and so it begins..

December. One of my favorite months. I love Christmas. I love how every weekend we have a fun event with friends. I love the spirit of giving. I love the music. I love the story of the birth of Jesus (hi Dad!). I love the clothes. (Bye Dad!) 

For the past few years my mom and I have attended the Missouri Botanical Gardens Breakfast with Santa. This year, my mom had to work (Boo, Mom!). I asked Chris to attend with me via email. Turns out he doesn't exactly read my emails and we didn't get signed up. Instead we decided to still head to the Botanical Gardens to see the trains, just not hit up the buffet and Santa's lap. 

Why not, let's dress the kids up (my doing, not Chris') 

Ellie and John loved the trains. Chris thought it was overpriced and crowded. Next year he is not getting the invite :) 

Ellie thinks getting dressed up and taking pictures of your brother in a "dress" is over-rated. Again, next year Chris is not getting the invite. 

 I think his overalls and mushroom cut are quite cute.

After our 5 minute tour of the trains, Chris decided it was time to go. We ran into some of our best buddies on our way out. Turns out their dad was sort of crabby about the whole thing too. Erin, seriously, take your mom!
Good thing it was 70 degrees out on December 1st so our kids could play outside the gardens for free and have the best time ever. (Dad's think this is the way to go)

Best friends since birth, hunting buds for life, former co-workers, former neighbors. I have a feeling we will have a lot more of these pictures! All the boys.

My boys! Chris couldn't find a red cord overall to match.

We have a few more matching combos up our sleeves for the rest of December- don't tell Chris!

Johnny telling Patrick all his secrets. I am sure it sounded something like this "no, allll aboard, noo, hot, no, no"

Ellie and her BFF's. Gretch is a 16 year old trapped in a 4 year old's body. I mean, look at that perfect hair. I wish mine looked like that. Mine is the hot mess to her left.

What a SWEEEEET boy! I love him. He is such a happy boy. Smiling and laughing at me is his favorite thing to do. And since I am so funny, it really works out! 
We went to breakfast first. Patrick was getting a little fussy right before our food came. I kept seeing this lady out of the corner of my eye smiling so hard at me and looking longingly at my children. She had 3 kids of her own,  a girl and 2 boys. Right when our food was put down, she came over to us. She told us that she remembered having her 3 kids so close together and although she sounded crazy, asked if she could hold Patrick while we ate. Since she was sitting so close to us and she seemed normal, I agreed. I think Patrick liked his new family more than ours. He immediately stopped crying and just smiled and looked around.
While it was a bit awkward, looking back on it, it was just a really nice thing to do.

We can't forget sweet Gwennie! She wore her best bow for Santa! 

A great kick off to December. We have lots of fun events and lots of fun family time coming up. So excited to experience Christmas again through the eyes of my children.