Santa Train 2017

I have been totally slacking on the blogging but life has been so crazy. I am hoping that as we settle into our new norm, I'll be able to blog more than monthly updates about our sweet boy. In the hopes of starting that trend, I wanted to do a little recap of our weekend adventure :)

Back in August when I was on maternity leave with a little time on my hands, I booked our tickets for Santa Train. Yep, we were booked to see the jolly man when it was 98* outside and I am glad I did. My friend tried to book in early October and most of the trains were sold out. It pays to be crazy. 

Saturday morning after swim class, we grabbed some lunch and then head to Walkersville Southern Railroad to catch the train.  I love the little ride on the train.  It's only about 5 miles (10 round trip) and it lasts about an hour, which is longer than we stood in line at the mall for Natalie's first visit with Santa. While we waited for Santa to get to our train car, we were able to snap some pictures of the kiddos in their matching Isla and Lily hoodies. I am completely obsessed with them, even if I feel like it makes my sweet baby look so grown up!

My whole world in one little square :)

Natalie was so excited to see Santa this year.  She even drew him a picture of the two of them which Santa was thrilled to get :)  I was excited to see what Natalie would tell the big man she wanted this year.  She has the best list (a magic wand, a magic candle, a tutu, a twirly skirt, a cozy sweater, books, her very own Alabama blanket [ROLL TIDE!]).  She ended up only asking Santa for a magic wand and my heart melted. 

And while big sissy was so excited to see Santa and share her list, Everett slept through the entire thing which made for the sweetest picture :)

All in all, it was a really wonderful experience.  Santa Train will forever be my favorite way to go visit the big man. Next year, I think we'll try to stay for cookies and hot cocoa with Santa and the Mrs :)

Halloween 2017

I have said it before and I will say it again, Halloween becomes the best holiday once you have kids. There is so much fun and magic in the day and thanks to Natalie (and now Everett too) I couldn't love it more.  My teammate, Jessica, is super into Halloween and when an office-wide email came out about dressing up, she jumped on this and next thing I know we've all agreed to be llamas.  I have never enjoyed dressing up. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable but I was not about to be the Debbie Downer on the team so my Halloween fun started much earlier in the day than I had expected.

the #SGFdreamteam

I snuck out of work 30 minutes early to avoid traffic heading home and I am so glad I did.  Michelle and Tim head to my house at my normal quitting time (4pm) and it took them 1.5 hours to get to the house when it only took me about 40 minutes to get home. I was happy to get home early so I could get some things straightened up around the house and get dinner started early.  The fact that Halloween fell on Taco Tuesday was an added bonus. I like to make little stuffed pepper jack-o-lanterns for dinner anyways BUT this year taco-lanterns happened and I felt like the most clever person on the planet. Nat and Tim aren't fans of stuffed peppers, but they love tacos so it ended up being alright and the kids actually ate dinner despite being unable to sit still.  

We attempted to get pictures of the kids before we went out but this was an epic fail. 

Nat wore her whole costume to Ms. Cheryl's but ditched the skirt at night

Poor Everett was the sweet little lion that I have ever seen :)

My favorite picture from last night. #hotmessexpress

Nat was so proud of her little lion brother

This year, we had planned for the guys to take the kiddos around so Michelle and I could drink wine hand out candy, but I got a text from Nat's little bestie's mom about possibly meeting up and decided it might be best if Michelle and I handled that.  It was chilly but not too bad so we bundled Everett up and he got to come with us.  He made it about a block before he was pass out patty. 

Love that I got to end my night with this little smiley guy :)

All in all, I think the kiddos had a pretty good Halloween :)

Christmas Traditions

I am so excited that Natalie is getting to a point where we can really start our own little family traditions for the holidays.  It is something that I have always looked forward to since Brandon and I got married.  Brandon and I combined traditions of his family and mine for Thanksgiving (we always do the football pool that his family did and we always go around the table and say what we're thankful for before dinner like my family did), but I am looking forward to coming up with some of our own for our little family.

We decided that Christmas Eve would always be breakfast for dinner.  It's one of those things that we both really love and why not have it on Christmas Eve.  When Natalie gets a little older we will come up with little ways to make it more festive - like a hot cocoa bar and green pancakes stacked to look like a tree or gingerbread man shaped french toast, but for now, we'll keep it simple.  And then after dinner, we'll open one present which will always be Christmas pj's and a holiday movie and book.  We'll all snuggle in for a movie and then read a Christmas book before bed.  I could not be more excited for this.  

Christmas Day we will have a light little something for breakfast before we open presents and then we'll have a big Christmas brunch complete with mimos for mama.  What's a holiday without a little champagne?! I grew up always having duck for Christmas dinner.  Brandon and I tried our hand at it last year and it did not go so well.  We decided that something fun to do that we both really enjoy would be Cornish game hens.  We haven't quite decided on the full spread yet, but we'll get it hammered down eventually. 

The idea of having these traditions each year makes the holidays so much more exciting for me.  I have already developed a new love for the holidays since having Natalie and I can only imagine that establishing traditions will make them even more fun, especially when we eventually add to our little brood.  I mean seriously, can you imagine two or three (or four) little Wilkinsons all in matching pj's snuggled in for a Christmas Carol. My heart could explode from excitement!

What holiday traditions do you look forward to every year?