Christmas 2014!

Lucas reminds me quite frequently that I need to update the old blog. So, here you go, Lucas!

We had quite an adventurous Christmas break, full of travels, snow, almost running out of gas in the middle of Texas, plus lots of family time!
Evan's school had a cute Christmas program. The boys got a pic with Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, and Evan got to dress up as a shepherd. He was really cute!

 We also went to Main Street Bethlehem in Burnet with some friends. Its quite the production put on by a local church and it was so neat to see! Just like being in a mini Bethlehem. Here are my boys getting in trouble with the law. Hopefully not a glimpse to the future...

 We hosted a little white elephant gift exchange at our place. I wanted the house to look like Buddy The Elf decorated... it wasn't nearly that good, but still pretty cute. We had lots of snowflakes up. Apparently Ben has mad snowflake skills...
We also decorated Christmas plates with sharpie and then baked it on. Apparently, Ben also draws amazing snowflakes freehand...

 We didn't know exactly when we were gonna leave for ABQ - before Christmas, after Christmas... But when Ben came home from work early on his last day sneezing with Cedar fever, I decided we should load up the car and get the heck out of Austin and away from the cedar! We drove from about 7:30pm - 1:00am. We stayed in a seedy hotel in some little town. I didn't sleep much at all that night. Partially because I took a caffeine pill at 8:30, and partly because the heater was blowing in my face, and also because I thought I could feel bugs crawling all over me (slight hypochondriac when I'm in seedy hotels). So, when Lucas woke up around 6:00, he was sent straight to the bathtub for reading time.

 We managed to get on the road at 8:30 or 9:00, I think. And got into ABQ on Christmas Eve, just in time to unpack and head to Old Town for dinner. We waited a long time for dinner, but luckily no one passed out from starvation or whining.

We had a fun Christmas in ABQ. Evan got the lego batmobile of his dreams (and recently purchased a second with his own money because he lost a piece of the first one it in ABQ). Lucas got some cool Harry Potter stuff, Ben got a new phone, and I got an amazing blender and a girls weekend away!

From ABQ, we went off to Phoenix. Boy, was it fun to have some warmer weather and be greeted by a beautiful sunset and a hike before pulling into town!

 We were lucky we made it back down the mountain before the sun set too far... it was pretty steep and we didn't have any flashlights with us. The boys loved the hike, though, and it was nice to use our bodies after all day in the car!

In Gilbert we got to play with the AZ cousins a bunch and even play in some manmade snow one day. AND on that very same day we got to swim in Ben's parent's beautiful new pool WITH cousins!

For New Year's Eve we stayed with Chris and Amy and their boys. We had fun staying up way too late playing games for a couple nights. Such a good time, though! And the boys had a blast running wild with their buddies.

After AZ, we rushed back to ABQ through snowy weather. I thought I had the flu on the way home - but Ben drove like a pro and got us there safely. I managed to sleep TEN hours that night. It was awesome - I woke up practically healed. We had a day in in ABQ to play around. We had to take advantage of our Madison time and play games since she's away at college now. We took the boys on a little walk by the Rio Grande Nature Center. And I got this pic of them hugging. See! They really do love each other. Really.