Santa Clause is coming to town!

Note to self: it is not wise to take your kids to see Santa for a second time after you've already finished ALL your Christmas shopping.  Still, aren't they so darn cute?  We went to the library for Santa, crafts, and candy canes.  The elves admired the fearless Kolton who sat right on Santa's lap telling him, "candy, candy, candy?"  He then proceeded to run back to Santa's bowl of candy canes and steal 5 more.  Everyone thought it was funny.  That kid loves candy more than any kid I've ever seen before in my life!  The kids had fun.  I thought to myself this might be the last year for Xiana.  I hope not; she's only 5.  Still, if she's anything like me.... Merry Christmas Santa Clause!

Away in a manger

Our ward did  A Night in Bethlehem for our Christmas party.  It was lovely.  I adore the Jesus Christmas celebrations.  It brought me back to my childhood when the Cushmans came into the gym with their most recent baby, dressed as Mary Joseph, and Jesus, riding a real live donkey.  It was memorable and meaningful.  Our kids are still a bit small, but Kolton made his way to the manger and thought himself quite clever to sit in it.  He is probably quite close to the age of the baby Jesus when the wise men made it from their travels.  I couldn't help but feel what a frightening journey it must of been for the little family as they attempted to evade King Herod.  And yet, I'm sure they were not overwhelmed, but rather filled with the peace and joy that all children bring, heightened intensely by this being Christ the Lord; the new born king!
We enjoyed the food, and a beautiful FHE packet with wise men keep sakes.  It was a fun filled, spiritual event.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tradition is to cut down a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  This year, however, our patriarch, truck driving, tree chopping, daddy of the house went on his big horn sheep hunt early the next morning.  He didn't return for two more weekends; the third weekend was chock full of busy-ness.  Then, we decided we were going to head to Battle Mountain in another two weeks.  The prognosis for our Christmas tree wasn't looking good.  I felt bad not to get one for the kids, but not bad enough to do all the work for a week and a half of a tree.  So... fortunately, my parents kindly offered their tree for our kids' enjoyment.  They got to decorate the tree, frost eat cookies for and off the tree, sing songs around the tree, and get all the satisfaction of a tree: without the frustration of keeping a certain mischievous 1-year-old off its branches or any of the hard work and mess.  Win, win, win, win, win!

The kids made darling little ornaments for our non tree with their hand prints on salt dough.  I love looking through boxes of Christmas past to find all of my personal keepsakes.  I hope my own children love it as well!

Elf on the shelf took pity on Xiana and put up a little tree for her one night.  He felt badly that her mean parents didn't put one up.  She immediately started looking for the Christmas lights he surely put up outside, but to no avail :)

Yes, please

For Christmas I'll take a gymnastics Dora and pixie dust... and he'll take some trucks and cars.

I'll also please take some puddles to jump in...

a playland with burgers and shakes right next door...

a bff that I get to see almost daily...

and a girls' day with the Polar Express!

New park!

There's a new park in town and it's stealing the show!  There are so many innovative, fun, and age appropriate structures here!  Another bonus is that just about everything spins!  I LOVE to spin!!  So do my kids.  As a result, we spent much of the day listening to Kolton as he giggled, "dizzy."  We will be spending a lot of time here in the future.