christmas in colorado

We flew out to Colorado for Christmas this year, and loved being with family. It has continued to be challenging in some ways to live so far from family, and we really tried to treasure these days all together. 

 We exchanged cousin's gifts on Christmas Eve, to keep it a little special and separate from the mass of chaos that comes on Christmas day with 15 people's gifts. It was so fun to see the cousins be excited about what they got one another. Our gift this year was homemade PJ's (totally stole it from my own sister who did that for my side of the family last year - it's another feeble attempt to become more like her). They were a hit! All the kids loved them, and I especially loved seeing them all matching throughout our entire stay there. What a fun way to share something! 

We acted out the Nativity Story, and I think this really helped L fall in love with it. Don't mind our little scandalous-looking angel Lady-LE - she's not intentionally giving you shoulder, the dress just kept falling. :) 

 Another Christmas Eve tradition of reading a children's Christmas book with Nonnie. I think this is actually a tradition everyday to sit on the couch and reach books with Nonnie, and I am grateful for it.

 Christmas day! Sadly, no awesome pictures. At least from my camera. Church was beautiful in the morning, and we had the day pretty much covered with gifts and food and playtime. It was wonderful, and truly a beautiful day to share love throughout our family. 

 The day after Christmas we went out to play in the snow. Lady-LE was in heaven playing around and keeping up (or trying to) with the big kids.

 Oh my heart just melts!

 We ran and jumped and fell into the snow. Quite the turn-around from boy terrified of the snow here. Boy am I glad we're past that stage! 

 Kids with the finished Frosty - too bad you can't see his straw mullet-hair in the back. It was pretty sweet. And we followed this activity by teaching the kids how to have a snowball fight. Oh my goodness so fun!

 Everyone helped take down the ornaments on the tree. (basically an excuse to climb the ladder with permission)

 My kids didn't quite adjust to mountain time until the end of our vacation there. So I got to see beautiful sunrises like this outside. Positively breathtaking.

One thing that I LOVE about CO is that we always seem to get a few great-weather days to play outside in. Swings, slides, and playing chase. Perfect combination.

 L loved climbing up the slides and falling down. 

And we also got in a beautiful day at the zoo! 

 Up close and personal with the giraffes!

 We used to feed them crackers - but I guess they're on a new diet regime because we fed this lettuce this time around. I will never get used to the long tongues. Yuck!

You think the giraffe in the background was having a hard time chewing the lettuce? He doesn't look too happy.

We sure loved out time in CO this year! 

There's lots that I don't have pictures of - specifically the fact that my parents and younger sister K came out to see us while we were there! We got lucky enough to see both grandparents and spend time with both sides of families! Oh it was wonderful, and truly a blessing to have them come out. I'm grateful for G&C who were so accommodating and welcoming toward my family. We had a great time, and I hope to get more pictures from my sister and sister-in-law of the festivities. 

We love and miss you all already, and wish we lived closer and could do things like this more often! Thank you for making Christmas this year unforgettable!