christmas dates

this year troy and i took the kids on christmas dates! troy bought ali a beautiful little christmas dress and they went to cucina cucina and then out to barnes & noble where they looked at books together. unfortunately they had lousy service at cucina cucina, but it's pretty fun that that's where he took her on their first christmas date since that's where he took me for our first ever date.

caleb and i got all dressed up and we went out to red robin. caleb had the mac 'n' cheese and i had my favorite crispy chicken tender salad. we then split a milkshake! our server was great and kept calling it a date and treated us super well. then caleb had pretty much the whole restaurant watching as he conversed with "Red" the mascot. they talked about their differing shoe sizes (huge and little) and the color of their legs (yellow and normal) and the fact that they were both super ticklish!

it was such a nice and special evening and i'm already looking forward to next year!

some advent highlights

caleb insisting we buy a specific tree with colored lights. and asking every morning to turn on "his colors"

decorating the tree and sharing stories about ornaments

bellevue botanical garden with connollys and dorschels

painting cookies

making caramels and sneaking to the neighbors to hand them out

christmas dates (more on that later)

taking the kids to babies R us and toys R us to shop for each other

caleb playing with his nativity scene