Hello, 1st Day of Winter

It's December 21st.

The OFFICIAL first day of Winter.

So far, we have built our first snowman of the season...

 And by "we", I mean Dannika and Nick, cause EVERYONE knows that this girl doesn't play in snow!

 AND YES...OUR SNOWMAN IS A DALLAS COWBOYS FAN!

BOOYAH!

My "punkin" had her last day of school for 2013.

I absolutely can not fathom the fact that this time next year, she will be a Kindergartener.

Seriously.

When did this happen?!

Last night, we put the kids in their Christmas jammies, got hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts, turned on Christmas music on Pandora, and drove around town to different neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.

 Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this idea, but I'm glad we did it!

On a side note, people in Orange County are so over the top with everything, and I was expecting the same out here (not knowing any better). 

While we did see some gorgeous lights, and Dannika thought ALL of the houses that had any sort of light was "beautiful and amazing", none of them really compared to the lights people put up in Southern California.

I blame the weather.

No one wants to spend hours outside in the freezing cold (like my husband did) to put up lights. 

I get it, New England...I forgive you, cause I sympathize with you and hate the cold too.

 After we got home, we sat in the living room and just hung out as a family watching TV.

 It was a perfect evening.

I find it harder during the holidays to find the motivation to work out daily.

I have managed to get my butt off the couch AT LEAST 5 times a week to crossfit and spin.

So we are renting our home here in Massachusetts, because we have no reason to ever want to move back here once the military takes us away from here again.

I forgot how nice it was to own a house, until we became renters again.

In the home we own in California, we had granite counter tops in every room in the house, and it's a little luxury that we took for granted until we moved to a home without one.

If you've never had the pleasure of having granite...it will seriously change your life...

Ok...maybe not your life, but it is really nice.

Thank God that our landlord wanted granite put into our house.

She let us pick out the granite, the sinks, the fixtures...everything.

She just wrote the check.

Oh, how we've missed you granite.

Lastly, my daughter and I wanted a "mommy/daughter" day.

She packed her little purse with lip gloss, bracelets, toys, and other knick knacks, and she couldn't wait for it to be "just us girls".

We were going to go to Michael's to buy arts and crafts suppies, then head to Ben & Jerry's for milkshakes.

WEEELLLL....

I forgot it's the last weekend before Christmas.

The traffic was crazy....horrendous....

And after 30 minutes sitting still, we turned around and headed home.

Dannika was so heartbroken, and I felt so bad.

So we ended up stopping at the CVS next to our house to get her a candy bar.

And in my best twangy Texas accent...

"People have dang lost their dang minds out there!"

I hope everyone's done with their Christmas shopping, and are getting to enjoy these last few days before the big day!

Merry Christmas!