Christmas 2012

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Ours started with our tradition of attending "Little Bethlehem" at our church. This event offers an hour of kid-friendly crafts, a petting zoo, and hot chocolate, finished with a visit with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus (See our friends Justin and Amy, above). After that, we all attended a family-friendly church service and then headed to Mom and Andy's house to spend the night. The boys donned their matching Christmas jammies, put out cookies and Diet Coke for Santa, and then tracked Santa's progress on Nolan's new Nook Color. The morning brought all the excitement one expects of Christmas morning with two little boys. Lots of fun!

 

  

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Gisler Christmas

Yesterday was "Special Person's Day" at Nolan's school, which is the annual Christmas show for all grades. Nolan was as cute a bug in his reindeer antlers and he sang out loud and proud from his front row spot. I just love how confident he is becoming! We're so grateful to be in a school that feels like such a fit for our Nolan.

A Night in Naples

 After a disappointing week of sickness in our house that forced us to cancel many fun Christmas outings, we were thrilled last night to be well enough to join our family on our annual Naples gondola ride. The boys still had pretty pronounced coughs, so we sounded a bit like a plague ship, but nothing could dampen our spirits on this festive night! This really is a highlight of the season for us, and we're so grateful to Mike's parents for arranging such a wonderful outing. 

 

 

rainy

little gingerbread house

 

 

snowy concert

Did I mention that Nolan's soccer coach from last year is also the regional director of the Salvation Army brass band? Well, tonight we took the boys to Bella Terra to watch the band perform, and we had a fantastic time! It was so fun to see our friends in their element (the coach's wife is also in the band), and when the band played "Let it Snow," it actually started fake snowing at Bella Terra. The boys were over the moon with joy, which showed me that I really need to seek out more snowy opportunities for those two. Such a fun evening!

 

rainy zoo day

It's been saying it's going to rain around here for about a week off and on, and that hasn't happened. So when the forecast predicted rain today, we just didn't believe it. In the end, we clearly should have, since it was pouring by the time we arrived at the L.A. Zoo, but we didn't let that dampen our fun! The rain chased away the crowd, so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Yay! The boys got to see all the animals on their agenda and some to spare before we finally called it a (wet) day. Great way to start off the boys' vacation week!

Treasure Island

Ben has a new favorite little ditty that he picked up from our reading of Treasure Island. I'm still not sure his preschool teacher believed me when I explained why he is constantly singing about dead men and rum. :)

Barstow, Baby!

We took a very random little road trip last weekend to Calico Ghost Town in Barstow, and we had a wonderful time! We actually stopped by Calico last year on our way home from Bryce Canyon, and we knew we wanted to come back when we had a little more time to let the boys explore. And we're super glad we did! There was plenty to do for two active little boys, with Ben favoring the mine tour and Nolan loving the cowboy shoot-outs. Truly, it was cheesy family fun at its best!

bottle cabin

a little exploring

train ride

cowboy craft

  

 

Mom and Andy

Mystery Shack

 

Nolan putting on his own western show

panning for gold

a wagon for Papou

winding down

dinner in a subway car at Barstow Station

 

family game of Apples to Apples back at the hotel

Night night