The Saturday after Thanksgiving we put up our tree. I was really excited for this year because I bought all new ornaments and a tree topper for our tree last year the day after Christmas when it was 75% off! It was the first time we had matching ornaments and a topper on our tree and I loved it! 
I didn't get a very good picture of the tree of of us decorating it, but I did love our tree this year. Our kids did, too. Several times during Christmas, we would find Rylee in the front room and when we asked her what she was doing she would say "watching the lights on the tree." The kids especially loved finding their own ornaments to put on the tree. In our family, the kids get an ornament each year and we also get a family ornament for the tree when we go on a trip or something so it is fun to get them out and talk about the memories. This year our family ornament was from Yellowstone and the kids picked out their own ornaments. Logan's was a trophy with a soccer ball which was pretty ugly but I guess it could symbolize his first soccer goal he scored last season. Rylee picked out a Abby Cadabby ornament which was great since she had a Abby birthday this year. 
The first weekend of December, (Dec 4) we went with the kids to a Live Nativity near our home. We were SO excited to find one here close by since that was one of our favorite Christmas traditions when we lived in Vegas. This one wasn't quite as exciting as the one in Vegas but we had a good time and it was good to find something to do something more centered on Christ during the Christmas season. It was freezing but the kids loved it! This one was not a program like the one in Vegas, but a scene in a barn while scriptures played telling the story of the Nativity. The kid "actors" looked like they were being forced at gunpoint to participate, but Rylee kept wanting to go back and see Baby Jesus over and over again! 
Avery all bundled up! It was a cold night but she did great! 
The nativity had lots of live animals, which was so fun for the kids. They even had a CAMEL! Can you believe it? It was a little weird - Not something you see around here every day! We were standing watching the nativity and the camel just poked his head into the barn and freaked me out! He wanted to eat Avery - Darren was carrying her and I think he thought she was food. He kept coming at Darren and it was a little scary! 
Logan got to pet a little donkey. Rylee was not interested! 
After going through the Nativity scene, we got to take a fun little hayride and the kids really loved it! I was freezing but they had a great time! 
Me and Logan on the hay ride. I think my glasses are frozen over! 
Our fam on the hay ride. After the nativity, we went for pizza at Pier 49. It was a really fun family night! We love little outings like this. 
Another tradition we have is to decorate a gingerbread house at the first of December. The kids were SO excited to make this and kept asking and asking when we were going to do it and had so much fun decorating it on December 6th. 
Rylee cracked us up! She was so intense on her decorating and and did a great job! She kept adding and adding candy and putting it in the funniest places. She would stick her little tongue out and get so focused! 
Logan was a little crazy because he was so excited! I think he was more interested in eating than candy than adding it to the house though. 
They were pretty focused on their job and did a great job! This is the first year that we were able to just let them pretty much take over and they loved it. It was a little hard to relinquish all the control over having a pretty house, but they had so much fun making it the way they wanted. 
Darren was the in charge of the icing and he did an awesome job. He is so great to help with all our projects! 
Avery just hung out in her swing while we were working on the house. Isn't she sweet?
I don't know where this started but lately every time I take Rylee's picture she poses like this with her hands up by her face and her head tilted! Such a funny little girl! 
Cheesy kids with their cute house! 
Here is an attempt to get Avery in the picture, too. 
Our completed project! I love all the randomly placed long candies. Rylee had to use EVERY piece of candy so she was just shoving it wherever she could fit it. 
I love the little candies placed randomly on the roof. We were hoping to get a trip to Temple Square in, but it never worked out. One other fun thing we LOVE to do with our kids during Christmas is watch lots of Christmas specials and movies. We watch Home Alone to kick off the season when we put up our tree. It is a favorite at our house! We also love all the old school specials we watched as kids, like Charlie Brown, Frosty and Rudolph and our new favorite was the new Disney one called Prep and Landing- It was hilarious! Logan and Rylee still like to say "This is SO TINSEL!" in the funniest voice just like the movie. It was fun to get snuggled up in our PJs and watch some cute Christmas shows when we had free time. We mostly just enjoyed being together!
Another fun thing we did was take the kids out shopping for their cousins and each other. They were hilarious to watch shop. I thought it was important to have them go shopping for others and not just worry about what they were getting. Of course, they wanted to buy things for each other that they each wanted, but they did do a pretty good job in the end. My favorite trip was to the dollar store. My family all get the kids something so I wanted them to pick some little thing to give everyone. They went crazy! We walked down one aisle and my cart was totally full of such funny stuff. I had to go through and narrow things down and help them pick just ONE thing per person! We ended up with some funny gifts - My favorite was badminton racquets for my parents and silly string for Laura and Dean. They got the boys some funny little games and Vanessa High School Musical chapstick, Heather a mirror and Jay some candy. Such funny kids! They had a great time!
We tried really hard to teach the kids about the true Spirit of Christmas and what the holiday really celebrates. One day when Darren picked Logan up from preschool, he told Darren that he knew what the meaning of Christmas was. Darren asked him what and he said "The first thing of Christmas is opening presents. The second thing of Christmas is about Jesus and the third thing of Christmas is giving gifts." Well - at least he has the important things in there, but we do still need to work on the order!
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