This year I wanted to do something special for Mike at Christmas. Since we've been married we've both worked 40+ hour weeks and felt like we didn't have much time to do little things. Now that I'm home with our Little Miss, I have more time available. I've read some ideas for couples to do for Christmas and decided to do the 12 Days of Christmas for my babe. I came up with all 12 ideas based on what Mike would enjoy.
May this inspire you to do something special for your love too.
1. Box of Andes Mints - One of Mike's FAVORITES during Christmas. He always finds a couple boxes in his stocking.
2. Baby Handprints - I wanted to incorporate something of Kensington in here for him. After all she is our biggest blessing!
3. Date Nights - Living with my parents requires dates nights for us.
4. New Songs - We love downloading new songs from iTunes and Mikes has been buying up quite a few recently to make some crazy good playlists for us.
5. Hours of Gaming - Mike loves his video games, but rarely get to play so I think he'll like this little add in.
6. Cold Beers - do I really need to elaborate?
7. Back Massages - Stressful jobs call for relaxation! This is perfect for our Friday Night Movie Nights and date nights to come.
8. Packets of cocoa - Mike's favorite are Swiss Hot Chocolate with Mocha, great to make at work.
9. Homemade Cookies - I will be making peanut butter cookies with kisses in the middle.
10. (Ten) Dollar Gift card - to Starbucks of course!
11. Love Quotes - Mike has kept a journal full of his favorite quotes since we were in high school.
12. Kisses - Hershey Kisses and some real ones too!
Every other year we spend Thanksgiving with my sister & her family and friends in California. So far we haven't spent more than one year in the same place which makes it pretty fun. We all chip in and rent a house on the beach usually around the Los Angeles area and spend an entire week full of sand, sun & fun.
This was Kensi's first plane ride and I hope she is always as easy as she was on this trip. The only hiccup we had was dealing with ridiculous women in the restroom who seemed to think the diaper changing area was strictly for makeup applying and hair curling...yes hair curling...who does this? I encountered this twice on the way to California. Once in the Las Vegas airport and then again at LAX. To top it off.....they looked at me as if I was the crazy one for needing to change Kensi's diaper on the changing table! Heaven forbid!
With that chaos behind us, Kensi did develop a little cold with a runny nose towards the end of the week, but luckily a little Children's Tylenol and some Little Nose's saline have helped tremendously.
At the end of our block was this very imaginative playground shaped like a pirate ship. The kids loved it to say the least.
Mike trying out C's rip-stick (?) for the first time. No worries---he didn't fall :)
Kensi tried out a swing and really enjoyed it.
We drove up to Santa Barbara to do a little shopping. It was the first time we had been there and the downtown is beautiful. I found one of my favorite paper stores, Paper Source, and picked up a few items. I would visit this store every time we were in the Bethesda area in Maryland. Seriously one of MY FAVORITE STORES! It literally has everything paper which I love....another addiction. Seriously, anything paper, fabric, mini and everything in-between sucks me in.
We spent as much of our time as we could on the beach. The boys built their sandcastles as us girls soaked up some rays.
Kensi's first time seeing the beach. It put her to sleep after about 15 mins.... real life sound machine!
This year while at our beach we spotted dolphins and seals. Kensi absolutely loved wiggling her little toes in the sand! I swear each holiday out-does the last....I thought baby toes and pumpkins were adorable, but toes in sand for Thanksgiving out-did that and I'm betting toes and Christmas twinkle lights will beat that too.
Love her little turkey butt!
We made a Thanksgiving feast as usual with Turkey, Crunchy Beans, Sausage Stuffing, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and of course Pie. We had 4 pies: Apple, Pumpkin, Coffee Oreo, and Reeses.....so delish!
She tried mashed potatoes for the first time too, then of course crashed out afterwards.
Mike took our nephews out at midnight for a little Black Friday shopping. We do this every year together, but Kensi's little cold held me back. We did go Friday morning together, it wouldn't be the same if it wasn't Black Friday morning with a little coffee....our tradition.
Our gorgeous view from the back of the house.
Since we were in California we couldn't spend the day picking out our Christmas tree and decorating. Instead we played with the kiddos and settled in to watch Elf and Arthur Christmas as a full group of 15.
Kensington was loved so much by her cousins and our friends. It was rare if she didn't have someone to play with her.
Kensi's first time meeting her cousins.
Now that we're back home we spent today getting our tree, plus a mini one for Kensi's room, and pulling out our decorations. Stay tuned for a post all about our decorating!
We hope all of you in the States had a great Thanksgiving and to everyone else....Season's Greetings!
