Though it's mostly been raining, and melting all of the snow and doesn't look much like Christmas outdoors, it looks a lot like Christmas at our house! The day after Thanksgiving, we put up all of our Christmas decorations, like always. Emma was so sad to take down the Halloween decorations, but I told her we’d replace them with Thanksgiving ones for a few weeks, and then Christmas. “Well, that’s even better!” she replied. It’s always fun to pull everything out, and I loved how Emma remembered a lot of the decorations and would say “I remember this one!” Her favorite thing was probably her Chicken Dance ornament. Cal loves the Christmas lights, and whenever he sees them in our house, or when we’re out and about, he loves to look at them on the houses and say “Christmas!” He also likes Santa Claus and likes to say “Ho ho”. My favorite thing is my nativity that Dave gave me as a gift the first year we were married. That will probably always be my favorite decoration. I love it! And don’t forget, our leg lamp light string. One of my friends was over last week, and had never seen the movie. She kept looking at our little tree all funny, so I explained and made her borrow the movie.
The kids decorating the house...
Or, decorating themselves!
My Nativity. I love it!
It’s Christmas baking time! We’ve made gingerbread men, I made basketballs and the Jazz team. I didn’t take any pictures, but they turned out pretty cute. We also made sugar cookies. Here are some reindeer ones we did. The kids love helping in the kitchen! Emma is actually getting good at cracking the eggs, and Cal loves dumping dry ingredients in the bowl. Then, I got together with my friend Lori to make homemade Christmas candy. She’s never made anything like that and really wanted to, so we had a baking day. We made peanut brittle, fudge, pretzel bark, peanut butter balls, candy cane popcorn. We had a blast, and took the goodies around to some neighbors, who were excited to receive it.
Christmas lights, we love ‘em! We have driven around to go look at Christmas lights, we really like the house in South Weber that sets their lights to music. We say we’re only going to stay for a few songs, but end up staying a lot longer, because it’s so enchanting! We went to the Bountiful City Electric Light Parade. It was pretty short, but a lot of fun. The kids thought it was great! They threw out lots of candy because there weren’t many there, and the floats were fun. Here's a burn out. That was Cal's favorite things.
Watching and waiting for the next float.
Emma got a kick out of the "parade in the dark"!
I thought this tractor/carriage was cool!
Our crowd. We went with my parents, Dave's parents & Aunt Julie. It was a fun night!
Bountiful City Power float.
Cal keeping warm.
The Jolly Man himself!
We were also lucky enough to be able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year. We always sign up for tickets the first day, but are never selected...we always joke maybe we're the wrong blood type or perhaps belong to the wrong tribe? It's been five years since we were able to go! But Randy, Dave's brother, got some tickets, and so we doubled with him and his date, Amy. Yahoo! Thank you for letting us come with you! It was wonderful! This year, David Archuletta and Michael York were headlining with the choir. Everything was amazing! The choir, special effects, performers, dancers, special stage decorations, it was all perfect!
The kids decorating the house...
Or, decorating themselves!
My Nativity. I love it!
It’s Christmas baking time! We’ve made gingerbread men, I made basketballs and the Jazz team. I didn’t take any pictures, but they turned out pretty cute. We also made sugar cookies. Here are some reindeer ones we did. The kids love helping in the kitchen! Emma is actually getting good at cracking the eggs, and Cal loves dumping dry ingredients in the bowl. Then, I got together with my friend Lori to make homemade Christmas candy. She’s never made anything like that and really wanted to, so we had a baking day. We made peanut brittle, fudge, pretzel bark, peanut butter balls, candy cane popcorn. We had a blast, and took the goodies around to some neighbors, who were excited to receive it.
It was so cute! One night, Dave and I heard Emma go into the living room after we tucked her in and then she went back in her room. Dave went in to check on her, and this is what he saw. Emma put a little Santa hat we have on, and went right to sleep! She slept in that all night.
Christmas lights, we love ‘em! We have driven around to go look at Christmas lights, we really like the house in South Weber that sets their lights to music. We say we’re only going to stay for a few songs, but end up staying a lot longer, because it’s so enchanting! We went to the Bountiful City Electric Light Parade. It was pretty short, but a lot of fun. The kids thought it was great! They threw out lots of candy because there weren’t many there, and the floats were fun. Here's a burn out. That was Cal's favorite things.
Watching and waiting for the next float.
Emma got a kick out of the "parade in the dark"!
I thought this tractor/carriage was cool!
Our crowd. We went with my parents, Dave's parents & Aunt Julie. It was a fun night!
Bountiful City Power float.
Cal keeping warm.
The Jolly Man himself!
And nothing starts the holiday off right like the First Presidency Christmas devotional! We made some popcorn and watched it together. I loved their messages of focusing on the Savior and the simplicity of his story. Truly, he is the only reason for the season. And the music was gorgeous, like always. If you weren't able to watch it, follow this link, and you can watch individual talks or songs, or the entire thing:
We were also lucky enough to be able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year. We always sign up for tickets the first day, but are never selected...we always joke maybe we're the wrong blood type or perhaps belong to the wrong tribe? It's been five years since we were able to go! But Randy, Dave's brother, got some tickets, and so we doubled with him and his date, Amy. Yahoo! Thank you for letting us come with you! It was wonderful! This year, David Archuletta and Michael York were headlining with the choir. Everything was amazing! The choir, special effects, performers, dancers, special stage decorations, it was all perfect!
Last week, we went to downtown Ogden to see the Ogden Christmas Village with the Miller’s. This is the third year we’ve gone together, and it’s always so much fun! I used to go as a kid, we’d go with my mom’s friend Ann and their family. The only thing I remember that’s still the same is a group of caroler statues. It was so cute, Emma and Tavin were holding each other’s hands nearly the entire time, on their own accord. And the little boys, Alec and Cal were actually into it this year! Cal loved all of the “Christmas lights”! The best part for the kids though was riding Jupiter, the train that runs through downtown Ogden. They got a kick out of that. There was a Santa Claus walking around, and much to my surprise, Emma walked right up to him and said “Hi, Santa!” Santa asked if she had been good for her mom and dad, and Emma said she had, which is right! Hopefully the big guy brings her (and Cal) something good this year! (: I'll get some pictures up soon from that. The pictures we took at Christmas Village weren't great, since we forgot our real camera, so these are pics from the phones. But they give you an idea, right?
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