I'm dreaming of a White(fish) Christmas...

Isabelle and Olivia had never experienced a "White Christmas" before. For them, sunshine and tamales are the norm so when Grandpa Elmo invited us all up to his hideaway for the festive season we jumped on the chance to show them what the song White Christmas is really talking about.

We packed every warm thing we owned, which wasn't a lot, and counted down the days till we departed. One of the few times that having early risers worked to our advantage, we left for the airport at barely 5:30am and although we had a layover in Minnesota and sat on the plane an extra hour or two for delays, both girls were great travelers and 9 hours later we finally landed at Glacier Airport. For the people of Montana this has so far been an abnormal winter with not much snow fall, but for the Cosby girls it was a winter wonderland! After a quick stop at Walmart for snow gear, we spent the next 7 days sledding, having snowball fights, building a snowman, drinking hot cocoa, exploring the winter wilderness, doing puzzles, and most importantly spending time with family.

Grammie had cozy slippers and fleece Christmas jammies waiting for us and we needed them to stay warm. The girls were good sports in the bitter air and stayed outside for hours at a time...all bundled up of course. You know it is a good vacation when you keep the same jammies on for 48 hours without ever changing.


Grandpa had a special treat for us one day and we hiked up the mountain next to his house and picked out our own Christmas tree. Grandpa sawed it down and grammie had stuff gathered for us to make handmade ornaments. It was our own homemade tree with Neenu the Elf who magically appeared as the star on top.

On Christmas Eve Isabelle had planned a Nativity Play. She assigned us all parts and wrote our scripts, etc. We all found some costumes and remembered the true meaning for the season.


Christmas morning was magical like always as we enjoyed gifts from Santa Claus and loved watching the excitement of the children. Leo and Olivia didn't really get what the fuss was all about and didn't do that great at actually tearing off their wrapping paper, but they both loved the toys and books that were underneath. Isabelle on the other hand was the perfect age and was beyond thrilled for everything Santa had left. Silly Santa even stayed a while and finished the puzzle we had all been working on for days while he enjoyed his cookie.


The holidays wouldn't be traditional for Ben if he wasn't in the middle of closing a deal, so he spent time working and trying to stay in the loop while being very far away from said loop. Sadly (or luckily), he ran the battery to his blackberry totally out until it wouldn't even take a charge, so the last few days were spent almost work free! Fa la la la la la la la la!


We spent time baking different kinds of cookies, watching Barbie A Perfect Christmas over and over, visiting the Big Mountain ski slopes, admiring the decorated and lit-up downtown Whitefish, singing, dancing and just having a wonderful Christmas time. Being in Whitefish was truly a magical Christmas and one the girls will never forget. A week after our anticipated arrival, we made or way to the tiny airport at 4:30am and found ourselves back in balmy Houston just after lunch. Belle sobbed on the return and was too sad to leave everyone and everything, but once we found our car both girls literally shed their coats and hats and did a dance of joy to be back in the warm Texas sun. From 20 degrees to 70 degrees in a few hours!

We were surprised when we returned home as well to find that Santa had left even more gifts under our tree here in Houston. He must have known that we couldn't carry them all on the airplane, so we celebrated a little more opening presents and immediately playing outside with our new scooters and helmets.

We have had such a wonderful and special holiday season and we have so much to be grateful and thankful for. I think this past month has been the best December we have spent as a family to date and we are all a bit sad to see it come to an end.







Everyone is happy, standing round the tree,
singing songs of the season in ten-part harmony.
It's so good to be together,
the feeling is so strong,
I wish it could be Christmas all year long.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

December is such a magical time of year. Everything is covered in twinkling lights and everyone is filled with the spirit of the season. People are a little more thoughtful, friendly and patient and it is a time to share with others the love we have for each of them as well as the love of our Savior.

With children, the holidays are just that much more special. There is a real magic in the air and they believe anything and everything is possible. We began the month with one of our favorite parts of the Christmas season...holiday pajamas. Grandpa Van and Grandma Ruth came for a short visit and we had fun showing them our new stompin' grounds and kicking off the festive season with some early Christmas gifts. Grandma Ruth gave the girls the cutest "elf" jammies and both girls were thrilled to wear their snugly Christmas pjs many many nights over the last several weeks.

I spent countless hours working at Isabelle's school with the PTO in organizing a Cookies with Santa event on the first Saturday of the month. After many hours of work, the event went wonderful and not only did Santa Clause show up at the school on the Fire Truck driven by 5 firemen, but Mrs Clause and Mrs. Cosby did too! I was sent to pick up Santa and was talked into riding with him in the fire truck to make his grand entrance. Feeling a little bit exhausted and silly sitting in the big red truck, all the time and effort was worth it when we turned the corner to the school and the fire truck let out its siren and I could see Isabelle and Olivia from afar jumping up and down in excitement! We had a fun time visiting Santa (Olivia wasn't scared a bit), making reindeer food and eating cookies and hot cocoa with Belle's schoolmates.

Another highlight of the month was Isabelle's first viewing of The Nutcracker. The Houston Repertoire Ballet Company came north to do a few shows one weekend and so we surprised Belle with some spur of the moment tickets and some big girl time with her mom and Grammie. We went out for ice cream first where Grammie game her a real glass Nutcracker ornament of her own to remember the day and then we made our way to the theatre. Isabelle sat very still during the entire show and loved every minute of it. All of the magic and music was wonderful and when the final curtain fell, Belle vowed that she would be on stage performing herself NEXT Christmas in The Nutcracker. (Looks like we have some work to do this year in the ballet studio!!)

The month has also been full of shopping, writing letters to the North Pole, playing dress up ( like usual), croup, ice skating, climbing (Olivia!!!!), Rockband, Neenu the Elf and more. Typical Cosby girl type days sprinkled with moments of holiday magic.







The final events of the month before our official Christmas Break were at Isabelle's School and a Christmas Tea Party with her BFFs. We had fun at her class party making ornaments, opening gifts, eating cookies and being with friends. They even celebrated by wearing their favorite PJ's to school and watching/reading The Polar Express one day. Isabelle has been blessed this year with good friends and a dedicated teacher and she loves spending time learning with them.



I made a conscience effort this year to allow myself to "enjoy" the holidays fully. I shopped early, ordered Christmas cards before Thanksgiving, created gifts that were thoughtful but not too time consuming and just stayed one step ahead all month long. And it worked, almost completely stress free! We enjoyed a festive and fun December and all 4 of us did a holiday jig when that final school bell rang and we were finally free to do whatever we choose. Now, on to the main event...Christmas Day!

Fa la la la la la la la la...

Were we grateful?

Just like it always does, the Thanksgiving holiday snuck right up on us and was over before we could grab the camera. I honestly didn't take a single photo of the weekend but it was wonderful nonetheless. A week before the holiday began we had a fun time decorating for Christmas. We had to remind ourselves that Turkey Day was soon approaching as we strung lights, garland and ornaments all around the house. Ben and I don't think there is nearly enough time to fully enjoy the Christmas season, so we figured we wouldn't wait to get into the festive spirit.

The Kindergarteners celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with a class party where they pinned the feather on the turkey, popped corn, painted boats, and so on. I was stationed at "Pilgrim Bingo" for the party and like usual loved spending the time with Belle. Although she is thriving at Creekside Forest, Isabelle was relieved to have a few days off from school and we loved having her home with us all day again.

This was one of our first Thanksgiving weekend's to actually spend not traveling. We took our time and were lazy and enjoyed not packing a suitcase for a change. On Thanksgiving Day we were loudly awoken by Isabelle at the crack of dawn yelling to get up quick so we could make it to the Coles Crossing Turkey Trot. We hadn't planned to run this year but Isabelle screamed Get up lazy bones! This is one of the benefits of living close to Grammie! as Ben and I still enjoyed our warm bed. Of course, how do you argue with that?

So off we went like the speed of light gathering clothes and shoes and gifts and made it the 30 minutes to Coles Crossing just in time to start the race. Olivia stayed with Ben while Grammie, Tara, Belle and I did a quick loop and found our way back to the finish line in time to receive a 2011 Turkey Trot medal. Sweaty and thirsty we made our way to Grammie's where we found Alee, whom had run earlier, Nick, Leo and Grandpa. We enjoyed the day cooking and eating yummy traditional foods, being lazy and of course remembering all that we have to be grateful for.

The highlight for us Christensen girls of the Thanksgiving weekend is the day after the turkey...Black Friday! Last year we got little Isabelle involved in the fun and she has literally waited for 52 weeks to shop in the middle of the night again! (I overheard her telling someone a few days before that My mom and I could skip right over the turkey and go straight to the Black Friday shopping. I was a proud mama!) We sat by Grandpa's fire and searched the ads for all of our favorite buys and then plotted and schemed. Belle had circled almost every item at every store, so we had our work cut out for us. We even printed store maps so we would be totally prepared. When it finally grew dark we hit the road and made a good dent in our Christmas shopping. Most of the fun is the competitive hunt and thankfully we all came home unharmed, although we were close to a serious brawl in Walmart.

We finished the holiday weekend off with more days sleeping in and more time visiting with family. We snuck in a game of bowling at Belle's request, saw the new Twilight film in the theatre and ate lots of pumpkin pie. We have so much to be grateful for and we are thankful there is a holiday we can enjoy celebrating that reminds us just how lucky we are. Even though we forgot to take out our camera over Thanksgiving weekend we did pause and give thanks.

I’m thankful for the many things
That help us live as well as kings,
For all the food that makes us drool,
And another holiday from school.

This and that

Several times a week I grab my phone and snap a picture to text my mom or sisters of something the girls are doing that I want to share and remember. They are growing up so quickly and learn something new each and every day. So here are parts of my life that I want to document, in pictures, according to my phone.