Visiting Santa Claus on Larimer Square in Denver

This past week has been one of the kids favorite weeks of the year. They have been so excited for Christmas, counting down the days on their special calendar. On Christmas Eve we had our now traditional dinner at home with a smorgasbord of goodies and champagne.

Christmas Eve dinner at home

As we put the kids to bed we told them that they had to sleep in until it was light and sure enough it was 7am before Anna came into our bedroom excited to go downstairs. We had left some milk and cookies out for Santa and some carrots and spinach for the reindeer. When we all came downstairs in the morning all the food was gone much to the kids delight. Then the present opening fiesta began.

Zoo lights on Christmas night

While we didn’t have a white Christmas, it did snow 6″ on Christmas night. The storm began as the sun was going down when we headed to Zoo to check out the lights. This has become something of a Christmas Day tradition and this year, with the snowstorm, we had the zoo virtually to ourselves, at least at the start of the evening. It was obviously very cold, so we didn’t last long, but it was magical with the lights and the snow coming down.

Anna with her birthday celebration in Des Moines

On Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed to Iowa. I think the kids were more excited for this trip than they were for Christmas. When we arrived at Baba and Grandpa’s house at 7pm the kids raced out of the car to say hi. Then, this morning when their cousins came they were deliriously happy.

After breakfast Jude and Anna had their belated birthday celebration with cake and everyone singing happy birthday. There was some exchanging of presents and then a day of play and watching football.