Holidays.

I love Christmas Eve: opening all of our gifts, wine, hors d' oeuvres dinner, laughing all night. and laughing at Mom for taking the tree down on Christmas morning. and for 8 years i've loved the early Christmas flight to Albany for another round of family, fun and memories. and wine.

Then we added the real fun and now it's about this guy:

and the other two

and dragging them to fanueil hall to see the decorations and crowds and the huge tree (you know this went south quick. and north. and east. and all over. boy can run.)

and watching jack try to pull his coat off. mittens? hat? impossible.

and it is about scoring a great shot with the kids all looking in the direction of the camera

and making tiny cupcakes for our elf, thomas.
(who didn't do a very good job of keeping matty well-behaved this year.)

and packing them up to show them off to my family. (this went south too. in the form of one twin who screamed much of the second flight. i won't say who, because the other did the same on the flight back to boston.) 

and it's about not fearing this, because they were all having so much fun.

no one fought over where to sit. ben even thought he had the throne!

unlike here where it was non-stop fighting rowdy toddlers to sit

it's about hanging with a new nephew

and cousin

and marveling in what a wonderful baby he is. and what great parents he has.

and it's still about christmas eve. in our jammies. with wine.

looks fun, right?

it wasn't technically christmas eve. and there weren't many real presents...

..but it was still the best yet.

we even started a (hopefully) new tradition. packing a trip within a trip

to the beautiful homestead resort where it drips with christmas: trees and skating and lights and running in our christmas outfits.

i think jack won.

and it is definitely about having a glass of wine..

..and actually enjoying it while dad chases the twins around and around (and around) an empty banquet room.

we tuckered these guys out good. even jack and ben were exhausted.

and it is about a dinner without the kids.

..and the new christmas miracle:

two college kids getting two toddlers to sleep!

kristin and nate are our favorite babysitters!!

thank you harters and lundys for celebrating early with us. i am getting weepy already thinking about the fun you will have tonight.