Happy Holidays.

Despite a weekend of being best buds with Nyquil, kleenex, and orange juice, we did get out and about this morning.  We had a little holiday brunch with the family after church.  That's right, we had breakfast with Santa this morning.  And he was the real one.  We know,  because he smelled like Santa, not beef and cheese.  Here's a quick pic of my brother's family.  Are they not the cutest lil fam you've ever seen?  Surprisingly Mas really LOVED Santa.

 Here's Mason telling Santa what he would like: a snow cone maker and cars to be exact.

 And then a couple of the cousins with Santa...

 And speaking of the holidays, we've been getting into the holiday spirit ourselves.  We put our 9' tree up last Saturday -- let's just say I was ecstatic to have a tall tree again.  I grew up in a house with Cathedral ceilings in our living room and we would always have 12' trees.  They were ginormous...and fantastic.   But anyway, here's a tall, skinny tree in all her glory.

We also put up a Nativity scene on our mantle.  We need a little something to go above it, but it's pretty much a replica of the one my folks had growing up.

We wrapped a lot presents last week, but it seems we've begun one of my favorite parts of the holidays this week -- Christmas baking.  I have so many memories of baking sugar cookies with my pops and Great Grandma Booie's "Swedish Wafers" with my mom...talk about Christmas traditions.  Today we mixed up some sugar cookies to bake up and decorate tomorrow.  I also made some double dark chocolate biscotti...I'll share the recipe soon :)

Oh, and last.  Mason is learning how to wink.  And it is the FUNNIEST thing EVER.  And yes, he has to keep his mouth open to wink.  Almost fell outta the pew in church today when he first showed us this lil trick ;)