The Eich Family: Tis the Season

The two weeks or so leading up to Christmas are kind of a blur. What I love most about the holidays are all the opportunities to spend time with friends and family and this year was no exception! We hosted two dinner parties at our house (one of which may or may not have ended in a late night dance party in our living room, HA), one very memorable girls night out with my extremely fun Mom friends, holiday parties, a party at Connor's school, a visit to see Santa Claus, and getting together twice with Andrew's college best friend Geoff and his wife who were home for the holidays from South Africa. On one of those occasions Andrew and Geoff may or may not have stayed out too late (long after the wives went home to their sitters) and realizing there were no more cabs running in town had to resort to calling 911 for a ride home. Ridiculous, college style antics!

Our gingerbread house this year. Last year all four walls and roof fell, this year only two walls collapsed, not bad! Obviously constructing gingerbread houses is not one of my strong points but I do consider this an improvement.

For Connor's birthday I was able to read a book to Connor's class. I read one of his favorites, "The Night Before Christmas" -- a good pick I thought since that is Connor's birthday! Afterwards I got a sitter for Leyla and he and I had a special lunch date. We don't get to do that very often (go out just he and I) and he thought it was really fun. I ordered coffee with milk and sugar and he (not missing a beat) ordered hot chocolate with milk and sugar. Funny guy!

Party at Mike and Sandi's house. I think these might be some of the funniest women I know. I love getting together with them! Our sons were all in the same class last year.

Sandi made loads of jello shots. I hadn't had one of those since I was in college. FYI, they weren't a good idea then and they really aren't a good idea now.

Daddy and his girl.

Cheesing it up on the front steps.

I made this wreath, here's Leyla posing underneath!

Leyla in her first pair of jeans!

We made these chocolate covered pretzels. As they were drying Connor kept sneaking in to check on them. He told me he was "just looking at them," not eating them. Hmmmmmmm.

All bundled up in front of our tree.

Connor's "Winter Celebration" at his school (FYI I think it's SO beat that they can't call it a Christmas party). They sang a couple songs including Jingle Bells. I really, really love Connor's school and teachers!

Trying to take a picture of Andrew and Connor, I said "Say cheese!" Bad picture of Connor but Leyla was (as usual) happy to cheese it up!

Connor and his BFF Drew. They are two peas in a pod.

On the Sunday before Christmas we had our friends the Genereuxs over for dinner. We had a really great time and being that we have 5 kids between us now (that all had fun and played really nicely together) we considered it a great success! Connor and their son Brendan both have December birthdays (they were born only two weeks apart in Tokyo) so we got them a little cake to celebrate. They took turns getting to blow out the candles.

How cute are they??

Leyla really loves clothes, guess its a girl thing? Right now she's especially into pants, so she'll pull several pairs out of her drawer (even if she's already wearing them) and demand they be put on. Then she's so happy. Here she is wearing pants over her pj's, too cute.

All dressed up to go see Santa Claus!

Posing in front of the tree.

Waiting to see Santa. I love Connor's sweet face here!

Sharing snacks.

On Friday night we had dinner at the Gursels' house (Andrew's best friend Geoff's parents). We had such a great time and this was our first time getting to meet Geoff and Lauren's (super cute) 11 month old son Jack.