We absolutely love, love, love the Christmas season, and this year was no exception!  We packed December full of holiday events and activities, and it was really special to be able to share them with our sweet Isaac.  Last year we were talking about how crazy it was that when Christmas came around again, we’d have a six-month-old little guy, and sure enough, it made for an even better holiday season than we could have expected!

We kicked off the season by going on a “special holiday date night” to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.  It was AMAZING!  Definitely not your typical Christmas concert, but wow — it was awesome and we had a great time!

It was fun to put up our Christmas decorations this year, and Isaac really loves the lights on the trees!  Mommy was trying to get a good picture of the family room decorations, and daddy was being funny by sliding Isaac into the pictures. 🙂  Our decorations always brighten up the house so much, and it was fun to see Isaac’s reactions to the lights and decor!

Last year while we were in Italy, we found some advent candles.  This was a Turley family tradition each Christmas season, but we haven’t been able to find the candles in a long time.  It was so fun to find them in Italy, so we bought some for all the Turley families and we hand-carried them back.  We were so glad to start this tradition with Isaac, which is to let the advent candle burn each night while we read a Christmas story.  He seemed to really enjoy it, too!

We love watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional each year.  This year it was wonderful as always, though we got a little distracted by our little guy — he only wanted to play and he was being so cute and silly!

On one of our first dates, we made a gingerbread house.  This has become a fun tradition for us each year — here’s this year’s masterpiece!

The Festival of Trees is always so fun!  The trees are amazing and it was fun to spend time there with some of our Turley family.  We especially loved the Las Vegas themed tree! 🙂

Some of daddy’s friends, Jan-Marie and Curtis, came to Utah to visit and stay with us, so we showed them the “Christmas light house” that’s just around the corner from where we live.  It was fun to show it to Isaac, too!  This family does such a good job and it’s incredible what they can do with lights!

For our Christmas gifts this year for our neighbors, mommy wrote a story called “The Christmas Bread” and daddy made over twenty of his famous loaves of bread.  It was definitely a labor of love, but it turned out to be a wonderful experience!  And, we even ended up with some extra bread that we turned into bread bowls one night with some really yummy clam chowder.  Daddy’s bread is the best!

Isn’t our little guy just the cutest?!  Sara sent these pictures one day, and we can’t get enough of them — or him!

Unfortunately every winter, Utah gets a really bad inversion and the air becomes so yucky.  However, the thick air makes for some really amazing sunrises and sunsets!  Utah is such a beautiful state!

We really enjoyed having a holiday dinner with the Title IX team!  The work can be so challenging, so it’s nice to have some time away from work to relax and reconnect, especially around Christmas.

The Saturday before Christmas, we took Hadlee out to dinner so her parents could get some last minute Christmas preparations done.  It was so fun to spend time with her!  Isaac really loves his time with cousins.  We enjoyed going to dinner at Chili’s and then we drove around to look at Christmas lights.  (We actually started this tradition last year, and it was fun to do it again this year!)

We loved doing a “breakfast for dinner” and cookie decorating party with our Turley family!  Isaac especially loved Aunt Ally’s light-up sweater and her dog, CC.

On the Sunday before Christmas, we were invited to the Greenhouse Church’s candlelight program.  It was beautiful and we loved being able to celebrate and worship with our neighbors and friends!  Unfortunately mommy got sick halfway through (Isaac passed on his flu), so we had to leave early, but it was still very neat to be there!

We love Christmas so much and it’s been a wonderful holiday season!  It’s always sad to see it come to an end, but we look forward to next year as well when we’ll be a family of four!