Christmas Family Traditions

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and adding kids to the mix just makes it even more fun and amazing! Once Noah was born, Robbie and I really started to focus on what we wanted our Christmas traditions to be as a family. We have several we have done since before Noah’s first Christmas and some new ones I plan to add this year!

1.     Matching Pajamas!

This one is so fun to me. I love waking up on Christmas morning all matching. It can be tricky finding pajamas that work for everyone (like a picky husband) and it gets kind of expensive but I love doing this and hope I can convince my kids to match us for as long as possible :) I'm really excited for this years jammies! 

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2015

2.     Gingerbread decorating!

We started this last year and even tho Noah wasn’t quite big enough to decorate he loved being apart of it. This year we got a train because noah loves trains! He kept saying, “Alllll Aboard!” as he was stuffing as much candy into his mouth as possible. Yeah, this tradition is one I am sure our kids will forever love because you have to have lots of candy around and we typically don’t encourage a lot of sugar so it’s like a free for all. This kid was sugar high! Haha I have to let my OCD decorating to the side and let him be creative which is fun to watch.

Our cute house last year 

3.     Baked Ziti for Christmas dinner

Most families go with a ham or turkey but we’ve adopted this tradtion from my husband’s family and they’re Italian so of course that means pasta! Home made sauce and all. It is so good!

Christmas last year! Pasta equals shirtless baby! 

4.     Christmas Markets

While we were in Europe this was one of my favorite things to do. I loved going and enjoying the handmade décor you could purchase as well as the hot wine! We weren’t able to go to any this year since we moved back but I hope we find someplace special to visit in the states now that we’re back.

Munich Christmas market in Germany last year 

5.     A new ornament for the tree

The last few years we’ve found our ornaments at the Christmas markets but I am not opposed to a special target ornament either!

6.     Reading Christmas books

This includes our books about the true meaning of Christmas and The Night Before Christmas. I leave the board books out all season and the Night before Christmas we read on Christmas Eve.

7.     Cookies for Santa and a birthday cake for Jesus

This is a tradition we’re starting this year! I want to start baking cookies on Christmas eve as well as a cake in honor of Jesus because I want my kids to know Christmas isn’t just about Santa and gift giving!

8.     Elf on The Shelf

This is a new tradition we’re looking forward to starting next year!

Now I am dying to know… what are your Christmas traditions?! There are always room for more!

Ciao Italia!

We have been in a moving whirl wind! We made it back to the states…finally. It was a crazy experience. Delta lost our carseats, pack and play and our DOGS! Yup, we arrived to Denver and they had NO IDEA where they were. It was seriously so crazy. Thankfully, they were found a few hours later. The kids were so amazing on all of our flights. The longest one especially Noah was so great. He is such a busy boy who always wants to “run” and play so I was expecting him to be over sitting in his seat after a few hours, but he did so awesome. I am going to post soon some tips soon for traveling with kids!

Anyways, we made it back to AZ to visit with family and we will be in our new home of Utah next week! I can’t believe it! I am excited to see our new house and decorate it of course ;) That will be fun! Revealing each room on here! I am so not prepared for the cold weather though. The weather here in Arizona has been amazing. Noah has been outside non stop soaking in the sunshine. 

Before we had our house all packed up and got ready to move into the hotel on base I wanted to go say goodbye to one of our favorite nearby spots, Lago Di Barcis. We usually stop at the best café and get a donut on the way up there but they were closed! I was so bummed but I'll always remember going there...especially the time my mom visited after Noah was born. She loved that place! I have never seen the lake during fall so it was a treat! Very short lived since it was freezing and we forgot Noah’s coat at home. He loved throwing the leaves around despite how cold it was.

I also took the kids for a walk through our neighborhood one last time before we moved into the hotel. I wanted to take pics of the area to always remember those narrow streets and how pretty it looks there during Fall. I want to remember the area I took newborn Noah for walks and newborn Siena and the little park hidden behind the trees next to the church where I would take Noah to play. 

We first took a long stroll up to Castello where the old castle remains are that were covered in beautiful red leaves. I took Noah out to snap a few photos next to them. We will probably never get to say that we lived next to an old castle again. Italy livin’ was one of the best experiences of my life and I am sure going to miss it and the beauty of those Dolomite mountains.

Around the corner from our street

Castello D'Aviano

The church next to the park 

Our Street- The Golf course at the end of the street

I will miss traveling Europe and experiencing different foods and culture. I will miss how easy it was to sight see and just experience things I had only dreamed about seeing in “real life”. I will miss our favorite restaurant, Casa Bianca, the owner who knew our family so well and always gave Noah way too much candy as we left! I will miss the espresso, the amazing gelato shop close to our house, the pizza, pasta and pastries…basically all the carbs haha. I will miss Noah playing with the local Italian kids and the adults gushing over the kids. I will miss going to the antique market the first Sunday of the month and our town market every Tuesday. I will miss all the festivals and just ALWAYS having something to do! There is always something to see in Italy/Europe.

All good things must come to an end, right? I was sad to see this chapter of our lives come to a close but I know that God has more great things in store for our growing family. Being home and seeing Noah spend quality time with his grandparents and great- grand parents just validates those feelings. I have goals and dreams that are easier to achieve being stateside and I have support closer by that I often times missed while in Italy. I also think Utah will be a fun place to raise young kids. I hope one day I will visit Europe again. 

There are so many wonderful chapters and seasons of life. We can choose to be sad that something is over or feel so much joy that it happened! We lived in Europe for over 3 years and brought back 2 babies. We traveled more than most people travel in their whole lives and as a family too (Noah is a seasoned traveler now). My marriage became stronger than ever because we only had each other to depend on. I will always be so thankful for the growth we had as a family and the experiences we had together!

Ciao Italia, until we meet again!

My first picture after arriving in Italy August 2013