Joyeux Noel

An unfortunately blurry picture of Christmas morning, before heading out to see our loot.

I have come to love and cherish our small quiet Christmases at home, just the three of us. Creating a world of Christmas magic for Bria is thrilling and just gets more and more exciting every year. (Though I feel conflicted about the whole Santa business, I found myself making all sorts of Santa-related threats in the days leading up to Christmas and then feeling all sorts of guilty late at night about it. Apparently Santa brings out the worst in my parenting skills. But that's a topic for another day.)
Uhh . . . so, back to the magic of Christmas?


After a wild party the night before, Bria slept in! Talk about a Christmas miracle. Here she is in all her excited-to-see-what-Santa-brought glory.

Bria asked for two things for Christmas: a princess tea set and a unicorn pillow pet. (Actually, there were a couple days she asked for a princess iPad, but I was quick to inform her Santa was incapable of delivering on that wish.)

Needless to say, joy abounded.

Santa was also informed of Bria's deep and abiding love of nail polish. Oh, that Santa is so crafty.

With 1:00 church we had plenty of time to enjoy a lazy morning basking in the glow of giving and receiving and indulging in a tasty brunch. After a calm afternoon of thousands of tea parties, we headed to Marc and Jenn's house for dinner and general family togetherness until way too late at night. All in all, a wonderful and magical Christmas.

Festivities

Even though Bria and I skipped town for 8 days just before Christmas, we still packed in a lot of holiday fun as a family.

Bria and I found this tiny tree to squish into our tiny apartment. It was my first real tree ever, and I absolutely love it.

We filmed our annual Mangum Family Christmas Video over 5 different shooting sessions. (We'll post it here as soon as it's edited.)

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at the mall making a major dent in our Christmas shopping. Bria is an excellent shopping companion, and is always eager to model various accessories.

We went to a delicious hibachi grill for my work party, which included Christmas crackers and these paper crowns.

Bria and Sam decorated a giant gingerbread man on Christmas eve so I could focus on cooking up a delicious meal to eat with our friends Mandy and Trent.

Pre-Christmas Utah Trip

The week before Christmas, Bria and I made a trip out to Utah to visit my family. I even convinced my oldest sister to drive out from CA at the same time, so almost my entire family was there. (We were only missing my brother, whose wife was 9 months pregnant. Baby Boy arrived two days ago!) We had eight days packed full of cousins, friends, snow, food, and pre-Christmas fun.
I think visiting before Christmas is the way to go. We got to do so many holiday things and open presents with my parents while still getting to have our own family Christmas at home. Seriously, three cheers for this plan.

 

Bria loved trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

 

I remembered my wedding dress was in the guest room closet, so I pulled it out for Bria to see, and she tried on my veil.

We ate out almost every day, hitting up all my fave SLC eateries. Blue Plate Diner for brunch was a necessity.

I channeled my inner crafty Mormon and spent most of my downtime on my mom's 39 year-old sewing machine. She bought it straight out of high school, and it's still going strong (on the original light bulb!).

My sisters and I spent many late nights laughing, including playing with the Christmas decor from our childhood.

When my mom realized all four of her daughters would be at church with her, she roped us into singing. Since my mom and brother-in-law were the only ones sitting in the pews with the 8 children while we sang, Bria and her same-aged cousin Abby got to come up to the stand and sit on my dad's lap while we sang (he's in the bishopric). I think it was the highlight of our trip for my dad.

We celebrated Christmas together, including my mom's traditional reading of The Polar Express.

We do an individual gift exchange among all the siblings and cousins, drawing one name. My sister Whitney gave to Bria and wisely chose princess headphones. This girl couldn't contain her joy.

There were a lot of moments like these between Bria and all of her cousins. She absolutely adores and idolizes her many, many cousins.

I met my niece Chloe! Having to wait 6 months to meet my niece is one of the worst things about living far away.

Our last night we went to see the lights at Temple Square. Bria was rather confused why we weren't going inside the temple.

She settled for some quality cousin bonding time in the stroller.

And, as always, Bria was a champ on the flights. I think I calculated that these were her 29th and 30th flights? That girl is a pro.

Autumnal Endings

We spent a lot of time outside this fall: playing on the rec center playground after class, taking long walks around our neighborhood finding leaves.
 I'm never shy to express my love of an East Coast fall. The colorful leaves seem to last forever, and the balmy weather eases me into winter so gently. While spring continues to be my favorite, with its fickle enthusiasm as it brings the world back to life, fall seems to be the kindest of the seasons, burning with a gentle but fervent glow before winter guides the world to sleep.

National Gallery

On a particularly boring day a couple weeks ago, I told Bria we would go to a museum. But feeling the drag of having nothing to do, we took a long time getting dressed and ready for the day until it was finally after lunch and the day was seriously threatening to be an entire bust. When I realized if I didn't act quickly I wouldn't leave the house all day, I grabbed our stuff in a hurry and we were out the door headed to the National Gallery.  

We walked to the metro and got off at the Smithsonian stop, welcomed by incredible weather and bright and clear blue skies.

 

When we go to museums we inevitably end up at the Natural History, since its taxidermy is a real hit with the kids (well, a hit but also sometimes terrifying). It was nice to finally make it to the National Gallery. I had no idea whether Bria would hate it or love it, and it ended up being a little of both. I was so happy we chanced upon the Impressionists, since that's my favorite. Bria and I picked out our favorite paintings and decided we would try to duplicate them at home (which we did and made a little gallery in her room). We made it through one wing before calling it a day. 

The large columns and stairs outside the gallery made for excellent climbing material. Perfect for getting out all the energy she pent up while walking around the museum. 

 The fall colors were nearing their end, but still breathtaking. It was in the upper 60s this day, so of course we took advantage by going on a little walk . . .

 and, surprise! we ended up at Paul. I mean, if you're in the Penn Quarter, why wouldn't you stop in for a macaron or gourmandise?

Thankful Turkey

Bria and I made "thankful turkeys" yesterday. I loved hearing her list of things she's thankful for. I helped her spell the words, but the writing is all her.

If you can't decipher each thankful feather, her list is
pictures
mom
car
loulou (my sister lindsay)
birthday
bria
sam
pans
metro

NYC

Last weekend Sam and I took another whirlwind vacation to NYC. We left Bria with Marc and Jenn and made the most of our 48 hours in the city. Most of our activities revolved around eating, which I covered here. But in between our meals, we did a couple cool things too. (Also a mighty shout-out to our friends Anne and John who let us crash at their apartment.)

While discussing life decisions and the variables in our future, we took a walk along the Highline Park. A lovely respite from the hustle and bustle of the city below.

Instead of catching a show on Broadway, we opted for the comedy troupe founded by Amy Poehler. It was awesome and hilarious.

We did research.

And because, in the end, we were tourists, we hit up Rockefeller Center. And I even forced Sam to smile for a picture.

And we paid homage to our favorite show.

The homage continued by channeling our inner Colleen Donaghy, wishing we could crash the Lemon family party while they ice skated.

Weekend trips are perfect-- just enough time to start missing Bria, but not so long I don't relish every moment of the trip.