The Zorio Family: Tis the Season

Tis the season for Christmas cookies, gingerbread houses, Christmas lights, Christmas parties, friends and family, and we are lucky enough to get to experience all of those this holiday season. Last week I started making Christmas cookies for a Christmas Cookie Exchange Party and ended up making almost 10 dozen! We had all shapes...stars, stockings, bells, candy canes, presents, snowmen, Christmas trees, and holly leaves. I took almost 5 dozen to the cookie exchange which was a lot of fun, and I came home with a lot cookies others had baked that were great! John, Dawson, and I took the other 5 dozen cookies I made by Hawk where I used to work. It was great to see everyone there and wish them a Merry Christmas!

After making all of the Christmas cookies, we decided to go ahead and build our gingerbread house so we could have it out to enjoy leading up to Christmas. John and I had a lot of fun decorating it, and it's still standing so we must have done something right!

Every year the Huntsville Botanical Gardens puts on a Galaxy of Lights where you can pay to drive on a path through the gardens and see a huge lights display them have put up. Last year we wanted to go but weren't able to make it before Christmas, so this year we were excited to get to go! We have decided that this will be something we do every year we're in Huntsville because it was so good. We all put on our pj's, took some hot chocolate, and loaded in the car (even Bentley got to come) and drove over the the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, Dawson didn't get to enjoy it for long before he fell asleep, but next year hopefully he will be more interested in the lights. It takes about 40 minutes to drive through they have so many lights. They have music for the whole thing too! We really enjoyed all the lights! On the way home we stopped by a nearby neighborhood where two different houses have outdone Clark Griswald's Christmas lights and covered their houses with lights, and they have even coordinated the lights to music.

This week we also had two Christmas parties. Tuesday night was our 3rd Annual Small Group Tour de Christmas Party. This is where our small group of four couples hosts a progressive dinner which we have started calling our "tour de Christmas" since we go to every couples house to see their Christmas decorations and, of course, eat. This year John and I were in charge of desserts so we served a little bit of several desserts. We had white chocolate oreo truffles, Mississippi mud bars, peanut butter pie, cheesecake, and a fruit salad.

Last night was our Sunday School Christmas Party which John and I always look forward to as well. This year instead of doing a Christmas party and playing Dirty Santa, the party was a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party which was really funny! John wore a tie with Christmas trees on it that played music. I borrowed a sweater from a friend, Melanie, who said she had a whole crate of tacky Christmas sweaters from a relative, and there was quite a collection! The best sweaters of the night though, were Ben and Melanie's! We had a lot of fun with our friends at the Christmas parties this week.

We are looking forward to seeing our family soon to celebrate Christmas with them and of course we're also looking forward to Dawson's first Christmas!

Enjoy the pictures below!