Christmas 2013

Here are just a few glimpses of our Christmas celebration. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos; I lost my camera on our trip to Yosemite in October, so I've only had my phone to use. This was the first time in many years that we stayed home for Christmas Day. It was lovely and full of fun. 

Our tree: probably my favorite one yet!

Santa came to the Apple Hill Clubhouse. Hayden was fine sitting with him, but Lawson wasn't too sure... 

 We took probably two dozen photos, but never managed a decent shot of everyone. These are a few of my favorites.

The number one item on Koen's list this year? A PayDay bar. Santa saw fit to bring him two.  

 Lawson decided that Santa had made a mistake. Surely that electric train was intended for him, right? Wailing ensued...

Kirk finally got his popcorn machine!

Hayden Turns One!

2013 Christmas Tree Cutting

One of our favorite holiday traditions is to go out into the forest to cut our own Christmas tree. Usually we go with my sister Grace's family, and most often we head up to Lassen National Forest. This year, however, we were going on Thanksgiving weekend, which guaranteed that our usual spot would be very crowded. We ended up heading into the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, out past the town of Platina, where we found the roads deserted and found amazing trees.  Ours was huge, as usual. As cut, it was probably 20 feet tall, but we ended up having to trim it down to about 18 feet.  Also, as usual, the day was full of fun. The kids got to play with my mom and their cousins, and we all enjoyed a bonfire and tasty lunch.

2013 Family Photos

One of my sister's good friends was so kind as to take our family photos for us this year. We didn't have any photos around that included Hayden, which was a disgrace as he's nearly one! We were fortunate to get a sunny November day and we spent some time down at Turtle Bay, where Shana managed to capture these wonderful shots of some very wiggly boys.