Christmas - Season of Joy

I was particularly excited for the Christmas season this year. So much so, that we actually put the Christmas tree up a week before Thanksgiving. (My justification: We were leaving for Oklahoma the next week for Thanksgiving and I wanted to make sure we had ample time to enjoy the fun decorations).

Lily was so proud of herself for making this beautiful tree out of construction paper. Pretty impressive!

I absolutely love how these Christmas stockings turned out. My mom has a neighbor that embroidered them for me. So fun to have matching and permanent stockings now.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures. This is where I frequently find Crew . . . He finds his step and just looks at the tree mesmerized.

First things first . . . Elfie always joins our family on December 1st.

I feel like this month has been especially busy with all of the various activities we were involved in.

I was especially grateful that Garrett was able to watch the boys during his lunch break so that I could spend some time with Lily and her class. Her sweet kindergarten class had a pajama day and made gingerbread houses.

I just love her!

First snowman of the year!

It was Boston's turn for his class Christmas party! What fun! They made such a cute Christmas ornament. Ms. Jeannie is so great - - she always prepares enough for her preschoolers siblings that are invited to the party also.

All of the kids lined up on the couch to play their very favorite game: "Guess who is hiding under the present." One person leaves the room while another hides under the giant present box. It is seriously so cute how much these kiddos love this game.

I was trying to be creative this year and so I put together a bunch of paper strips with fun Christmas activities on them that the kids were able to draw from an envelope. One of the activities was making frosted Christmas trees with sugar cones and then decorating them with candy/sprinkles. I think the kiddos enjoyed eating them more than anything.

Eating a pizza picnic around the Christmas tree.

Our sweet friends, the Condie's, invited our little family over for a fun Christmas FHE. They fed us a yummy dinner of hot dogs wrapped in homemade bread and chili. The kids especially love that! They even put together a fun game for the kids to play to learn about the birth of our Savior. We sure love how much these wonderful friends love our sweet children.!

So Garrett and I thought it would be a fabulous idea for us to take the kids Christmas shopping for their siblings. It turned out a little different than what we thought . . . but it was still memorable. Trying to keep each child focused on picking something out for someone else was a bit challenging.

The above picture is priceless. Lily seriously used a whole roll of tape to wrap a present for Boston and Crew. She did a great job with the wrapping!

Delivering treats to our neighbors with dad.

Visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus at our church activity.

We were excited that Grandpa and Grandma Updike were able to join us for Christmas this year.

Christmas Crafts with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandpa Updike putting together a building kit with the kids again. This time it was a science experiment kit. The kids absolutely loved the volcano that was made with vinegar, baking soda, and red jello.

Crew helping grandma make rolls for our Christmas eve dinner.

Enjoying Christmas Eve dinner together. We had fun going together as a family to see "Big Hero 6" at the movie theater before dinner.

Don't let these sweet faces fool you . . . our nativity experience was quite chaotic. By the end I had seriously lost all of my patience. As you can see below . . . our little Shepherd (Crew) took down our Joseph (Boston). Lily refused to put her baby Jesus in the manager and that upset Boston. It really was quite funny - but I was done for the day. Maybe next year will be a little calmer?

Grandma tried to save the night by showing the kids a Christmas video on her Ipad. These ultra tired kids were too wired to even cooperate in this also.