December 2017

We actually started decorating for Christmas in mid November (I know, I'm crazy).  Last minute we decided to go with a fake tree for Christmas, which I won't lie was a extremely hard decision.

We had a Christmas pajama secret santa gift exchange with our favorite friends the Noble and Madden families.

We celebrated Jake's birthday by having a family day.  We took a hike at Torrey Pines, watched a lot of football and made him a ice cream sandwich cake.

The kids continued their tradition of giving back and picked out toys to donated to North County Lifeline.

Decorated cookies.

Our last holiday event was going down to the Del and doing some ice skating.  Weather wasn't ideal, it was 80+ degrees, but we all still had fun.  It was both Jake and Madden's first time on the ice.  Jake rocked it, Madden did about half a lap and was over it.  Think he is still a bit to little for it.

New Years Eve - 2017

For several years (post college days of course), I wasn't that into New Years Eve.  Maybe it was because the kids were too little to really enjoy it and we didn't care that much to go out, but since we discovered the party at the Sheraton last year, I'm all about it.  The tradition of spending New Years Eve with the Rossitto's continued and lucky for us the Zaferakis' join us this year.  We started the pre-party at Casa Rossitto with noise makers and drinks.

The theme for this years bash was Super Hero's and Villains.  Batman with his batmobile greeted us as we arrived, which was pretty cool.  I think Madden was in celebrity shock.  

The room was of course decked to the nines with the superhero theme.  The only negative of the night was Madden not wanting to dance with the group.  Poor guy wasn't feeling the groove and just sat at the table eating marshmallows and being sad.  We all tried our best to remind him how much fun he had last year on the dance floor, but he just couldn't let loose.  It was the only thing we missed all night was Madden and his fast feet.

They had a room of arts and crafts, glitter tattoos and the big hit this year the game room.  They had one of those claw games with stuffed animals in it that you didn't' have to pay for so it was like pulling teeth trying to get the kids away from that machine.

Madden and Dad were working people at the foosball table.

 The girls worked the dance stage only dancing up there, while us parents were cutting a rug.  We pretty much danced the whole night.  Passing on the superhero/villain theme, we decided to get some cool light up gear to make us stand out and it worked.  We got a ton of compliments on our glow gear.  

It was such a great New Years Eve with even greater friends.  We plan to continue our NYE tradition and ring in 2019 at the Sheraton.

Below is a video capturing our evening!

Christmas/Holiday Card 2017

All the build up to Christmas and then in what fews a matter of hours, its over.  The Christmas Eve tradition at my parents house still lives on.  We arrived early Christmas Eve morning to help my mom and dad set up and start the tamale spreading.

Madden wore the old Mexican lady apron to spread tamales.  He was definitely the worst spreader.  Masa was flying everywhere but on the husk.  Luckily for us Lennon showed up and he was over spreading tamales and just wanted to play.  I wish we had more pictures of us all spreading the tamales, but all of us were covered in masa and couldn't get any pictures.

These five cousins played so well together all evening long.  I think we hardly saw any of them because they were too busy running a muck outside all day and night.

We all got to celebrate Morrison first Christmas Eve.  She was the sweetest, best baby all evening.  

After much waiting and asking me about every 30 minutes for 5 hours it was time to open presents.  Of course, all of the kids were spoiled by everyone in the family.

We got home pretty late from my parents house and the kids were so tired they didn't even want to put cookies and milk out for Santa and asked Jake and I to handle it. 

These two woke up to everything they asked for from Santa (expect Madden, who requested his own TV in his room...haha), but he didn't seem to mind.  Skylar received her LOL Doll 50 Surprise Ball, more LOL Dolls, a drone, clothes, and Madden got a couple awesome lego sets to add to his collections (why he didn't have pants on, we have no idea).  The rest of Christmas Day consisted of Skylar staying in her PJs all day, Madden eventually put pants on and building legos all day, Jake cooked an awesome meal and I went down with a nasty cold.  But all in all, it was a fantastic holiday and we look forward to next year.

For our card this year, I had, had the theme in mind ever since last Christmas, I just wasn't sure if it could live up to last years card.  Needless to say, I believe it surpassed last years cards ten fold.  We got a overwhelming amount of love from friends and family on the theme of it, that the pressure for next years card is definitely on.  Luckily, I already have a theme brewing!

Happy Holidays!