As usual, the place was elegantly decorated for the occasion and there was a variety of delicious appetizers for us to snack on while we opened presents.

After presents we had a delicious dinner, which I guess I didn’t take any photos of. And that was Christmas!

Christmas morning Eleanor woke us up excited to find that Santa had indeed come just like we said he would, and had even eaten the cookies and drank the milk we left out for him! Eleanor very impatiently waited for Josh and I to clean ourselves up a bit, and get my camera ready, before ripping into her gifts.

We didn’t go crazy this year. She barely plays with most of the toys she already has, preferring instead to build castles out of pillows and blankets and couch cushions. So we just got her a few things we thought she would like. Including a box of legos, which I’ve seen her have fun with at school. Unfortunately, she has barely played with them at all at home.

We also got her talking Ferb & Perry dolls (from her current favorite Disney show Phineas & Ferb). We had bought her a Phineas doll at Disneyland as her one souvenir she was allowed, and since then she had complained that she did not have a Ferb or Perry to go with it.

She got some cute pink kids headphones, because she sometimes wants to sit and watch a show on one of our iphones instead of on the tv, and we thought it would be nice if we didn’t have to listen to what she was watching.

She was pretty amazed by them.

And lastly, Santa brought her, the thing she had been telling us Santa was going to bring her,  a DINOSAUR! That is almost as big as she is. It’s pretty cool. Or at least Josh and I think so. Unfortunately, she explained to us, Santa got it wrong! He was supposed to bring her a REAL dinosaur that would crush our house!

Since we’re poor, Josh and I limited our gifts to each other to $30.

I got him this super nifty little wooden earbud holder from the etsy shop Acoustic Design so that his cords don’t get all tangled in his bag while he’s not using them. He got me a 2 year subscription to Vanity Fair! Sorry no photos of me. The ones Josh took were a little too blurry to use.

After present opening we had a special Christmas breakfast of cinnamon buns and chai tea! Delicious!

Christmas dinner with the family up later today!

Christmas Eve was about the same as usual. We went to my Dad’s place where he had all the extended family over. Baby Jack, as Eleanor always calls him, not just Jack, always Baby Jack, seemed a little overwhelmed by all the people and things to look at.

In the middle of dinner we were surprised by the choir from a local high school. My aunt had hired them to come and sing some carols for us. They were actually pretty good. It was kinda cool!

The extended family took off after dinner and our white elephant gift exchange. Once everyone had gone we opened our gifts. My brothers got their usual matching shirts, which is always pretty funny when we get to the third brother opening the same thing. I wonder what it will be!

Maria and I also got some matching t-shirts too.

Even Baby Jack opened some gifts. He was pretty excited about the wrapping paper.

It had gotten pretty late by the time we were done, and Eleanor passed out before we left. We got her home and straight into bed. And even though she was asleep I still managed to remember to put out some milk and cookies for Santa!

Christmas morning will be up tomorrow (probably)!

After dinner we exchanged gifts.

Josh and I along with his sister and sister-in-law Jenny got Josh’s dad an album of photos from their childhood, from their parent’s wedding through Josh and Beth’s graduations from high school. It was a project that I had been working on for literally years. I’ll dedicate a post to the album and the enormous project that it was later.

For now, I’ll say that Josh’s dad loved it.

We also made an album for Josh’s dad and step-mom of their wedding that I shot last year. They hadn’t gotten around to ordering an album from me and the day after Christmas was their one year anniversary, so I decided that I’d just choose their images and album design for them! Luckily they were very happy with it!

Eleanor also got some gifts that she was very happy with.

Christmas Eve with my family is up next!

Here are some of my favorites lights this year:

More holiday fun coming soon!

You see that vase of candy on my desk? It started out about 3/4 full. I was hoping that would last the month, but it doesn’t look like we’ll make it.

Over the years I’ve convinced him to get our Christmas tree earlier and earlier. Starting last year we began getting our tree on the earliest possible day, the day after Thanksgiving. Which is perfect for me because I don’t like to mix holidays anyway! And yes, I am very aware that the tree will be dry and dead by Christmas, I don’t care! I want to start Christmas as soon as possible and you really neeeeed a tree for it to feel like Christmas!

So the day after Thanksgiving we went to take Eleanor’s Four Year Portraits and then to pick out our tree!

No, we don’t cut our own tree. While I can see the appeal to choosing your tree and cutting it yourself I’m not a fan for two reasons. First, don’t like the type of pine that is grown in the cut-your-own lots. I don’t like those thin wispy needles that make a tree look so bushy. I prefer a Noble or Douglas fir, with thick needles and strong separated branches. Second, I have terrible memories of doing it as a kid. We would stand around bored while it took forever as my dad struggled to cut it down, always frustrated and always cut at an odd angle so that it was always crooked when we put it up at home. It really wasn’t fun. Picking out the tree was the fun part. So, that’s the part that I continue for our family.

We picked out a lovely 6 foot Noble Fir. I always want to go bigger, but Josh keeps me in check.  When we got home I put on the Christmas music and we got to tree trimming!

The rest of our holiday decor will be up for you tomorrow!

This year he chose Claim Jumper. The food and service were fine. Not great, just fine. The vegetarian option was a baked potato with veggies, which is not Thanksgivingy at all. But it was okay. We did seem to be rushed in and out, however, which was a little annoying. Each course came out quickly with hardly enough time to finish the one before it. We were in-and-out in a little over an hour.  All in all it was just fine, but didn’t at all feel like Thanksgiving.

To me Thanksgiving is about spending a whole day with the family eating snacks and appetizers, cooking dinner, setting the table, and putting up with my siblings watching football. Before I started dating Josh I had never actually heard of anyone having Thanksgiving at a restaurant. I mean, I knew that a lot of restaurants offered a Thanksgiving meal, but I had never head of anyone actually doing it. Now that I’ve done it, I know that it’s about as bizarre and non-Thanksgiving as I expected. We won’t be doing that again.

Luckily, my family is great about holidays and always making sure we all get to celebrate. So after Restaurant Thanksgiving we headed to my Dad’s to join him, my step-mom and siblings for dessert and football. AND I am ever so grateful for my amazing Mother who held her Thanksgiving on Sunday, which was a real Thanksgiving with appetizers and lots of vegetarian-friendly side dishes! I even convinced her to purchase a Heritage Turkey (read about Heritage Turkeys here) for the meat-eaters. Although much more expensive it was apparently delicious, so she’s ordered another for Christmas.

For some reason I only took food photos. I blame pregnancy exhaustion.

The food was delicious! Especially the dessert. My mom made bread pudding with butterscotch sauce, that was oh so good! And I made some homemade cinnamon ice cream to go with it. It was super good and pretty quick and easy to make!

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving too!

Thankfully, she also had a hand-me-down Tink dress (that was a couple sizes too big and needed some quick alterations) and she had received some wings for her birthday last year! So she was all set and Josh and I decided just to skip the costumes all together.

Eleanor was pretty excited about Trick-or-Treating this year, now that she had the hang of it. Although, she was a little candy-crazy this year and kept forgetting to say, “Trick-or-Treat,” and “Thank You.” She was more interested in what candy was being handed out and what was in her bucket!

We lasted about as long as it took to fill her bucket, around an hour and a half I think. She could have gone longer, but I was through walking, so we headed home to examine the goods.

And a month later we have just about run out of candy. Just a few pieces left. So sad. Can’t wait for next year!

p.s. I realize this post is very, very late, but at least I’m posting about Halloween before Thanksgiving!

We started celebrating Halloween the weekend before. We spent a day carving pumpkins and then went to check out some child-friendly and free haunted houses!

First we hit The House At Haunted Hill in Woodland Hills. It’s a really amazing yard and window display with a talking pumpkin as the narrator and projected images telling a story. It was very cool.

After that we headed to Boney Island in Sherman Oaks. It’s another amazing yard display featuring a cast of skeletons performing in various side shows. Including a musical cauldron water show! I was very impressed.

Up next, Halloween!