"The Mother of All Updates" or "A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words"

It was the most lovely day today. I am in love with the Christmasy transformation of our home this year...the tree next to the fireplace for the first time...an actual fire in the fireplace for the first time, too...sofas pushed back to make this beautiful room even bigger....

It snowed all day -- big, fat, chunky snowflakes. And we sat on the carpet next to our hearth tonight, drinking hot chocolate by the light of the fire and of the Christmas tree. It was oh so "Currier and Ives" of us.

I don't want this day to end. This day where I somehow never got around to taking off my little black dress, worn to church for my magazine release party...this day where our football team actually won big...this day where the house is as close to clean as it gets....

I have writer's block. I finally sit down to do this after a month's absence, and it is taking way more effort than I care to admit.

There's so much I want to talk about:

...like how Ryley gets confused and calls "Hanukkah" by the name of "Jessica"
...like how this guy at work said he would have guessed I was 37 or 38 because of my level of professionalism. (Ha. Thanks.)
...like how I am completely and utterly engrossed in reading the "Twilight" series. And so is Ryan.
...like how our puppy Juliet turned one year old today.
...like how our new traditions of the season are mistletoe and the fireplace. Ryley loves both!
...like how we decided to go to Chick Fil A for lunch yesterday and just happened to arrive at the same time a helicopter was dropping stuffed cows with parachutes.
...like how the fourth edition of my magazine was released today, and it looks so amazing. I dare anyone to find a mistake in it. :-)

And there are more interesting things, too, like the fact that Christie and I did our dutiful bridesmaid duty and threw Kendra the lingerie party of the century a few weeks ago....





We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful weekend with my parents!

Pappaw taught Ryley how to peel potatoes! She was so proud of herself!!





We practiced riding a bike without the training wheels:





Ryley practically bounced on this thing wherever she went:





We visited the Rhema Lights on Thanksgiving night! Ryley is at the age that she is just simply awed and overwhelmed by lights of this quantity. :-)









The next night my parents took us to the Dry Gulch Christmas Train. It took us using the map applications on three separate I-Phones to get us there, but it was absolutely wonderful!! The last time we went, I was pregnant with Ryley. Unfortunately, my pictures of the train itself didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would. But there were plenty of other western-themed activities:











We got back home to Denver, and this week was certainly a busy one!

I took Ryley to our church's royalty-themed Christmas Tea on Thursday night. Our church does everything top-notch; it was an absolutely overwhelmingly amazing evening! How is that for adjectives? There really weren't words to express it. Ryley participated in a princess parade, so she got to dress up extra pretty. :-)





















Ryley had gotten it in her head that we were going to have "crumpets" with our tea. Not exactly sure what a crumpet is, I decided to tell her that the scones were crumpets. :-) She was satisfied.

The very next night, we had tickets to "Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy"...Yes, as if we had not already given our daughter enough visual stimulation in the previous seven days. But we had had these tickets for over a month, and the show starred Ariel and Tinkerbell, Ryley's absolute favorite Disney characters!

So here we go:



Ryley's reaction to seeing Mickey and Minnie was utter joy!!!!



The cast of "Cars" made an appearance:



And, of course, "The Little Mermaid":





Then we were reunited with "The Lion King." Simba's costume wasn't exactly family-friendly. If you only knew how long it took me to get this shot. Ryan and I were laughing so hard; I'm sure the people around us thought we were crazy!





And, finally, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends! Do you see anything mildly disturbing about the picture below?



Yes, that's right. Man with eye patch. We were sitting behind a pirate!













At the end, Ryley turned to both of us with a big, shy smile and said, "Thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for taking me here!" It was so worth it just for that.

And now that it is after midnight and I have successfully recorded our month of November and half of December for all of posterity, I am going to go to bed.

Have a wonderful week!!! :-)