Pre-Christmas Chirstmas

Our Little Family celebrated Christmas on the 22nd, because we were going to be in Utah with our family on Real Christmas, and I just didn't want to pack all the gifts.

River ran out and was amazed at all the gifts. He liked opening them, more than I thought he would, which was really cute. The Tool Bench was a hit!

My handmade gift to River was a play mailbox with felt letters and for Skyler I finished our Animal Spotting Game (not pictured).

Charlie got a big giant bone, which River carried all morning.

It was a really fun and relaxed morning. 

River finished the Christmas festivities eating chicken nuggets while playing with his new "laptop".

Georgetown Christmas Market

We drove up into the mountains to go to the Georgetown Christmas Market to get ourselves in the christmas mood. It was the cutest little town with really neat old houses and Churches, but the market was only so-so and the parking and crowds were crazy!

We did enjoy some really yummy apple strudel with vanilla sauce and 

saw bighorn sheep along the canyon wall.

We found THE MOST AWESOME playground, Foster's Place Playground. It was huge tree fort/hobbit house with lots of places to play and climb around on. River loved running around with Skyler, sliding down slides, playing in a patch of old snow, and his first time on a tire swing.

It was just nice to be out playing in the mountains together as a family.

Blossoms of Light

To begin celebrating Christmas we bundled up and went to see the Blossom of Lights at the Denver Botonical Gardens on 10th and York.

River's awesome bear fleece to keep warm. Thanks Leslie and Trevor!

via www.botanicgardens.org

If you look in the upper right corner you can see part of the girls' body that fell right
as i took this picture. See her white jacket? Kind of funny. 

Check out those rosy cheeks and nose. No Worries, this was just a funny face he made, he really did have a fun time. He was "talking" as we walked around, which means he's good.

It was fun to spend time together as a family. 

Although a little chilly, it was fun to walk around with the sparkling lights and soft falling snow. River liked seeing the lights, Skyler liked sliding around on the icy walks, and I liked spending time with my two favorite boys.

River meets Santa

Durring a random stop to take a break from traffic on the way back from Colorado Springs, we stopped  into the Pro Bass Shop and who should appear?

Jolly Ol' Saint Nicholas!!

Thank goodness Santa had little candy cane treats and the lady behind the camera snapped this before River knew what was going on. 

Thanks Pro Bass Shop for the free photo!

Celebrating in Estes Park : Catch the Glow Parade

The Day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Estes Park with our awesome friends, the Clarks, and went to the Catch the Glow Parade and other festivities. It was way fun. We usually don't get into the holiday spirit until right before Christmas so this was really nice to starts things early.  They had an awesome reindeer and I thought his wrangler was equally as awesome.  We went and shopped the mountain shops on Elkhorn Ave, grabbed some free cookies, and watched the parade. It got pretty cold and we were all bundled up, but we really had a great time. 

Thanks Rachel for finding such a fun thing to go do!

via visitloveland.org

via www.eptrail.com

Looks like River is in the early stages of hyperthermia ;)

It was so much fun to be in a little mountain town. It made me miss living in Loveland and being so close to all that., but I don't miss being so far from everything else. We'll have to go up next fall during the Elk Rut. That's always an exciting season. 

Christmas Day

River's first Christmas and our first Christmas away. River boy is still too little to travel and be around all those germs. So we hunkered down in our warm little house with decked halls, and snuggled together during the holiday.

We did our best to keep family traditions and start our own little family traditions.

Here are some of our family traditions:

- Advent calender for the month of December

- Christmas Eve Fried Shrimp - yum yum

- "Open me first" gifts that are PJs- (thanks mom!)

-Star Wars Movies

-New Ornament for every one 

(River got a Star, Skyler got batman, and I got a camera ornament)

-Christmas Ham Dinner

-and Baby's first Teddy Bear

What are some of your traditions that make the holiday bright?

It was hard to be away, but thank goodness for skype. We got to talk to both our families, which made it feel like we weren't so far away.

We hope you had a very merry christmas! 

We sure had fun celebrating the birth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.

* the briggs