scott's house. They invited us last year and we had such a good time that we thought we'd make it another new tradition. Somehow the dreary overcast day didn't rain on our relaxed hangout. There's something to be said for walking to a friend's house for Christmas dinner and just chilling.

I'm not sure I'll ever get use to Christmas in the summer, but at the end of the day it's nice to have a relaxed day with the immediate family. We're trying to adopt some Kiwi traditions, but we're definitely northern hemisphere folks at heart.