Our Magical Time of the Year!

The magic began a week before Christmas Eve. As if I wasn't busy enough with work, photographing a wedding, and being a supermommy this month, I was also secretly planning a surprise 30th birthday for my best friend!

On Friday Dec 17th, we celebrated Dina's dirty thirty at the Viceroy Hotel Santa Monica! The dinner party was so much fun, and we definitely caught her off gaurd!

Then...... I got sick :( So poor Taji and I spent a large chunk of the week leading up to Christmas recuperating at home while Brad fed us chicken soup. Perfect timing too, with the nasty downpour and storms 5 days in a row, we sure didn't miss a thing and there was no perfect place to be than in our cozy little home.

All week long we received special deliveries for Taji from the North Pole and Jezisek...... and then the day before Christmas Eve we ran over to Fashion Island to show Taj the grandest sparkliest Christmas tree of all. We met up with our friends Laura and Greg, who are eagerly expecting their bundle of joy any minute! Taji showed off his adorable little santa suit, and got lots of attention, he even had his picture taken by a random older lady ha ha

Here is Santa Taji spreading cheer with his auntie Laura & Greg :)
Baby's First Jezisek!

Taj is a lucky little boy.... unlike other little boys in the US of A, he gets to celebrate christmas two different times, one Czech style and the other American style! Every year on Christmas Eve, children all over the Czech Republic celebrate the arrival of Jezisek (Baby Jesus) who delivers presents in the evening, after a very traditional celebratory dinner. My sister and I remember the magic, the anticipation of turning off all the lights, hiding in our room, and listening as Jezisek arrived. Then when we came out of our room we were blown away by how many presents surrounded the tree. That same magical experience we had we want to pass on to our little ones. This year was Taji's first Jezisek, and he was introduced to our special Czech tradition. :0) My sister and I perfected our traditional Czech dinner, and we even surprised ourselves just how good the soup, fish, and potato salad tasted...... babi and deda would be so proud!




After dinner and family portraits by the tree, my sister and I went to go hide with the kids while the daddy's stayed behind "to greet Jezisek and help him him unload the gifts!" Here we are in Chloe's room with the lights off, listening to Jezisek's bell. Taji became excited seeing Chloe get excited, it was very cute!

Baby's First Christmas Morning
After a late night at my sister's on Christmas Eve, we had a bit of a late start on Christmas Morning.... here is Taji attacking the presents!
He was much more experienced at unwrapping and tearing the paper off, and tried to munch on it too!

On Christmas Day we helped Taji open his gifts..... between Jezisek and Santa, he got so many cool wooden and electronic toys, outfits, books, accessories, teething toys........ he must have been a good little boy! We feasted on our traditional big breakfast, and had a busy day playing with toys and relaxing. What a magical holiday weekend was had...... thank you to our Czech Jezisek for Taj's awesome toys and outfits (wink wink) and my sister & family for a very special Christmas Eve. Oh, before I forget, last year Brad and I started our family tradition of "giving" every Christmas in lieu of buying big gifts for each other..... once Taj gets older he will help pick out the charities. This year, we donated to Starlight Children's Foundation, National Center for Fathering (in honor of the Brad- an Amazing daddy to Baby Taj!), and Charity:Water.... a non-profit that builds wells and delivers clean water to poor African communities (watch their awesome video). I encourage you to check out the links for each charity, get involved, but most importantly, start this tradition of Giving with your family :)