It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve!  (Well technically today, since it's after mid-night) The month has just flown by!  Honestly I'm a little sad that Christmas is almost here - I love the kids' excitement and anticipation all month long, the lights, the music, the parties, the treats, I just love the fun and the feeling of giving and joy in the air!  I love it so much that I'm always a little sad because I don't want Christmas to be over. It has been a fun filled and busy month for sure, here are some our favorite traditions and fun activities that we've had...

Jubilee of Trees!
Our kids love our tradition of kicking off the season with a visit to see Santa at the Jubilee of Trees.  We have been doing this since Pierson was a toddler, I am glad he is still so excited about it.  Pierce was actually a little stressed as we were getting ready, he just could not decide what he should tell Santa he wanted!  I was worried that Jensen would freak out like Pierce did at this age, but he did great.  Not exactly a smile, but he didn't cry, so I'm calling it a success!

This was an especially memorable year at the Jubilee this year, Ryan totally scored and with $5 in raffle tickets won the "Prize Drawing Tree"!  I could not believe it!  The designers from Tai Pain showed up that night to set it up in our living room!  It has been so fun and the kids have been loving it!   A little hard to see the actual tree but it is in there under all that decor.

Ryan wanted to check "put up the tree" off his list after this, but there was no way I could not have our tree up for Christmas.  Even though our tree is somewhat bare and by no means fancy, I love it!  I love all of our family ornaments and the memories that go with them.  It is fun to see it get a  little fuller each year. Plus the best thing is, that it has been so fun to have a tree up stairs and down, our playroom upstairs is pretty bare, we love having the tree up their to add a little cozy!

I have to say that my very favorite thing about this Christmas Season has been Jensen's fascination with the trees and the lights.  He loves them!  He doesn't even try to destroy them either.  He definitely enjoys rearranging the ornaments, but all kids proof ornaments within his reach have made it all the merrier.  He says "tree" and "lights" so cute, when we get him out of bed in the morning as soon as we walk out into the room, if the lights are not on yet he points and says "ah-oh"! then runs to turn them on.  It didn't take him long at all to figure out all the tricks to turning on all the lights around the house.

Christmas Performances

Pierce has been singing in the school choir this year and they got the fun opportunity to sing at the tree lighting for Dixie Escalante.  Such a fun family event.  We had never been so I didn't know what tree they would be lighting, this tree is huge!  So fun to see it all lit up!

The choir kids did a great job!  Ryan and I love watching Pierce get into the songs, he is a great little singer.

Madi's ballet studio  put on "A Christmas Carol" ballet this year.  This was her first year being in the ballet and she loved it.  They got to perform at the Dickens' Festival, at Tuachan and then their studio recital.  She has a lot of fun performing, especially with her best friend, Annie.

Love these two beautiful girls!

Pierce, Madi and Jens having fun after Madi's performance at Tuachan.   Cute little Shepherd and animals if I do say so myself.

Gingerbread Houses!
I think our annual "Gingerbread Houses with the Woodbury's" is the kids' most anticipated Christmas time activity - they LOVE this!  This was our 5th year doing this together and  it was even more special this year, we got to do gingerbread on Annie's birthday!  Here are some highlights...

Kathryn always makes real gingerbread from scratch, (she's amazing like that, we are just lucky she invites us!) and she always makes extra so we can enjoy some fresh gingerbread cookies.  Which I think is my favorite part.

Pierce with his cookies, he was not very happy with me for eating them, better make my own next year.  

Our lovely gingerbread house!  We did a pretty good job this year!  Much better than last year.

Madi with birthday girl Annie!  Happy Birthday Annie!  I can't believe you are seven! 

I was also relieved that Madi's tooth had finally come out that morning!  The poor girl had been brave and let me try to pull it out for her, it seemed so ready, and when I gave it a little tug it did not come out!  One side was totally detached and the other side was not letting go, I felt so bad, I never would have tried pulling it if I didn't think it was ready, I'd never seen such a stubborn tooth!  So after that she was terrified and we had a week of her with the lovely "tooth hanging by a thread".  She would not let any one touch it and did not want to pull it out herself.  Thankfully, it finally just fell right out!  She was so happy and I was so relieved!  Even though she has lost 4 teeth, they've all been on the bottom so this one is the first to really change her smile, I love/hate this.  So cute and so sad at the same time.  They are growing up way too fast.  

Holiday Attire Party

My most hilarious friend, Angie, hosted a couples "Holiday Attire Party" and it was such a fun night for Ryan and me!  Ryan scored himself this sweet sweater at DI in preparation for the big night.  I wasn't as on the ball, next year I'll have to come up with something much better.  Here we are in our Sadie Hawkins pose.

All the girls -

Jen, Kimberly, Lauren, Kathryn, Andrea, Laura, Shelley,
Mel, Kendra, Me, Angie, Kenna

The Couples - 

We all enjoyed some delicious food and had some good laughs.   A lot of good laughs.  We played the candy bar game, (round 1 for the ladies, round 2 for the men,)  and Guesstures.  I was so impressed with everyones acting and pantomiming skills!  We are just surrounded by talented people here!  So much fun!  Thank you Ang, you are the best!