Happy Holidays 2016
Christmas this year was kinda low key... but we were all kinda thankful. It was so nice to be home, cozy with our family, animals and friends.
The holidays must start off with cookies, right?! Well, I believe that is true, and one of my favorites for the season are these little balls of goodness - cardamom cookies. Rich, buttery cookies with a dash of real cardamom. That's right - I get pods and open them up for the seeds inside and grind them fresh. They are fragrant and flavorful, and feel oh-so decadent!
We took these and others to the Weagraff's for Christmas Eve. I gave Kaity a tin of cookies and she gave me one - worked out perfectly! The kids had a grazing-style dinner... in that they kinda grazed by the table, took a couple nibbles and moved on. What can I say: we're not real formal for some of these holiday meals!
Presents!! The kids were of course focused solely on this task. They loved all they received and all they gave. It's so much fun watching kids open gifts at Christmas! One of their favorites were the Poppers from Nana & PopPop. These were a big hit.
Also from Nana & PopPop were very special gifts for Kurt, Kaity and I. Growing up all of us started listening to mom and dad's album collection, which was sparse, but contained a number of Beatles albums. We fell in love - each of us in our own time. By the time Kurt got to the collection the jackets were scribbled on, dog-eared and well loved, the albums played perfectly though! Well, mom and dad had three of our favorites matted and framed for us this Christmas - Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour. These gifts mean so much to all three of us. We still love the music, and are passing it on to our kids (Van is already a huge Beatles fan!).
On Christmas morning at home there were two boys up before the crack of dawn! Now, when I was growing up we had to have coffee ready for mom and dad when they got up at 7. With the invention of the Keurig that's not necessary, but we do continue the tradition of letting mom and dad sleep until at least 7am. There was a lot of Minecraft and Star Wars this year. Both Van and Wes were so, so siked at their haul.
I had a weak moment early in the Christmas shopping season and picked up these air poppers. As you can see above the boys LOVED their new weapons. Maggie and Molly however took cover and cowered until all the ball were lost. (the dogs really don't like popping noises)
As we said goodbye to the holidays and to 2016 in general we loaded our snowshoes in the car and headed to the mountains. On New Year's Eve we hiked up to Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. It was a gorgeous bluebird day! The boys did an amazing job snowshoeing through packed snow and deep powder (Van preferred the latter). There was so much snow we couldn't tell we'd hiked out ON to the falls! Our cheeks were flushed and warm when we got back to the trailhead. It was a great way to say farewell to a very exciting year.
We took these and others to the Weagraff's for Christmas Eve. I gave Kaity a tin of cookies and she gave me one - worked out perfectly! The kids had a grazing-style dinner... in that they kinda grazed by the table, took a couple nibbles and moved on. What can I say: we're not real formal for some of these holiday meals!
Presents!! The kids were of course focused solely on this task. They loved all they received and all they gave. It's so much fun watching kids open gifts at Christmas! One of their favorites were the Poppers from Nana & PopPop. These were a big hit.
Also from Nana & PopPop were very special gifts for Kurt, Kaity and I. Growing up all of us started listening to mom and dad's album collection, which was sparse, but contained a number of Beatles albums. We fell in love - each of us in our own time. By the time Kurt got to the collection the jackets were scribbled on, dog-eared and well loved, the albums played perfectly though! Well, mom and dad had three of our favorites matted and framed for us this Christmas - Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour. These gifts mean so much to all three of us. We still love the music, and are passing it on to our kids (Van is already a huge Beatles fan!).
On Christmas morning at home there were two boys up before the crack of dawn! Now, when I was growing up we had to have coffee ready for mom and dad when they got up at 7. With the invention of the Keurig that's not necessary, but we do continue the tradition of letting mom and dad sleep until at least 7am. There was a lot of Minecraft and Star Wars this year. Both Van and Wes were so, so siked at their haul.
I had a weak moment early in the Christmas shopping season and picked up these air poppers. As you can see above the boys LOVED their new weapons. Maggie and Molly however took cover and cowered until all the ball were lost. (the dogs really don't like popping noises)
As we said goodbye to the holidays and to 2016 in general we loaded our snowshoes in the car and headed to the mountains. On New Year's Eve we hiked up to Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. It was a gorgeous bluebird day! The boys did an amazing job snowshoeing through packed snow and deep powder (Van preferred the latter). There was so much snow we couldn't tell we'd hiked out ON to the falls! Our cheeks were flushed and warm when we got back to the trailhead. It was a great way to say farewell to a very exciting year.
Comments