December 17

One of my new favorite holiday traditions is visiting the Garden Glow at the Botanical Garden. The Garden is one of our very favorite places by day, so there is something extra-special about visiting when it is all dressed up in the evening.

In case you want to reminisce, here is our visit last year - 2014

and the year before - 2013

I love that the kids get to experience something this special with Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins. Or maybe I just love having an extra set of adults around to wrangle the kids. Same thing, right?

This year, we left our house at 5:40, hoping to get to the Garden a little after 6. Then we hit a traffic jam. An hour and twenty minutes later, we finally arrived. I was driving, Eli was crying because he was hungry, and there was nothing I could do about it, so the experience was particularly soul-crushing for me. We finally arrived, though, and got to work enjoying ourselves, even if we got a late start.

I wrapped Eli on my chest, then zipped him inside my coat, so he was nice and warm. I don't have any specific pictures of it, but Chris wore Lily on his back in the Ergo for most of the time. Another reason babywearing is awesome: with Eli attached to me and Lily attached to Chris, we only had two children to keep track of! Luckily, it was not very busy at all. Also, there was the grandparent factor, which meant I had to do very little parenting. Nice.

Not the best picture, but I'm thankful for the somewhat-odd, kind strangers who took it for us. My family is on the left, Ryan and his lady friend are in the middle, Jenny is next to Ryan, Emily and her little ones are down low, and Mom and Dad are on the right. Billy had to work, so he couldn't join us. Still, it's a good showing for a family with such chaotic work schedules!

These kiddos just feed off of each other, and they are so much fun. 

Here are the same three last year:

Not a huge difference, but you can see some changes.

Speaking of this year and last, this is my favorite photo of the evening:

Since Eli came early, I don't really have any good pictures of my big, pregnant belly with him. It's a little thing, but it matters to me and I feel sad that Eli doesn't have those pictures. The photo above is possibly the last good picture I have of my belly, because Eli arrived 6.5 weeks later. 

When I saw that lights were set up the same way this year, I immediately knew I needed to replicate the shot. Chris was very cooperative and patient as I specifically explained exactly what I wanted the picture to look like, and I'm thrilled with the results.

The first three versions of the picture above involved Caleb and Daisy scowling, until a random lady came up and made them smile. Thanks, Random Lady.

The whole time, Eli was wide awake when he should have been asleep. Finally, I tried putting him on my back. I wasn't sure my coat would still zip with him on my back, but it did.

Jenny was watching as I wrapped Eli on my back, and she was surprised by how much Eli enjoyed the process. She said that as soon as I swung him onto my back, he grinned and settled in. Five minutes later, he was asleep; he stayed that way until I put him in his car seat so we could head home.

Our late start (stupid traffic) meant that we didn't finish at the Garden until close to 9:30, and the kids didn't get to bed until 10. They held it together remarkably well, though. Daisy didn't melt down until we got to the van, and then she just exploded. Still, it was such a fun evening, and it was totally worth it.