Our first December in Arizona was a busy and fun filled time!

 It started off with a Lego Advent Calendar from Grandma & Grandpa! In case you can't tell, the boys were quite excited about it :)

We went to a Christmas tree lighting event at the Ritz-Carlton right near our house. It was filled with cookies, hot chocolate, Santa Claus and even "snow"!

"That's not snow mom, it's soap!"

John graduated from goldfish at swim lessons!

And Will built a Christmas tree out of legos all by himself :)

Cheering on cousin Mara's basketball team from AZ!

John made friends with the Volunteer Oro Valley PD at McDonalds and scored toys for himself and Will

St Nicholas found our house in Arizona and brought the boys some new decorations for their mini Christmas trees that he brought them last year and a gingerbread house making kit. They were so excited!




Grandma & Grandpa ordered Will new golf clubs for his birthday and they finally came! He is so happy to have his own set of big kid clubs.

2 thumbs up!

Erik and I went on a date night to his company Christmas party and passed a dinosaur along the way...


...and a herd of cows on the drive home later that night!


We explored the 4th Ave street fair with some cool old fire trucks and lots of booths of stuff to buy.


We stopped for a beer at our good friend's Pub on the way home. Check out Iron John's if you're ever in Tucson!


And we passed a car show at Second Saturdays before we headed home. Will was pretty excited to check out this cool car!



We took the boys out to a holiday dinner at The Gallery


We received an awesome housewarming/Christmas gift from Mark & Joan... a cuckoo clock! Our boys always love watching the one at their house. It was such a thoughtful gift that we treasure so much!


In December in Arizona, you ride bikes! Or in John's case, you try to get your helmet stuck under your handle bars ;)


We made homemade hot cocoa mix for Will & John's teachers. It wasn't messy at all to have a 4 year old's help! Ha!



He also helped make M&M Pretzel treats, one of my favorite, and easiest, Christmas treat!

Always happy to be my little helper

We missed seeing the candy cactus garden at the Ritz Carlton when we went for the tree lighting, so I took the boys back to check it out. Everything was made out of, you guessed it, candy! It was really cool.

Momma and her boys at the cactus candy garden

I think this Home Depot decoration perfectly describes John: full of Joy!

A little December golf is good for the soul, even on a "chilly" day here in AZ. It was in the 60s and we were freezing!







This is how you decorate for Christmas in Arizona. The boys were so nervous that I was going to get hurt by the cactus. I was totally fine, thank goodness :)

Visiting Santa Claus after church

More desert Christmas decorations

Making gingerbread houses at school - so cute!

They really loved opening their Christmas cards from Grandma & Grandpa Beck, complete with spending money

On the 9th hole of The Gallery - South

There's our house in the left corner!

We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and explored all the animals, learned about the life cycle of a Saguaro, and did lots of walking! We stopped for this awesome picture of Nana & Papa with the boys.


Nana & Papa went to visit some family up in the Phoenix area and we went across the street to a Christmas gathering with our neighbors. They had sugar cookies all ready for the kiddos to decorate. So fun!


Check out these masterpieces below...


Some snuggle time with daddy was necessary during movie watching at the Christmas party. Will was exhausted. John was thoroughly enjoying his snacks.


We took the boys to the outlet mall to buy gifts for one another. While there, the Marana Police were handing out free stuffed animals and other goodies for the kids and they had a chance to sit on a police motorcycle.

Will with a giant puppy mascot - John was not interested lol

We went to see Mary Poppins Returns with Nana & Papa. The verdict... 3 thumbs up!

Beautiful Arizona sky

Eating cereal and plotting their takeover of the world!



We went to Christmas Eve Mass ( a tradition in Erik's family) and went home after to enjoy some homemade chili... another Brandstaetter tradition! The Mass was really beautiful and it was packed to the brim!

Merry Christmas from the BrandstaettAZ!

Ready to head home for some chili and a few Christmas Eve gifts!

Opening gifts from one another

A Spiderman cup for John... and Legos for Will

Some Captain America jammies for John... and a Superhero calendar for Will



This was the best part of the evening :)


Nana & Papa got them some United States placemats so they can see how far it is from Arizona to South Carolina (where Nana & Papa live).


Time to open their ornaments!

It's The Flash!

And Batman!

Showing off their new pajamas, complete with bathrobes and Santa hats.


Christmas morning!



























After multiple rounds of gift opening (Santa, Nana & Papa, Grandma & Grandpa, and aunts, uncles and cousins... oh my!) It was time to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. The boys practiced riding their new scooters and ended up drawing a beautiful chalk house in the driveway.


Christmas dinner: Pork wellington and Brussels Sprouts salad. Yummm!



The day after Christmas, Erik, Papa and the boys headed to the Pima Air & Space Museum for the day while Nana and I went to get our fingers and toes done at the spa. They had a wonderful time walking around looking at all the cool airplanes... we had a wonderful time relaxing, using the sauna & steam room and having lunch.





We couldn't stop taking Nana & Papa on fun adventures so went up Mt Lemmon on Thursday, December 27th. We started our morning at Prep & Pastry for breakfast and started making our way up the mountain on a somewhat chilly day.

Nana & the boys

Nana, Papa, Will & John

We knew there was a chance of snow on Mt Lemmon that day and we found some to play in at Windy Point!






Once we reached the top of the mountain, we checked out the gift shop and were planning to make a stop at Sawmill Run for some hot chocolate. The wait was really long, so we decided it was best to start heading for home. And its a good thing we did because when we were walking to the car, snow was falling! We were lucky to head down when we did because the road down closed shortly after we left!

Will's favorite Christmas gift... Bumblebee and Jazz Transformers Legos

Nana and Papa were set to leave on Friday, but an unexpected travel cancellation meant we got one more full day with them before they had to go home. We relaxed (no more crazy adventures!) and went out for a quiet dinner their last night in town.

Last picture before saying our goodbyes

It was a wonderful trip full of memories, being introduced to brandied eggnog, unexpected blizzards, Christmas Eve mass as a family and so much more!

The boys were so sad to say goodbye (as were we) but we had an airport dropoff followed immediately by an airport pickup of Uncle Pat & Aunt Amy! To kill a few hours, we took the boys to Dave & Buster's and they loved playing all of the games.



Here we are back at the airport awaiting our next guests!


The cowboy boots from Santa were a big hit...



John wanted to take this bag all the way from baggage claim to the car. He did and Uncle Pat gave him a whole dollar!


Our first stop was HUB to share our love of delicious cheese curds with our WI family. They were impressed! We also took them to Iron John's for some beer before heading home and showing them our house for the first time.

A little wrestle time with Uncle Pat at the restaurant

Uncle Pat & Aunt Amy brought Christmas gifts along for the boys: tickets to a UofA Basketball game, UofA baseball hats and tattoos AND spending money for at the game!

The boys saying thank you for their awesome gifts

Pat & Erik went out golfing the next day and Amy and I took the kiddos on a (somewhat chilly) hike.


The boys playing battleship with Uncle Pat... they sure do love when we have visitors!


We had a big New Year's celebration planned but I ended up falling ill that morning and we had to cancel our plans. Instead, we hung out all day, built puzzles, Pat & Amy checked out the outlet mall and we had a nice, quiet evening in.

Happy New Year from the McAdams & Brandstaetter clans!





Another great visit capped off with farewell pictures in our courtyard...