Annual Traditions with friends!

 We have done a New Year's day bike ride with our Zamoras for the last 4-5 years. I am working New Year's Eve and New Year's Day this year, so we decided to bump it early.  Yesterday we did our annual ride on the boardwalk to Mexican food, then we grabbed coffee and walked around Lido...

I love these people so much and I love the tradition we have to start our year together every year!!

Christmas in the Land of Red...

 We were in Redlands from Christmas day afternoon until the 28th.  There was lots of food, games, presents, hikes, laughing, crafting, visits to the library, watching movies, and just being together....

Time at the Rosies the day after Christmas:

My sister made an avocado toast charcuterie board:

There was a visit to the library:

The guys went to the desert for a shooting adventure:

We hiked part of the Loch Leven loop:

Then we grabbed lunch at the Tipsy Taco in Yucaipa:

It was really good!

Eden LOVING her cola in a bottle with her ramen:

This is it was home for pizza and games:

It was such a sweet few days with family celebrating the Christmas holiday season!

I's so thankful for our family!

Christmas Eve prep, a candlelight service, and Christmas morning...

 The day before Christmas Eve, we got together at church to organize cookie boxes for the families for the Christmas Eve services.  

After that, we headed down to Crystal Cove to see the tide pools with a record breaking low tide...

The Packiams had never seen a sea anemone and there were SO many!

They brought ice cream to the beach... 

I really love this group!

Also, Crystal Cove at Christmas is so special!

Christmas Eve we had everything prepped at our house for Christmas morning at home:

The day of Christmas Eve at church was so magical...  The kids and I served in the 4 year old class at the 3 pm service and then we attended the 5 pm service as a family.  Kit hosted all 4 services...

Our friend Keri sang and it absolutely wrecked me...

After cleaning up the church, we got home about 845p and made a steak dinner and watched "It's a Wonderful Life"... Such a sweet memory.  Once the kids were asleep, we pulled all the gifts out and Kit made a scene for Santa. 

We have already had the conversation with the kids about the reality of Santa, but it's still fun for them to wake up and see it on Christmas morning:

Christmas morning always feels so sweet and magical to me...

Eden loved her converse, art markers from Aunt Megan and Uncle Ryan, and her roller skates...

These shoes were the absolute favorite gift for Ryder...

Helmets and ski goggles were given in the anticipation of skiing in Shaver.

We read the Christmas story together.  We opened Christmas stockings together.  We ate a killer breakfast of cinnamon rolls made by our Futrells.

Traditional family photos:

Kit makes all the things magical and I am so grateful to do life with him and that we get to share these moments together...

Then we were off to Redlands...