when Arizona babies get a white Christmas

I absolutely love the snow - for two weeks of the year, and when I don't have to stress about icy commutes or spend 15 minutes scraping my car windows in sub-zero temperatures, that is. Visiting my family for Christmas was such a treat because we got to experience how absolutely gorgeous snow is, and then escape to our sunny state just when shoveling the driveway became a daily chore. Talk about the best of both worlds!

It's also fun for my Arizona babies to experience such a drastically different climate. The twins are way too young to care, but Claire was in heaven.

 ^^Belly laughs all around when she figured out what a snowball fight was.

Matching cousins under the Christmas tree (thank you Aunt Kathy for their darling matching pajamas!)

And speaking of cute matching pajamas, a few more snapshots from a cozy winter night with everyone playing Jackbox games by the tree:

 ^^bubbles with grandma!

^^I love seeing my babies doted on all day every day.

When we do Christmas cookies, we really do Christmas cookies. It's a huge + crazy + fun process of making everything from scratch in one big marathon day, and then we eat ourselves sick and spend the next week finding people to give plates of cookies to. This year I totally copped out (read: had two sick twins) and only did the chocolate dipped cinnamon bears, but I'm still thinking about the Oreo cookies and the peppermint white chocolate bark.

Winter break, you were so good to us. We played, we ate way too much, we experienced snow, and we got to see both sides of the family. And then we came home and remembered how nice it is to not share your room with children. We can, like, cough in the middle of the night without living in mortal fear of waking the babies. It's nice. ;)

Same time next year? :)