#LakeTahoe

Happy New Year, friends! My holiday vacation is officially OVER. Daniel went back to work today, Ella goes back to school on Monday, and Evie and I are gonna have to learn how to function without these 2 all over again 😂. I decided to take a little bit of a break from social media for most of December to really soak in all the Christmas Magic with my littles. But once Daniel was able to take some time off work to relax and unwind from the busy-ness of work and normal life, I'd have to say the last 2 weeks have been ah-maze-ing.

We kicked off our vacation with our annual family Christmas party where we indulged in lots of food (homemade Mexican food), dessert and WINE. Don't even ask me what kinda wine because I couldn't tell ya. I just know it was GOOD. There was gingerbread house decorating, Secret Santa for the kiddos and the White Elephant gift exchange for the adults. I even volunteered to do a balloon garland since decorating and making things pretty is my thing to do. It was my first time and I have to say, it turned out pretty well!

Then after all that partying, we had to hurry home so we could get a few hours of sleep in before taking that long road trip up to my mother-in-law's house in Gardnerville, NV. There was a storm coming in that day so we had to be on the road no later than 4am to make sure we got there in time before the rain and snow hit. If you were wondering, yes we were dead tired and no I wasn't hungover 😵 thank goodness 😅. The babes were SO good the whole ride there, we only had to make 1 stop (Daniel took a lil 15-minute power nap), and there were a handful of "are we there yet's" from Miss Ella Bella. We arrived at my MIL's just before noon which is a record for us since having kids. And this is where we spent the first week of our vacation.

On Day 1, I woke up to this...

If you have been following along for awhile (on my blog or social media) you would know that we've been going to Gardnerville for Christmas for the last 3 years since my MIL moved up there 5 years ago. It has snowed on Christmas the 2 years I didn't go and I have wished hard for a white Christmas since we've been going. It has always snowed before or after our trip, never while we were there. So, waking up to this was magical. Even though the snow only lasted a few hours. By the time the sun set, most of it melted away. But we did get a couple hours of playtime in the snow before it was all gone. We even built a tiny little snowman 😂... and a penguin.

Then that evening, gramma and grampa offered to watch and entertain the girls so we could have a date night (probably the 2nd one of all of 2019 😂). Of course we jumped at the chance to have some one-on-one time without the kiddos. So what did we do? We went to see Star Wars 😂. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

On Christmas Eve, we baked sugar cookies and decorated them for Santa.

And boy were my girls excited to wake up to lots and lots of presents from Santa on Christmas morning.

The rest of the week was spent lounging around the house in our pjs and just being lazy. Something we're definitely not used to but it was just NICE to not do anything. We did take a bike ride around the neighborhood to enjoy the slow pace of country life.

We also took a drive up to Lake Tahoe to do some sight seeing. Our last day there, we spent the entire afternoon outside in the backyard playin' on the playground and zip-lining.

We were back home in SoCal just in time to watch the 49ers vs Seahawks game (go NINERS!) and spent the next couple of days decluttering the house and binge watching Game of Thrones (we're late to the whole GOT craze) while the babies entertained themselves with all the new toys they got for Christmas.

Taking a break the last 2 weeks of 2019 to unplug and disconnect from social media and "normal" life to spend time with my little family and make some memories was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate and start the New Year off right.

How was your Holiday Season? Tell me ALLLL about it in the comments below👇!!!

Tags: #cheers #happynewyear #hello2020 #christmas2019 #LakeTahoe #Vacation #snowday #diy #balloongarland #momlife #happynewyear2020 #santasacks

It was a short vacation, but a MUCH needed one. Daniel has been working so much since he went back to work after a month long paternity leave back in March/April, that we all needed this break away from our normal lives.

My mother-in-law moved to Gardnerville, NV the Christmas before Ella was born 3 years ago. So we've been up to visit her every Summer since. And because she doesn't live very far from Lake Tahoe, it's always a 'must visit' on our list whenever we're up there. This year was extra special and fun because this was the first time that ALL of Daniel's siblings (and their families) were able to be there at the same time. I guess you could say it was sort of like a family reunion. I mean, we see each other all the time for family events down here in Southern California, but we've never been at my MIL's all at once since she moved up there. So it definitely was a nice trip.

Ella and all of her girl cousins had gone up 2 weeks before us to spend time with grandma and grandpa before their parentals joined them at the end of their vacation. Grandma & Grandpa have a huge playground area in the backyard that Grandpa Steve built for them. The newest addition to the playground activities is a zip line he installed last summer. It's something that all the kids AND the adults can enjoy.

We arrived there on Thursday and pretty much relaxed the rest of the day.

Friday, we spent the day at Sand Harbor Beach.

Saturday, the same thing. Except we went to Caples Lake instead of Lake Tahoe. It wasn't as busy or crowded and we were able to enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet.