Christmas Day 2016

Christmas was wonderful but apparently I spent more time enjoying the moment than documenting the fun with pictures, which is I suppose the way it should be. Here are a few pictures of the girls opening their presents from us and Santa.

After we finished opening presents at our house, we headed to my parents' house and opened presents with them and my sister. Didn't get any shots of that action, but I did get this pic of Olivia and my dad playing with the new chess set they gave her. Smart little cookie! She tried to teach me a few days later and I'm still confused. Ha ha.

After a tasty brunch with my family, we came home, relaxed a bit, and started to prepare for hosting dinner at our house. Yusaku's parents came over a little before dinner so we could exchange gifts with them. The kids got a fun magformer set where you can build your own robots and Obaachan and Ojiichan worked together to build the girls a beautiful doll couch.

building a robot

We had a delicious dinner, including my new favorite holiday recipe, Brussels Sprout Gratin! I sopped up every last drop and if it wasn't such a labor of love, I think I'd make it every week! After dinner, my parents and sister exchanged presents with Yusaku's parents and we had a nice time hanging out and visiting. It was a wonderful Christmas!

the best picture I have of the whole group before we started eating
at least Olivia is smiling, even if her eyes are closed ;)

Playing Olivia's new Spot-It game from my parents

Natalie playing with her new Scratch Art with Aunt Sarah

This is the "I remembered at the end of the night that I didn't
have any pictures of the four of us" picture

Christmas Eve 2016

Per our usual tradition, we went to mass at St. Charles with my family and then returned to my parents' house for a dinner of stuffed shells afterward.

After dinner, we came home, let the girls open one present (new Christmas pjs - a yearly tradition), hung our stockings and left milk and cookies for Santa and of course, a carrot for Rudolph. We finished off the night with the annual reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

It's a BOY!!!

Yusaku and I went in for our 20 week ultrasound and were SHOCKED to find out that we are having a boy! We are excited and to be honest, I'm also a little nervous about what to expect having never had a boy before. I'm sure we'll figure it out as we go! He looks like a healthy little guy, which we are very thankful for.

November Phone Pics

Looking back at November, it was a pretty beautiful month with lots of time spent outside and with family. Time at the park with friends, hiking in Germantown Metro Park, seeing the Trolls movie with Leslee, Quinn, and Connor, and of course, Thanksgiving were some of the highlights.

My eager little voting partner. This is when we were still filled with
hope and excitement before the devastating results came in.

enjoying the carpet of ginkgo leaves at Smith Shool

our beautiful street

Olivia's beautiful school

 The following group of pictures are from Germantown Metro Park. Such a lovely hiking spot.

enjoying more beautiful weather (and throwing pebbles
in the water) at Hills and Dales

at Olivia's Thanksgiving Luncheon at school

silly faces with Aunt Sarah

the whole group at the "yellow springs"