The 3rd Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, my family gave to me:

3 quiet, content children watching a Christmas movie

They really love the Santa Clause movie and have watched it multiple times. Throw in a bowl of popcorn and they are in heaven!

The 2nd Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, Alabama gave to me:

2 frost free cars.

These cars were parked outside overnight and there was not a bit of frost or ice to scrape off this morning. As much as I do miss snow, it is nice not to wait 15 minutes while the car warms up and the windows defrost. Today our weather is sunny and warm in the 70s. Ayden wore shorts to school and we will probably go to the park to ride bikes. Gotta love it!

The 1st Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my family gave to me:

1 HUGE STICKY MESS

courtesy of Tate

Tate showing off his messy face

I found Tate this morning playing in the sugar. Ellie got out the sugar and didn't put it away and Tate found it. And he helped himself to it

And then he decided to get a big drink of water (from Ellie's cup) and water + sugar = sticky mess

The only way to get him clean and unsticky was to put him in the bath, which he loved. Maybe that was his plan all along.

Christmas Parade

A parade in December? Definitely not something that happened in Utah. But our town has one every year and the kids were excited to go.

Taters and Danielle

Ellie hates the sirens from the firetrucks and plugs her ears and leaves them plugged until any sign of the truck is gone. But she still managed to fill her candy bag!

Our friends the Hoppers joined us at the parade and Ayden and Ethan were so quick to grab candy.

Tate's favorite part was the suckers. It was really fun to celebrate the holiday season with a parade. And it was nice to get to bundle up (it was actually chilly that night) in coats and hats.

Christmas Party

Our church had a Christmas party on the 9th. It was great to get together and eat and enjoy games and music. Spencer and I were asked if we would do a musical number for the party and I agreed. I kind of threw him under the bus on that one! But he was a sport and we played a piano guitar duet. It was Spencer's first time playing in front of people and he was a little nervous. But he played great and we received several compliments. They had a few games for everyone to play (hilarious). The first was a game with balloons: the first group to fill Santa's bag with balloons was the winner.

It was hilarious to watch everyone's cheeks puffed out! The next game was called Dancing Reindeer and everyone was given a reindeer headband and the best dancers won! Our table actually won: we did the chicken dance and the macarena. After the Youth did a short skit, a special visitor came!
The kids got to visit with Santa in Santa's workshop.

Ellie refused to go sit on his lap, she had a sudden case of shyness.  We really enjoyed the ward party and had a great time as a ward family.

Snow... where art thou?

For the first time in my life there isn't snow on the ground in December. Growing up in Wyoming (and spending the last 9 years in Utah), I have gotten very used to the beautiful white stuff that falls from the sky during the winter months. Many a day after school was spent sledding or building snow forts. Every morning you scraped sheets of ice and snow from your car windows while you prayed it wasn't too cold for your car to start. And each night the snow looked beautiful against Christmas lights and trees looked artfully draped in beautiful white. Oh how I miss it. 

Alabama has it own winter beauty but I will always be fond of these snow covered mountains.