*: December 15'

Holiday Home Tour
Saturday, December 5th my mom, Jean and I went on the Henry Mayo Holiday Home Tour. It's fun to check out other people's big houses and see all the Christmas decorations! This year there were two single story homes in Placerita Canyon and one in Westridge. We all liked the first one in Placerita Canyon the best! The house was well designed and decorated beautifully. We're not allowed to take pictures but I wish I at least had one of the three of us!
After the tour we did a bit of shopping at Hallmark, enjoyed Starbuck's and yapped for a bit :)
Christmas Wine Party
Friday, December 11th was the Lande Wine Party. It's ladies only with an ugly sweater contest, wine tasting (just margarita for me), a wine glass exchange, lots of good food and a game of Cards Against Humanity. So much fun!

Back: Kim, Angela, Tamzin, Lena, Tami, Torey

Front: Angee, Michelle, Brenna

Craig Ferguson
Saturday, December 12th Erik and I went to see Craig Ferguson at the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks. His Late Late Show was one of our favorites so Erik got us tickets for my birthday back in October. Erik picked me up from work and we had a fancy dinner (Panda Express in the car) before heading into the theater. :) It was a great show! I wish the pictures of him on stage came out...

Nutcracker
Sunday, December 13th Jadyn, Grama Honey, Grama Jean, Leah, Lillian, Addisyn, Stephanie and I went to see the Studio 84 production of The Nutcracker. It was Jadyn's first time and she was soo excited to wear her Christmas outfit and see the ballet :)
Our late dinner/breakfast at Coco's was a nice end to a fun evening.

Jadyn's cast is off!
Jadyn FINALLY got her cast off after almost 3 months! Her arm is definitely smaller and she still holds it like the cast is still there but she's regaining mobility and getting used to having two arms again!

KB Christmas Party
This year KB had the Christmas Party on Tuesday, December 15th at Sisley Italian Kitchen. We ate out on the patio with the whole crew (management, office staff, construction and sales) so there were about 65 people. Lunch was great and they raffled off a few prizes. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card :)

Ignisis Christmas Lunch
Erik had a Christmas Lunch on Wednesday, December 23rd. They had steak with lots of side dishes and of course Erik brought our famous deviled eggs. They do a regular and white elephant gift exchange. Erik tried to win back the breathalyzer he brought for his white elephant gift but it was a popular item :)

Dinner with Friends
Wednesday, December 16th I had dinner at Bonefish Grill with a few designer friends, Dorothy (my first interior design teacher and boss from COC), Pam, Barb, Cathy and Sheryl. It's so nice to see everyone and catch up but it's always to long between visits!

Jegel Christmas Party
Saturday, December 19th was the annual Christmas Party at Grama Jean and Papa's House. Uncle Kurt Lego Darth Vader came back in the White Elephant Gift Exchange! We let Jadyn pick our gift this year and ended up with a Big Mouth Billy Bass that doesn't seem to turn off!

Bubba doing magic tricks. The girls went into a "cheater chant" when he was done :)

American Girl Store
Sunday, December 20th Jean and Carl treated Alexa, Olivia, Jadyn and I to lunch and shopping at the American Girl Store at the Grove! The shopping center there is so beautiful. Alexa and Olivia got to pick out their dolls for Christmas. Alexa named hers Lilly and Olivia named hers Delilah :) Jadyn brought along her doll (Kalee) that Grama Jean bought for her 2 years ago for her birthday. Each of the girls also got to pick out an outfit and a pair of glasses for their doll. They had so much fun shopping and having lunch at the American Girl Cafe (I did too). After lunch we rode the trolley before heading home.

Birthday Party / Date Night
The evening of our American Girl Adventure Jadyn had a birthday party for her friend Riley at Paint A Dream so Ethan and I had a dinner date at Souplantation. He loves the caesar salad, chicken noodle soup and of course the lava cake and chocolate soft serve!

Christmas Lights!
We finally made it to look at Christmas lights on Monday the 21st. The kids love being cozy with their hot chocolate in the car. Candy Cane Lane is always great but Angelica Court really stepped it up this year!

One of Jadyn's favorite house's on Angelica Court. It had Frozen characters

Star Wars

The month seemed a little slow so we fit in dinner at Chipotle and Star Wars on Wednesday, December 23rd with Honey, Bubba, Grama Jean, Papa and Uncle Kurt. Everyone really liked it!

Christmas Eve
We spent the day relaxing and making pancakes for Santa and Christmas breakfast. Grama Jean, Papa and Uncle Kurt came for dinner. Erik cooked tri tip for the first time and it came out great! After dinner we opened gifts, the adults tried to play a game of Munchkins (it's for 10 and up but I don't think we get it!), Ethan built his new Lego Dimensions set and Jadyn played with all her new American Girl toys.
After dinner, games and gifts we headed out and stopped at Yum Yum Donuts for dessert before going to the 11pm service in North Hollywood. We always say we're going to stop for donuts after church like we used to when I was a kid but it never happens so we went before :) Good thing we did since we got home about 1am!

Christmas trees for daddy and a cinnamon stocking for mommy

An M&M present for Santa and a wreath for Jadyn

Playing Wii Party games...

They LOVE the Itty Bitty's that Grama Jean and Papa get them.

In the balcony for the candle light service

Christmas Day
Santa Came! How many of you had to wake your kids up at 9am on Christmas morning?!
Ethan got the Indominus Rex Lego Set and Jadyn got roller skates from Santa!

An M&M Santa hat pancake for Ethan and a wreath for Jadyn

Thank you Auntie Meaghan for the only good family picture this year!

Jadyn's 8th Birthday!
51 1/2 lbs and 51.5" tall
We kept the crazy train going and had Jadyn's 8th birthday party on her actual birthday (Sunday, December 27th) with her friends Addisyn, Lillian, Grace, Reese and Riley. They made individual pizzas, played tag, watched Cinderella, ate cookie cake with ice cream and then four of the girls spent the night! They were up until 11pm before they finally crashed and got up at 7am! In the morning they watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, had kitty pancakes and played tag before everyone went home. I told Erik we are switching next year... He can host the girl party! I'll take the four 11 year old boys, they were WAY more calm and easy :)
Favorite memories:
* While trying to sneak past Erik and I, Reese says: "You didn't see any of this" while pointing to her whole self :)
* Grace told the girls bedtime stories from memory. She is quite the story teller, so detailed!
* Table conversations: Farting and stuffed cat fighting (8 year old "cat fights"). They only made it through about five minutes of the word search and coloring pages I was so excited about.

The party was 5 hours of this :)

Addie, Riley, Reese, Jadyn, Lillian and Grace

3pm the day after the sleepover :)

We got Jadyn a Ginny Weasley wand and new shirts. Ethan got her a photo bomb!

One more Birthday Party!

On Wednesday, December 30th we celebrated Jadyn's birthday one more time at our weekly dinner with Grama Jean, Papa and Uncle Kurt. Grama Jean decorated the table in snowmen, Jadyn picked spaghetti for dinner and chocolate chips cookies for dessert. She got more American Girl accessories, a locker, a wheelchair and purse all for Kalee!

Happy New Year!
We spent New Year's at the Leclair House with Uncle P, Auntie L, Lillian, Addisyn and Ryan. The kids did some karaoke, ate lots of sugar and laid down about 9:30pm but not before a 20-30 minute long horn blowing New Years parade!
After the kids went to bed the adults played a game of Sequence. Leah and I won 4 games to 2! We finally headed home about 1:30am and got the kids to bed. They slept until we woke them up a little after 10am!