To be busy.

December is always a crazy fun month.  We definitely don’t need to find things to keep us busy!  Here is a bit of a picture walk through December. As the month is drawing to a close and we are approaching the start of a new year, we give thanks for all the moments and memories made together.

Decorating our gingerbread house is always a fun family tradition.  This year we had a bit of a frosting fight 🙂

The bigs ran in the Frisco Santa Dash.  To keep warm at the start, they participated in a Gangnam Style flash mob.

Once again, Frisco Elementary oohed and aahed us with their holiday music program.  A couple of the highlights from the show were the 5th grade playing Ode to Joy on the recorders, a kindergartener panicking about a lost necklace during the finale and all my kids on one stage for one year of elementary school 🙂

Celebrating Christmas with the Werschky side of our family.  It was so awesome of them to drive up to our house this year!  The kids loved spending the day with their cousins.

Christmas morning.  Santa was good to all of us this year.

Some of the top gifts this year:

Paige~ drum kit (yep, you read that right)

Alice~ Ugg style boots

Sam~ Mario for the Wii

Mason~ Lego fire truck

What?!?!?! No!!!! Get your mind out of the gutter!!!

Snow, people!!!! We are getting some good snow and we are loving it!

This past Thursday (and the one before) Scott and I dropped the kids off at school and headed out for a ski tour of Mayflower Gulch.  We skinned up a couple of miles, took two thousand pictures (just me) and then skied down through some super cool powder. This is definitely my kind of skiing; no lift lines and no people.  Just Scott and I (and one lone tele guy) enjoying the beauty of Colorado.   I kept stopping to take in the beautiful views.   Mayflower Gulch is gorgeous in the summer or the winter and is definitely one of our favorite places.  When you get to the top there are some remains of super cool old mining cabins.  I love to imagine how those pioneers made it all the way up into the gulch and how tough the conditions must have been with no electricity, heat or running water.

It was an awesome morning and my date was pretty cool too 🙂

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  We have had a busy holiday season at home and at work so I am enjoying a couple of weeks off with my babies.

In the wake of the tragedy in Connecticut, I am once again reminded that our life here on this Earth is short.  We should love our spouses, treasure our babies (no matter the age) and keep our family and friends close, be it in thought and action.

As the holiday season quickly approaches I am also reminded that, instead of getting buried in cards, presents, decorations, holiday parties and commitments, we should stop, take time to breath and enjoy the season.  Earlier this week, I was frantically debating between two pictures of my kids for the Christmas card.  I knew that if I didn’t decide soon, my cards wouldn’t go out in time and they might be late.  And then I stopped. I realized that chances are nobody remembered what my cards looked like last year or when they arrived or if they even received one from us.  Are these silly cards really worth that much worry and time?  No.  I picked a picture, ordered the cards and went and made cookies with my kids.  Because they matter, my kiddos.  Not the Christmas cards or the bulbs that are out at the very top of our tree or the Advent calendar that we forget to add to EVERY DAY.  It is the precious time that I have with my kids and Scott and all the others that I care about.

Have I told you lately….that I love you.

(Thank you Rod.  BTW, did you know that there is a Rod Stewart look alike in West Palm Beach.  Really.)

No. Seriously.  I love you.

Jennifer

I try and walk to work, at least a couple mornings a week.  It is such a beautiful walk that on Wednesday I decided to grab my camera and get some shots on my way to the store.  It is a short walk but a great time for me to be alone, quiet and enjoy all that God has granted us.  It is such a blessing and an awesome way to start my day!  We have had a few days of snow this month and (even though I hate being cold) the fresh snow on the mountains takes my breath away.  I hope you can find peace in your day, even in the smallest ways.

Jennifer

This morning we all got bundled up for our annual family Christmas tree hunt.  It was a bit cold and starting to snow but we pushed through and found the perfect 2012 Christmas tree.  We actually found two, one for the Frisco shop and one for home.  The best part about our hunt for the perfect tree was that it only took about a half an hour 🙂 As much as I love to joke, this is a family tradition that we look forward to every year.  We must have a unanimous vote and everyone gets input.  Sooo, this afternoon we got our tree up in the stand, decorated with lights, ornaments and those blasted beads that get tangled by just looking at them.

 

Merry Christmas,

Jennifer

This year we did things a little bit differently for our Thanksgiving holiday.  We packed up the kiddos and headed south to a warmer, less dry climate; Florida.  We joined the Werschky side of the fam for some seriously much-needed vacation time.  The kids had a blast swimming with their cousins and I watched from my deck chair.  Fun was had by all 🙂  Sooooo, here are a few of the way too many pictures I took.  Again, many thanks to my parents for an awesome trip.  It was so nice to get away for a few days!

One of days in Florida we decided to surprise the kids and take them up to Orlando to Universal and check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  If you didn’t know, we have a few crazy Harry Potter fanatics over here.  Sam has read the entire series at least 3 times, Alice is working through book 6 right now and Paige is half way through number 2.  We didn’t tell them why we were taking them on a 2 1/2 hour drive and they didn’t suspect a thing until we were pulling into the park.  They all agreed that the mysteriously long drive was totally worth it 🙂  We got to tour Hogwart’s, go on a lot of fun rides, check out a hippogriff up close and personal, sip some butterbeer, buy wands and taste fudge flies and   Bott’s Every Flavor Jelly Beans (Sam’s tried the vomit favored bean and almost did).

So many thanks to Scott’s parents for giving the kids an early Christmas present and buying their tickets into the park.

We could not have asked for a nicer week.  We all came home, relaxed and refreshed, ready for another busy season at the Wescott house.  We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

Jennifer