A Roll-Acosta Life: Home for the Holidays

Oh, there's no place like home for the Holidays...

Since J doesn't get much time off for the Holidays, we stayed in town and celebrated the Christmas season right here in good ol' Aggieland.

There really is no other place I'd rather be than right here with these 2...

It's Alex's first Christmas and Jillian's first Christmas where she "gets it." As much as we missed having our extended family around, it was a nice change of pace to focus on our family of four and we established and strengthened our own Christmas traditions.

Truth be told, we were so busy making these Christmas memories that I just ran out of time to blog about them. But J and I have committed to making these into our annual traditions so I want to be sure to capture them to look back on for years to come. Hope you have a big cup of cocoa and a comfy chair because there were so many great memories to share!

Last year at this time, I was 5 weeks pregnant and Jilly bought a Christmas gift for her baby sibling, who we had just nicknamed "Bubby." I opened that gift last Christmas, but the real gift is the little person who is now wearing it!

Christmas 2012 on the left and Bubby's 1st Christmas 2013 on the right

It was time to break out Jillian's Christmas tree and help her put up all of her cute ornaments. She was so eager to help and Bubs was eager to supervise.

After putting on the tree topper, it was just right. Jillian also loved adding her gingerbread doll, named Ginger, to the decor this year!

Oh, how time flies when you're having fun...look how big she has gotten compared to her tree!

Jillian and her tree on Christmas 2011 (top left), Christmas 2012 (bottom left), and Christmas 2013 (right)

Bryan is home to the World's largest gingerbread house, and we were excited to meet up with our friends, the Malnars, to visit this man-made wonder!

As much as I would love to do 25 days worth of activities leading up to Christmas, I figured that "12 days of Christmas" was a lot more practical for our family. So we started with slipping pieces of paper into the Advent calendar with 12 days left. Our first activity was writing letters to Santa. Jillian had never really written a letter to Santa, but she was really excited to tell him what she wanted (and I was excited to get her everything on her list)! And Bubs was happy as can be too!

Since Alex is a boy and Jillian is a girl, there aren't too many clothes hand-me-downs. But these Christmas PJs were a perfect hand-me-down...don't they both look so cute?!

Jillian in the Christmas PJs in 2011 and Alex in them in 2013

With only 11 days left till Christmas, we had our first ever North Pole breakfast. Santa mommy had everything made before Jilly woke up and daddy helped set it up. She came out of her room, looked in her Advent calendar, and was so excited to read the note for this day's activity. And of course, she ate the marshmallow snow first. But all that sweetness paid off when she gave a big, sweet kiss to her baby brother!

9 days till Christmas and we went to Santa's Wonderland with the Hayes and the Malnars! Jillian loved looking at the lights and listening to the music, but Bubs was not really feeling it. We stayed as long as we could, and had a good time with our friends!

With 7 days till Christmas, we loaded up our sleigh and drove around looking at Christmas lights! OK, so Bubs slept the whole time, but Jillian, Julian, and I had a great time!

My favorite pic is the top left where Jillian was saying "Mommy, Baby is too heavy for me to smile!"

Only 2 days till Christmas, and while I was off of work for a 2 week break, Julian and his co-workers were working their butts off. So we took them Christmas breakfast treats, complete with holiday cheer! I'm not sure what brightened their day more, the donuts or the 2 cute kids in Santa hats!

And with only 1 day left till Christmas, we baked a birthday cake for baby Jesus. I have to say that this was probably one of my favorite activities we did because I feel like this one showed Jillian what Christmas is really about...the birth of Jesus! Jillian was a great little baker/helper...and Bubby slept right through it!

All of these fun activities really added the magic and wonder of the season. It was so magical to be home for the holidays. Everyday was such a joy as we were all in the holiday spirit, and making memories with these 2 was...well...priceless!