Christmas 2012

For the Christmas holiday this year we decided to stay put in Ann Arbor. Our season started with the trimming of the tree once Felix and I got back from Boston. Our tree is quite small, but it serves its purpose. I'm extremely glad that we only paid $20 for it (it's a fake) because Felix pulled it down. Only once though, which is better than I thought! 

 Here Felix is playing by the tree in his Halloween costume/jammies. I love the juxtaposition.

We then went to our ward Christmas Party where Felix had his first experience meeting Santa Clause. Needless to say, he ran away from him. Only natural.

We also had a bit of snow in December and Felix got his first chance to play in it. He didn't really love walking in it or touching it, but he looks adorable in his snow pants (thanks Finn!) so its worth the torture.

On Christmas Eve we had a dinner party at our house with some friends from the ward. Originally we were going to have one family over as a thank you for the airport rides at Thanksgiving, but we kept inviting over more families and one turned into five! It was a lot of fun though. We stole some tables and chairs from the church, cleared out our small front room and set up one long table. I don't entertain very often because I feel like I have insufficient space to do it, but this turned out really well. I think I'm going to do it more often. The kids enjoyed playing with all the shoes and in the closet. It was pretty great.

Christmas morning was a lot more fun this year because Felix was a little more engaged and loved opening presents. The following pictures show our attempts to get Felix to sit with all his presents for a picture...

success!!

And here Felix is with a present from each of his grandparents  A sweet car ramps toy from his Grandpa and Grandma and slipper socks from Nana and Papa!

Over all we had a great Christmas.  It was so relaxing to spend so much time together with just the three of us without Phil having to worry about school or any of us worrying about having to get dressed everyday! I admit it, most days were pajama days and we loved it. 

We are so excited for what's coming for us in 2013. Phil will graduate from his masters program in early May and then we're off on our next great adventure when Phil starts a PhD program in the fall. We don't yet know where we will be, but we are so excited and looking forward to another great year!