Christmas Countdown

Christmas is coming . . . quickly. We have been getting ready and excited all month long. And as I have done every year (so I'm going to keep it going), here is our "Countdown to Christmas" with all the fun things we've been up to in celebrating the "most wonderful time of the year": (again iphone pics. camera still broken. so sad.)

1. Festival of Trees - This was held right after Thanksgiving. All the trees and the scones and the music and the dancing definitely got us in the mood for Christmas. The kids found these BYU and Utah trees right next to each other. Very meaningful for our family.

And then, each of them got to take a picture with their favorite tree.

2. Ginger Snap Cookies - We started playing Christmas music and it felt just right for making Ginger Snaps and drinking hot chocolate. This is the best recipe. They were yum-o!

3. Decorating the Tree - We went and picked our tree. It is a really pretty one and smelled great. The kids got it all decorated.

4. Christmas Books - We have been reading LOTS of Christmas books every night before bed. Our favorites have been "Fancy Nancy - Splendifirous Christmas" and "How Murray Saved Christmas".

5. The Nutcracker - My mom and dad were in town for the weekend, so my mom, Sarah and Annie joined us for The Nutcracker. We first went to see our own little Annie in her dance performance. It was so cute.

And then off to the Nutcracker, all dressed up, with grandma.

6. Shopping - There has been a lot of shopping. Way too much of it. Thankfully, most shopping has been done on the computer and we just wait for those blessed men in brown to drop off packages at our door. It's exciting every day to wait for the boxes to arrive. Ava had a good day shopping at City Creek with grandma and grandpa.

We also took Grandma and Grandpa to the new Scheels store. It is massive enough to even have a ferris wheel inside. Quite terrifying actually. 

Scott and Zachary waving at us from above.

And there are live grizzly bears!

7. Christmas Lights - We went out to see the Christmas lights around the neighborhood. The grand finale is always a house by our friends that has an extreme amount of lights that dance to the music of a radio station on your car radio. We texted our friend Chloe from the van and she came out of her house to deliver hot chocolate to us. We love her! and hot chocolate!

8. Snow - One morning we woke up to about 10 inches of fresh, powdery beautiful snow. Instead of going outside to play in it, the kids brought the sled into the kitchen and rode around in circles in there.

They finally wised up and their mother finally helped them search for gloves and hats and snow pants and boots and coats. Then they were ready for some real sledding. Scott took them over to Falcon Park and they had the little hill all to themselves. 

 

9.  Elf On The Shelf - "Jack" the elf continues to watch from above around our house to see if everyone is being good. Some kids are kind of freaked out by the whole elf idea, but our kids are obsessed with him. They come out of their rooms in the morning and immediately go searching to see where the elf is sitting now. They completely believe that he is watching them and going back to report to Santa each night.

10. Twelve Days of Christmas - We are doing the 12 Days of Christmas for a family in our ward. It has been really fun. We know how much they need the excitement on their porch each day and to feel loved. We get together our gift each night and the kids are thrilled to be the runners. They sneak through the snow, around the fence, drop the present, knock and then run back to the van as fast as they can.