My ♥

I don't know how we could have made it thru the last six months and the last few holidays without Mister Christmas.

Evan took this photo of us under the mistletoe at the Kloewer's.  There were people EVERYWHERE but somehow, he managed to snap this picture at just the right moment.

This photo is very special to me.

This man is VERY SPECIAL to me.

I love you, Scott.  

Happy New Year.

Christmas 2011

Here's a little peek at our holiday festivities,

including Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day...

I hope your Christmas was MERRY and BRIGHT.

Stay tuned for a look back at my year...

photo credit 

2012 is almost upon us and MY, MY, MY - I am ready for that!!!

What are your New Year's Eve plans?

Do share!

Finders of fun...

 I'm not going to lie.

Christmas was really rough for me this year.

But, these two inspired me.  They are so strong, and sweet, and sensitive, and they are growing into amazing young men.  They really blow me away sometimes with their kindness and compassion for others, including me.

They have really been enjoying their time at home, and I have been savoring every minute of it...

Whether they are playing in the snow...

...or enjoying a couple of "frappies" at Starbucks...

...they always manage to find the fun in EVERY situation.

They are so inspiring to me.

I hope you all had a VERY MERRY Christmas.

I will share some shots of our holiday, very soon.

Thanks for reading, my friends.

XO

Torture

I enjoy seeing the sights during the holidays, but there's no sight quite like seeing my dogs in a Santa hat and a Santa suit.

They torture me every day with their licking and their obnoxious behavior.

It's about time I torture them for a change.  

Don't you think?

Aren't they just ADORABLE????

(Even with that look of misery in their eyes.:)

Snowbound.

It's a cozy, wintery, lazy morning here at our house.

Here's what it looks like outside...

And, here's what it looks like inside...

The monkeys are lounging...

The pups are staying cozy...

Rodrigo is curious, as usual.

He is mesmerized by the snow outside.

We are all staying warm and RELAXING.  

I'm so glad all of my Christmas shopping is FINISHED!!

I just have a few presents left to MAKE. :)

Last night, we checked another holiday activity off of our winter break to-do list.

A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

I did the icing. (I'm pretty proud of those icicles!!!)  

The monkeys applied the candies.

I think we did a SPLENDID job!

This could be our best gingerbread house EVER!

Wherever you are, I hope you are staying nice and toasty!

Baking day!

Monday was BAKING DAY!

The monkeys and I went over to Natalie's house and we baked cookies all day.

The kiddos had a blast decorating the sugar cookies...

We also made chocolate button cookies, peppermint bark, and thumbprint cookies.

We were baking ANIMALS!!!

Speaking of animals...

...Bigsby even (reluctantly) donned his Santa suit for the occasion.

We are making a gingerbread house, tonight.

And Mister Christmas is bringing us a SURPRISE dinner!

Hope you are all staying WARM and FESTIVE. 

Things to do over winter break...

I must say, I'm really excited to see more of these faces over the next two weeks...

And the monkeys are soooooooooooo excited to be out of school!

We made a "TO-DO" list for the next two weeks.  Here are just a few things off the list:

Make a snowman.

Baking day.

Look at Christmas lights.

Make a gingerbread house.

Museum.

Make a fort.

Play dates and Sleepovers.

Movie marathon day.

Ice skating.

Roller skating.

Read. Read. Read.

Those are just a few - and we've already done a couple of them.  We are checking them off as we go.

We looked at Christmas lights on Friday AND Saturday nights.

Friday was our dear friend, Jef's birthday.  We started the evening with drinks and apps at LINGER,

and headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens to take in their beautiful lights.

(Hilarious picture.)

Good friends and great fun.  What a fantastic evening we had.

Happy birthday, JEF!!

On Saturday, we got hot chocolate and headed out for a look at some of our favorite holiday light displays from years past...

We started at the Kloewer's...

(Sadly, after 29 years of their holiday display, this is the Kloewer's last year.)

The monkeys will miss it.

These lights are only a block and a half from our house.

So pretty.

For some of you, this might be Christmas overload...

so I will wait until tomorrow to share pictures of our baking day with you.

Hope you are having a maaaaaaaaaaaaaarvelous week!