exploring the missions &a little Christmas

My adorable Daddy found some meetings down here in San Antonio in the beginning of December so they were able to come down again! I know, how spoiled are we?! We enjoyed a long weekend exploring the Alamo (my Dad was obsessed [history lover like no other] He kept trying to figure out ways to get out of the house and go see the rest of the missions!), Jude's second birthday party, and a Christmas mini-celebration. 

Goodness, it is amazingly beautiful how the addition of a little two-year old brings the joy and magic and excitement back into Christmas.... but so much better.

let the festivities begin!

We had the most quiet, quaint little Christmas at home. Dan had five weeks off of school! Besides his survival trip (post to come on that soon), we just stayed home and went on little adventures around here. It was nice and relaxing and so lovely to be able to just be together as a family, us three. A special Christmas, indeed, that we will always remember. This is us prepping and trimming our tree and then a big, wonderful Thanksgiving with friends.

He loves (is obsessed with) the two moles under my chin. He touches them/rubs them all the time. It's like, his safe place.

We started out Thanksgiving with a good game of basketball at the park with the Optometry guys...

no big deal that guy...

Jude and I played at the park and ran around the field and were thankful we weren't the little kid we saw take a giant spill and possibly really hurt himself.

You can do it!!!!

It was so nice to have Thanksgiving with a bunch of friends, many new. It was nice to just all bring something and come together and have a delicious meal. It was nice to get together with new friends and just be each other's family. It was nice to spend the evening in a lovely little home filled with the Spirit of family and friends and play fun games. It was really nice to not have to cook two entire Thanksgiving meals! Jude, of course, needed his own whole meal that we brought and that was enough to worry about! He ate like, four or five bites... he was having too much fun with his balloon and Nini spinning him around in circles. :)

merry christmas!!

the Riverwalk at Christmas

The Riverwalk of San Antonio is pretty impressive. And it is taken to a whole new level at Christmastime! They are not afraid to celebrate "Christmas" here, as opposed to the vague and ever-so politically correct "holidays." We made it downtown and saw some real live reindeer, passed by Santa and a concert with real-live fake snow falling from above, and then walked down the Riverwalk. It was packed with festive festivity-goers. There were merchants all up and down the Riverwalk, which left a dangerously small amount of pathway for people to walk by. It amazes me that there is no fence or guardrail of any kind along the Riverwalk! It is literally just a short drop off directly into the water. I wonder how many people fall in every year... 

We chose a good night to go. There was a magical little concert going on with children singing songs about Jesus and boats going by full of people singing Christmas carols. The lights in themselves are a sight to see.

bowlers, inc.

The blog book company I use (blog2print.com), sadly, does not do captions. It puts all the text at the beginning, so I have to stop using captions... this frustrates me. We continued our family tradition of a bowling tournament. Mom used her magic to get us a discount rate and away we bowled for two good hours. Krissy surprised us with her pin-hitting capabilities. Jared threw the strongest throws we've ever seen. Dad provided us with the most delectable popcorn& rocked the most fabulous sweater he has most surely had for at least twenty years. Mom enjoyed the biggest, slobberiest kisses from the man of the house. Dan emerged as the outstanding winner of the competition. I came up with a new technique of running around the ball dispenser a few times and getting my jive going and throwing the ball in the same fluid motion (didn't prove to be patent-able). And Jude ate celery and carrots and popcorn and warmed all our hearts with his clapping, kisses, and perfect face. Do you see that profile shot?! I can not handle it.