Christmas in July

Better late than never I’d say!  Here’s what we did last December for Christmas. 

We had a great Christmas season this past year and even though I haven’t blogged about it until now, it is worth mentioning.  We were very busy the entire Christmas season, and not everything we did had pictures taken of it. 

A local church hosted an amazing Journey to Bethlehem where we walked outside experiencing everything from the Angels to the Romans to seeing Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.  It was a wonderful experience and I hope to go many more times. 

Our ward held a Relief Society meeting and our little family were asked to play the roles of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus.  It was precious, especially having David asleep in the cradle that was provided. 

There were several other parties: a tacky sweater party, a hot chocolate party, ward Christmas breakfast…all good times.  One of our favorite experiences this Christmas involved a home in our neighborhood that set their lights to music.  We would drive by almost every night so that the kids to watch “the music house.”

My sister, Marcia came into town with her husband and 2 children and we spent a lot of time with them.  We went to the park, bowling and hung out both at our house and my moms house.  My mom even worked with the kids to put on a puppet show based on a book we grew up with as little kids.  Everyone had a lot of fun with that!

On Christmas Eve we spent the morning making cookies to deliver to friends, then went to my moms house for the big family dinner.  When we got home the boys each opened their one present of new pajamas then tried to go to sleep to get ready for Santa to come the next morning. 

Christmas morning was chaos as everyone opened their stockings and saw what had been given to them.  Aaron and Brian got a trampoline, Christian got a basketball hoop and David got a Bumbo (which he hated!) Paul and I got each other a sprinkler system which had been installed a few weeks earlier (which we are LOVING this summer!)

I think the favorite gift we gave was a wooden toy Paul made modeled after a toy my siblings and I had when we were young.  He made one for our kids and both my brother and sister’s kids. 

Another favorite was the hexbugs.  We now have 8 bugs and a lot of track.  And it still gets played with a lot.  By all of us! 

I couldn’t resist dressing David up in this Santa suit and my sister bought one for her daughter, Brooklynn, who is 3 months older than David.  Isn’t he the cutest!

Now to keep blogging the rest of the year!  I’m working on it.