holidays and stuff.

I'm finishing up my last bit of Christmas shopping (!!!) and enjoying a house full of absolute silence - I mean, I can even hear the clock.  This is noteworthy.  Both the silence and the Christmas shopping part.  I like to be mostly finished by the time December rolls around - there is much more room for enjoying our family traditions without being distracted.

We enjoyed such a fun Thanksgiving at our house this year!  It was simple, but with so many people we love and doing what we love most - laughing and eating and shopping.  We had background noise of football and kids screaming and laughing (and sometimes really screaming..AHEM, Luca..) and scoured the web for deals and possible shopping strategies. It was just perfect.  We LOVED having our precious friends and their family here to join us this year.

definitely not the most flattering game, but so, so funny.

We have since transformed from pumpkin spice everything to CHRISTMAS!  I can't believe Christmas and the end of the year is so near.

Christmas seems a little more special this year (not that I don't love it every year) - we are in our beautiful new home with all of our fun family traditions, and this year we have a big surprise up our sleeves for the kiddos.  I can't wait to reveal and see their surprised little faces!

I have a to do list about a mile long, which only keeps growing.  We are in the crazy season of parties and performances and the obvious holiday chaos.  I have done good to limit myself to productive hours in the day so I can enjoy the rest.  This has been a delicate balance with the addition of moving on top of all of this!  I want my children to remember the carefully planned cookie making, the story reading, and the Christmas movie bingeing.  

With that, I'm off to enjoy coffee and the aforementioned cookie planning, because - priorities.