The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm sure there are some people who still have their Christmas trees up so it's probably not too late to blog about our Christmas festivities.  It was so magical and wonderful!  I loved everything about celebrating Christmas as a family!  We did it all and had so much fun being together!

Growing up, we always did gingerbread houses.  And I'm not talking the gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers.  My mom made the dough, cut the shapes out of paper templates, baked the parts of the house, made the icing and then we all decorated one big beautiful gingerbread house.  This year she and my dad made the parts of the gingerbread houses and mailed them to us so we could make our own.  Ali loved decorating her house!!

Mom also sent us Mikulas cookies.

You're really supposed to wait till the new year to eat them (for good luck), but we couldn't help ourselves.  We're hoping to have good luck anyway.

Here are Ali's pieces all decorated and ready to assemble.

 We went on plenty of walks when the sun was out.

We played in the snow and tried to walk in our chunky snow boots.

I love Ali's face in these next pictures!  She is such a light in our lives.

 Jimmy had a fun idea that we should have Czech food on Christmas Eve.  I was so excited since a) I LOVE Czech food and b) I want my kids to know about their Czech heritage.  I decided to make the Czech national dish (and my favorite) Vepro-Knedlo-Zelo.  I was actually pretty nervous about it and searched for weeks before to find the perfect recipes.

The dinner turned out great.  I'm sure if I compared it to the real thing it might not taste exactly authentic, but for those of us who haven't been there for a few years, it tasted pretty good.

 After dinner, Jimmy read the nativity story and the kids colored a picture of the manger scene.

Then they decorated cookies for Santa.

Who is this Santa guy anyway and why are we saving him the cookies?  James didn't see any reason in that and decided to eat one.  I love his little expression in this picture!

Ali was totally into it and helped pour Santa some milk too.

The kids got in their new jammies and went to bed... with vision of sugarplums dancing in their heads, no doubt.

Christmas morning came and we were all so excited!

The kids opened their presents with squeals each time they saw what was inside.

They play together so well and loved their new kitchen.

James even got a turn with the new stroller.

After naps we had our traditional Christmas dinner of Turkey and mashed potatoes.

Jimmy cut the turkey (which we tried cooking in the crock pot and it totally worked and was delicious!!) and we had a wonderful dinner.

I could not have asked for a more perfect Christmas!  I loved hearing Ali talking about Jesus and Mary and Joseph and teaching my children about the true meaning of Christmas.  I hope to focus on it even more next year.  I will remember each moment that we spent together and all the happy times.  We are eternally grateful for the birth of our Savior and the irreplaceable role he plays in our lives.  I'm already so excited for Christmas 2013.  Only 11 more months!!

ONE-derful James!!!

Happy birthday, James!!!  We love you more than we could ever imagine and are so grateful to have you in our family!!  You make us smile every day with your sweet nature!  You are so loving and fun to be around.  You light up when you see Ali walk in the room.  You dance your heart out whenever you hear music.  You love to be in on the action but you don't mind wandering into a room by yourself to explore.  We have enjoyed each day of the past year and look forward to many more.  Here is a look back at how you've grown this year.

January- Birth

February- 1 Month

March- 2 Months

April- 3 Months

May- 4 Months

June- 5 Months

July- 6 Months

August- 7 Months

September- 8 Months

October- 9 Months

November- 10 Months

December- 11 Months

January- 1 Year Old

We had a little birthday party for James the evening before his birthday.  It was so much fun planning the details of the party and then celebrating with family and friends!  James didn't know it was his birthday party but he sure had a good time.  

Ali with her buddies.

Glad this cute cowgirl was there!  

 I love my little family and loved being able to celebrate James' 1st birthday with them!

After we sang happy birthday, he didn't dive into the cake like we thought he would.  We think it's probably because everyone was staring at him.  But he did enjoy making his horse walk through the cake.  

 Ali went ahead and helped him lick the frosting.

 Sweet Jamie took these photos of James and we love her for doing it for us!!  It's so special to capture this moment in James' life!  I cherish each photo we have of our sweet babies.

 Today is his actual birthday so we sang to him again and gave him a cupcake with a candle.

This time he poked at the cupcake a little...

 after licking his finger and seeing that it was tasty he picked up the cupcake and began to eat it.  And then he ate the whole thing!  

After cake we went into the living room to open presents.  Here is Ali getting down to talk to James.  I LOVE it when she does this.  She gets close to his face and talks in the sweetest voice.  Here I think she said, "Jamesy, do you want to open presents?"  I could just die!!  

 Happy trails on your next year of life James!