The Epic Post following the Epic Weekend

Despite the lack of snow and really, general lack of Colorado winter weather, this time of year is so magical.  I am so in love with watching Anni take in the world and I love sharing it with you!

Thanks to the kind and gentle ministrations of my dear mother, I entered the weekend recovered and ready to rock some seriously fun times.  The full recovery was necessary in order that I might partake in the conglomerate of delicious meals.  It also meant we got to do a little tree decorating.  The tradition in my family is actually to decorate it on the 24th... but we'll be celebrating with my family by then, so we decided to go for it.

We started the weekend out with a visit to our church's Christkindlmarkt.  It is essentially our winter festival, celebrating the church's German roots and the nearing of Christmas.  While the day was beautiful, the evening was cold and windy!  Little Nugget ended up not only in her hoodie, but spent most of the night cuddled against her daddy in a blanket and Grandma's extra sweater.  She was quiet the whole time, just soaking in the sights and sounds.

And don't worry, we had some seriously unhealthy and delicious food.  Daniel had the brat with all the fixings (onions and saurkraut) and my mom and I both had hot dogs (this is my mom's... I may or may not have eaten mine too quickly before I remembered to take a picture).

Oh, but don't worry.  The fun didn't stop there.  Nope, it got even better.  Saturday morning we had to say good-bye to my mommy (this is not the fun part - I hate saying good-bye to her... but, luckily we'll be at her house for Christmas!!) and I headed off to a photo-shoot.  You'll have to head over to my photography blog to check it out.  Let's just say: 2 year old twins and a 2 week old beauty?  Life really can't get much better.

As soon as I got home from the shoot, I encountered this wonderful sight:

My heart melted (btw, Anni's hat and button flower was bought the night before as the Christkindlmarkt.  You can find more just like it at http://www.etsy.com/shop/bloomz). My family cleans up well, huh?  As quickly as possible, we gathered everything necessary up to head to the wedding of two beautiful people!  Daniel works with both of them at FOCUS headquarters.  It's always different (and relaxing!) to get to go to a wedding and not be working.  So, I just have a couple of pictures from our baby section (back row of the church and upper deck of the reception - perfect!)  This wedding was especially neat because they tied in Anand's Indian heritage for some awesome dancing, food and several other unique traditions. 

Oh, and don't worry, there was choreographed dancing.

And we got to hang out with some wonderful friends (who adore Anni, by the way... it's so fun to watch :)).  

It was a wonderful night!  And following the party, we decided to stop by a spectacular display of lights by our house.  Two houses across the street from each other have every light imaginable up and even string them across the street.  It was a really fun way to introduce Anni to Christmas lights... because she couldn't miss the spectacle!  She grinned and touched as long as I'd let her... then I quickly bundled her back to the car out of the chilly night (and got the cutest little shiver and "brrr" from her - blanket was then tucked even tighter).  Oh, happy weekend!     

Our Sunday was definitely a day of rest.  We went to an early Mass and then declared it pajama day.  What a beautiful thing a day of rest is after a day of being away from our beloved home.

PS Happy Feast day of St. Lucia!  Every year, my oldest sister wears a white dress (her wedding dress, actually) and brings braided bread to my parent's house.  I love this tradition and hope I can be in town someday again when it comes around!