Merry Christmas!

The Christmas holiday is almost upon us and I am most definitely looking forward to it with much anticipation. Here are a few traditions we have in our family this time of year.

We always go to Zoo Lights, one of my favorite holiday activities. Every year it gets better and better. This year we lucked out and went on a warm night. We met up with some friends who are also Oregon Zoo members so it was lots of fun.


Kate, Bodhi and me


We also visited Santa. I was very excited to see Santa, despite the fact that we don't really do the Santa thing in our family. Esther, however, was not too thrilled with the guy in the red suit. Luckily, they managed to get one quick photo before the screams of terror began.


We decorated (and ate plenty of) cookies with friends.


Me and Kate enjoying our tasty treats.


This year we also rode the Holiday Express Train. I was thrilled to finally ride on a full-size steam engine. We went with our friends, the Smiths. Both of us forgot our cameras for the actual train ride, but Mom had hers in the car so we snapped a quick photo of our group before heading out.
Can you spot the unhappy person in the photo?


The train would blow it's very loud whistle and let off steam every few minutes and it happened to do just that right before this photo was taken. My poor little sister was not a fan.

We also made gingerbread trains later that day with the Smith family. Michael and I got distracted by all the toys though and Mom had a rough time keeping our little gingerbread train together! Yikes! Here she is with her train and her friend, Melissa, with her train. Melissa wants to have a gingerbread house making contest. Wonder who would win...


And here's one of us kids.



Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!