Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Martins.

I do have to say...I have three good looking boys in my life!

Sparkle

Sparkle, our elf, arrived the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we have had so much fun finding him each morning. If you don't know about Elf On The Shelf, I'll give you a short explanation. There is a book that explains it all as well.

When your elf first arrives you give him a name (This is Sparkle's third Christmas season with us). He is one of Santa's helpers and every night he travels back to the North Pole to give Santa a report. Then he shows up the next morning in a different place. You may talk to Sparkle as much as you want and he can give messages to Santa, but he doesn't talk back. You can NOT touch Sparkle or he will lose his magic powers. We have not had to deal with this at our house, but some friends of ours touched their elf and he didn't show up the next day.

This year, Sparkle has been really creative as to where he is in the morning. He seems to be having a lot of fun while we are sleeping.

Top of the tree.

Hanging upside down on the attic string.

Taking a bath in the boys bathroom sink.

Riding a moose.

Worshiping the baby Jesus with the wise men.

Peeking out of Miller's stocking.

Miles is even into it. He can say his name and loves to look for him. We love Sparkle and will miss him when he goes back to the North Pole with Santa.

Christmas Time

We've had lots of fun Christmas activities going on around here...

TIS THE SEASON

The boys school has a Tis the Season event right before Thanksgiving. The teachers all do crafts and games with the kids, there are lots of treats and Santa is there. Poor Miles, is not a fan of the big guy.

But, he does like mini donkeys. He calls them heehawheehaw's.

SHARING SHOE BOXES

We went shopping and filled two shoe boxes with all sorts of goodies for a four year-old and one year-old boy. Then they brought their boxes to Friday chapel at school.

The kiddos at Chapel. Do you see Miller in the middle looking at the camera?

The kids give their boxes to the baby Jesus.

Miles just sits in the buggy and takes it all in.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

The church has breakfast with Santa every year. After breakfast they have crafts, games and a bounce house while you wait for your turn with Santa. Rudolph and Frosty are also there. Miles seemed to like Frosty.

Still not so sure about Santa.

Miller has asked for a new bike, small sword like Peter Pan, microphone and Cars 2 movie.

Surprise 35th Birthday Trip!

A week ago Saturday, Jud surprised me and told me we were going skiing for my 35th birthday. He had even asked my parents to watch the boys and double checked my schedule to make sure I wouldn't be missing anything important. My birthday was Friday, Dec. 2 and we left on Wednesday. We grabbed a bite to eat at the airport and while we were eating, some of our best friends (Jon & Carly Lee) walked in. Yep, another surprise. About five years ago (pre-kids) we went on a ski trip with them and had so much fun. This time was a little different since we were getting a break from the kiddos (they have 2 boys also). We went to Keystone and stayed at Jud's aunt and uncle's cabin.

This was what we saw as we were driving out of Denver and heading to the mountains. Amazing!

We stopped in Idaho Spring on the way to Keystone and had pizza at Beau Jo's. They have this amazing thick crust, kind of like a bread stick.

We decided we were just going to ski two out of the three days we were there. The weatherman said it was going to really snow on Thursday so we decided to sit that day out and wait for the snow. Of course the weatherman was wrong, but we had a great day anyway.

We did a little outlet shopping and went to the highly recommended Arapaho Cafe in Dillon. Wow, the tomato asiago soup is amazing. Actually everything was amazing there. We even went back on Saturday night for dinner and ate in the basement pub.

After lunch, we drove to Breckenridge. We shopped Main Street for a while and went to Hearthstone Restaurant for happy hour and to warm up. It's this quaint 100-year old Victorian house and we got the best table in the house.

Jud and Jon enjoyed a martini.

What a view!

We walked around and shopped some more until we couldn't take the cold any longer. Downstairs at Eric's is our favorite place for pizza. We got the Gigantor so we could have leftover pizza for lunch on the mountain the next day. SO GOOD!

Ready for our first run on my birthday!

The Dudes!

After skiing the first day, Jon put an impressive wine, cheese and salami spread together for us to enjoy before we went to dinner. Turley Zin...yes, please!

We then took two gondolas up to the top of the back mountain to go to Alpenglow Stube (11,444 ft.) for dinner. What a fun experience! I just love this picture of me and Jud on the gondola. It was super cold. I asked for two blankets and the guy passing out the blankets said, "sure, but it's not even a cold night". I quickly explained we were from Texas.

We had a personalized menu.

Dinner was fabulous. We all tasted each others and agreed that Carly's short ribs were the best. The dessert coffee presentation was also impressive (served with white and dark chocolate shavings, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, ground cinnamon, etc.)

What an amazing surprise trip with great friends! How can we make it happen every year?

Thanks honey! You are the best...I LOVE YOU!