Season of Giving

Last night we did something we try not to do very often, take all four kids to Wal-Mart at the same time. Wal-Mart is nuts as it is, but four kids with Christmas on the brain it is just plain nuts.

Fortunately we were there with a purpose in mind, everyone needed to find a gift to be donated to the Christmas Box House. Cam was quick to find art supplies, McKinley chose those black felt coloring boards, Keegan found a nice hoodie, Bracken found a shirt that came with a beanie and Will and I chose a pillow pet. We got out of Wal-Mart with only a few more gray hairs and with kids that were happy with their choices.

I love this time of year, I love seeing smiles on faces and the crazy running around we all do. I love helping my kids to see the importance of taking care of those who need the help and I love spending even more time together as a family.

I hope everyone takes the opportunity to do for someone else this year. Merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread Village

 

 

Every year we decorate a gingerbread house for the holiday. Usually it is just a kit from the store, but this year we went big and Will made all the houses and trains with molds we bought a few years ago. After a few hours of baking on Sunday, we were ready to go last night. Here are a few photos of the work in progress, I will add more when it is finished.  A big thanks to Will for all his hard work in the kitchen, this is one Gingerbread Village that will be hard to forget.

Getting the Decorations Up!

 

 

Decorating for Christmas is one of two things at our house tons of fun or tons of tears. It usually starts with groans over who has to bring everything up from the basement and then to arguing over who gets to set out the nativity and hang the stockings. This year we did things a little different, the kids and I decided to surprise Will and have everything upstairs and waiting for him after work...it was a lot of work but it was fun trying to surprise Dad. There were a few tears over the nativity, but we have two so both kids ended up happy in the end. Thanks to Cam we have some photos of all the work.

McKinley's Dance Performance

McKinley started taking dance again this year, she is having a blast. She performed at the South Jordan Equestrian Center this past Saturday. She did a great job and had a blast with all her dance friends.

Snow and more snow....

It just seemed to keep coming down last weekend and then the wind had a little fun with the snow. In the ten years we have lived here I have never seen snow like this on our house.