'Tis the Season

Oh, this was a jolly December!  It felt a little extra magical and special this year, and I kept thinking, "I love this month!!!"  I'm not sure why, but I just soaked in every day of holiday fun and celebration that we enjoyed together.

We started with letters to Santa.  Noah asked for a General Grievous Lego set and Luke requested a remote control airplane.  Luke was especially proud of himself that he wrote Santa's name all by himself.

Then we jumped into the car and delivered those thought-filled letters to the North Pole mailbox (thank you Chick-fil-a) that the boys had seen a few days earlier.

 Grandma Shauna had the boys over for their tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. 

 Both Noah and Luke were asking about this before Thanksgiving even rolled around and were so happy to be immersing themselves in frosting, candy and decorating once again.

One afternoon I took the boys to an awesome nativity exhibit put on by the Granite Bay Stake.  They had over 500 nativities, including a room with dress ups for the kids.  My favorite was hearing Luke say, "Mom! It's like baby Jesus is everywhere!"

 

 Once I got through all of the birthdays immense amounts of Christmas treat making ensued, which also meant Christmas treat delivering.  Both boys fully embraced being my delivery elves this year, and it saved so much time!

 

This little rascal loved having a Christmas tree around.  The first few weeks she was cautious and only pulled at the same few ornaments.  That was fine with me.  Curiousity is a good thing, right?  

But right before Christmas she got more brave and started grabbing and pulling at everything within reach.  And this girl is tall!  I was so happy the day after Christmas to take the whole thing down and be done with the Christmas tree struggle.

Luke and his Joy School friends performed the Christmas story.  He was the cutest proud shepherd

and later sang Jingle Bells as loud as his four year old voice would let him.

 

 The boys were anxiously awaiting a visit with Santa at the ward party.

Leave it to Leah to be our first and only child who freaked out at Santa.  I'm sure she thought we were the meanest family ever as we all laughed at her terror-filled screaming.

Our kids have the best Primary teachers.  The Sunday before Christmas Noah's teachers recreated the nativity with the cutest bunch of six year olds.

This year we tried out the 'Wild Nights and Holiday Lights' at the Folsom Zoo.  It was a fun change from what we've done before.  The boys were really excited to see their favorite zoo animal, the  "Stinky Pete," a skunk was actually awake since we were visiting at night.

 

  We ALL loved Winter Break! I let the boys stay in their pajamas for as long as possible, which meant sugar cookie baking right before lunch...in jammies.

 

For the first time we were the recipients of the twelve days of Christmas.  The ancipation of something arriving every nights was high for all of us.  There were so many thoughtful, cute things; many that involved activities for the boys.  

I loved seeing my pantry door fill up with the cutest Christmas decor!

 This one was my favorite. I just LOVE little kid art, especially when it's from MY little kids.

 We got a new cousin!  A week before Christmas baby Bridgette joined Tyler and Brittany's family. 

 She is such a doll and my baby lover Luke couldn't get enough of her.