2023 Family Pictures & Our Christmas Card Shot

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

We've been taking photo Christmas cards and mailing out cards every year since we got married in 2004.  My mom started the tradition when I was little.  She'd snap pictures, turn in the film and hope she got a good picture.  I mail out a lot of cards each year.  It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  And we all look forward to checking the mail in December and seeing our friend's faces show up in our mailbox.

My parents met us at University of Evansville to snap some pictures for us.  They've done this several times and it's so helpful.  We scheduled it after school, after work and before the sun set.

 

Of course we postponed because of cold weather. 

Of course the weather was much warmer than we expected the next week so we had to change outfits last minute.  

Of course one of the kids outgrew all of their pants overnight.  

Of course the time changed that week and we had to scramble to squeeze in pictures before the sun set.  

And of course the very first picture we took was the best one of the night!

 

Family pictures are always so much work - especially for mom - but it's always worth it!

Our 2023 card:

Our favorite pictures from the photo shoot:

I loved all the smiles and expressions from everyone here.  It captures the 2023 version of us perfectly.

The Fall leaves on campus were so pretty!  These were all close contenders for favorite shot!

Leo picked up more things and smiled less as the pictures dragged on for him.  It's hard to be 3!

We stopped by to see the new clinic afterwards and the kids were thrilled to be done!  We promised them a delicious dinner at their favorite spot afterwards and a little arcade money if pictures were easy.  Good deal for everyone!

Congrats to all of you who also survived family pictures and ended up with sweet Christmas cards this year!

Christmas House Tour

It's time for a Christmas house tour!  This will be our second Christmas in our house and the first year that everything feels just right.  It's our 7th house to decorate for Christmas.  And that is a fact that newlywed Whitney never would have been able to comprehend.  God's plan for our lives has been very different and very wonderful that I imagined back in 2004.  

We have trees in all the right spots.  I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  I love traditional red and green anytime I can use it and the kids are in charge of the trees in their rooms.

Let's get started!

Remember when I said the first thing we needed to change when we bought the house was the red front door??  Well, 2 years later - it's grown on me and it suits the white and black exterior.  I love the candy cane vibe at Christmas time.  I have also figured out the wreaths and decor that works best on a red door.  So it's staying.

Just a few decorations in the kitchen.

Our room has a travel tree in it!  We have been collecting ornaments from all the places we've traveled for the last 20 years.  It's one of my favorite trees and collections.

Our entryway!  My green tree collections looks so nice with our new trim in the background.

My lemon garland is holding up perfectly and this is my favorite mantle I've done here.

We always get a real tree for the family room.  This is the biggest tree we've ever gotten.  It smells amazing which is a good distraction from the needles it is dropping :)  It's full of our favorite family and kid made ornaments.

A few of our shelves are decked out for Christmas.  Almost all of the painted Santas you see on the tour are from my parents.  My Dad cut them all out and my mom painted them.  They had quite the craft business going when I was younger!  They'd set up at Christmas craft shows and sell all kinds of painted wood decor.

Olive's room.  Her ornaments are so sweet.  She's been collecting ornament since she was a baby.

She added Stitch to her tree this year.

Leo's tree.  Lots of lions!

Fletcher's tree!  He requested his own tree this year.  He's always shared with whomever his roommate was, but this year he wanted his own.  It worked out to be great.  

He got a fishing ornament for his tree this year.

We put the silver tree from the upstairs family room in Fletcher's room and got a new tree for the family room.  I accidentally ordered a colored light tree on a super Black Friday sale and my kids were THRILLED.  They say it's their favorite tree.  I added lots of bows and lots of fun ornaments.  With me having a November birthday - I've collected ornaments for my whole life.  I have some fun ones and plus fun kid ones on this tree.

I got rid of a lot of decor this year and focused mostly on trees!  We each love our trees and I don't have so much stuff sitting around.  It feels like a good style for us.

Merry Christmas!

A Trip to Santa Claus, Indiana

Welcome to Santa Claus, Indiana! 

My parents grew up not far from here and have a house here.  I have always wanted to take the kids up to Santa Claus, Indiana at Christmas time and I made it happen this year.  We had a free Saturday and my parent would be at their house in Christmas Lake.  Perfect!  I had our elves help me with the surprise road trip.

The kids found them waiting on our van Saturday morning with a cute Christmas Stitch stuffed animal for each kid.  They were so excited!

We hopped in the car and made the quick 45 minute trip to my parent's house at Christmas Lake.  Their new patio has a prefect view of the lake.

Their house is decorated for Christmas year round up there.

The rain stayed away and it ended up being a perfect day.

We did a lot of fossil hunting, hide and seek and then we headed out to do some Christmas fun.

Santa's Candy Castle was awesome!  There is no charge to get in.  There are rooms and rooms full of candy.  There is a PEZ room when you walk in and then you can find everything from Jelly Belly jelly beans to Reindeer Snot slime.  You make your way through the rooms of candy and then the final room is the check out area and specialty made foods.  There is fudge and candy and FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE.  You can also get souvenirs like ornaments, shirts and more.

The kids loved seeing all the candy and picking out one to bring home.

We shared a frozen hot chocolate. It was delicious!

There are Santa photo ops all over the place.

Next, we went to the Santa Museum, post office, church and more.  There is no entrance fee and you just go at your own pace.  They have tons of holiday things happening in the month of December so be sure to check out the schedule online.

The vintage trains were a favorite.  They have buttons all around so that the kids can control the sounds and drive the trains.  It was such a neat display.  You can see Santa at the museum for free. He seemed wonderful and you snap your own pictures.  We'll go here next year for that.

The boys loved all the photo spots.

You can write letters to Santa and he'll write you back.  There are ladies there to help make sure you get Santa's information correct.  Leo was the only one who wanted to write to Santa here.

We all loved the museum, the history and the murals.

Fletcher loved spotting The Grinch!  This restaurant had a whole Grinch section.

There were food trucks set up and we got to enjoy Ben's pretzels.

We all had such a fun Christmasy day!  It's definitely worth the drive for the day.  There are light displays and shows at night and cabins to stay for longer.  We are already looking forward to going back next year.  We want to try the pizza places and the Santa brewery.