Christmas Lights!

Brian and I made a pseudo-list of the "Christmas-y" things that we want to do this month. Our list is simple.  Things like visiting the Holiday Lights at the Beach and the Gardens.  Making sure we squeeze in a visit to see Santa early (so we don't have to make quick trips to the store to buy whatever they asked Santa for!).  And having movie nights to watch Christmas movies together.  We love to have popcorn and cuddle on the couch and watch movies.  Hudson is soooo into The Polar Express right now, and it's still so fun to watch Wyatt and Reese take it all in again.  They are really getting into the magic of the season!

 

On Friday night I put the kids in the jammies early and we loaded them up in the car once Brian got home from work.

 

Of course we took a few pictures by the Christmas tree.

Hudson wasn't that interested in staying still :).

 

We stopped along the way to pick up dinner for the kids (and us!) and then made our way to the Oceanfront to see the lights on the boardwalk. 

The kids just love the lights, and when we told them that we were going to look at the lights, they requested the beach.  They're so fun, though.  Definitely "beach" themed, but they still have fun things, too.

 

Hudson soaked it all in and shouted out all the animals he saw.  He was very excited by them all!

My little Jake and the Neverland Pirates fan loved this pirate ship!  The moon looked beautiful that night, and there were people riding horses down the beach. The kids really liked the horses!

Last night we took the kids to see Santa (picture coming soon), and while we were out in that direction we decided to go see the lights at the gardens.

 

I think Brian and I actually prefer the lights at the gardens.  I love the way the lights are wrapped around trees and there are no other lights around, so it's just Christmas lights!  They're gorgeous.

The kids loved this guy.

This night sky picture doesn't quite capture how awesome this was in person.

 

I'm so glad that we're crossing things off our list and that we're doing things intentionally with a plan.  There are days where the very last thing I want to do at the end of the day is load up the kids and leave the house, but it's important that we make time to enjoy each other's company.  If the kids are having a bad day, things like this rarely make it worse!  It's fun to listen to them talk about the lights and what they see.  They can be so silly with each other, and much like Brian and I, they are becoming masters at quoting movies.  They actually had an entire conversation last night in movie quotes.  I just about died!  Their sweet senses of humor just crack me up!