The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. I just love the warm feeling of everything. And it is so much fun to celebrate when you have kids. The excitement they have is just priceless. There is always so much to do at Christmas time. Here is a small recap of our December...

Visiting Santa at the mall

We try to see Santa at the end of December before he gets crazy busy. Always a good time. Plus, it gives Santa a good idea as to what these kids might want for Christmas earlier than later. Wink!

Just a little snap shot of our new place all dressed up for Christmas. 

Follow the Star
Every year our church puts on a live Nativity for the public to come and see. It's a really neat thing to come and watch. The youth get to be involved with it and they have live animals as well. Just another way to keep the holiday Christ centered.

The ski boots
We are going up to Idaho falls right after Christmas and we are planning on taking Hailey skiing again. So we have had her wearing her ski boots and practicing her "A's" and "I's" or "pizza" and "french fries" so she is more comfortable in them. She loves her ski boots. One morning after she woke up she came up and asked if she could wear her ski boots. So here she is playing legos in her jammies and her ski boots!

Disneyland
I love Disneyland at Christmas! I mean It's a Small World is amazing with all those lights. We were able to go as a family with my parents and my sister and Lucas. We had a great time. And yes it does get cold in CA...notice the ski jackets!!

The Chill @ Queen Mary
This is something new we did this year. It is in Long Beach right next to the Queen Mary. There is a big dome building that they keep really cold. They have Ice skating, tubing and the main attraction is the ice kingdom. The ice kingdom is full of amazing huge ice sculptures with cave and slides. The area with the actual sculptures is kept at 9 degrees! So they actually have jackets for people to wear upon entering. Pretty cool stuff. Here is a link for a better idea. http://www.queenmary.com/chill/icekingdom.php

 Poor Hailey was soooo tired by the time we were able to go in. She lasted about 5 minutes and then she had a melt down because she wanted to be held. So I ended up leaving the exhibit early. Unfortunately I missed a lot of it but from what I hear it was amazing! Here's an attempt at getting a picture of her by the ice princess. Thought this might cheer her up. No such luck.

Messages from Santa
So there is this really cool thing online where Santa sends a message to your kids. It really is the cutest thing ever. Santa knows about certain events that have happened over the last year and what they want for Christmas (of course!) I loved watching Hailey's reaction to this. It may have brought a few tears to my eyes! Magical!

Christmas Puzzles
So most people know that I am a puzzle freak! I live puzzles and have the tradition of doing a Christmas puzzle every year. The problem I have is that I get so obsessed over them. I just want to finish it. So every free minute I have I might be working on the puzzle. So usually its done in just a few days. And these are the puzzles with 1,3, or 5 thousand pieces. No big deal.

Candy Cane Lane
Looking at Christmas lights is always so fun. There is a street near by that usually goes all out for Christmas called Candy Cane Lane. People go and walk up and down the streets looking at the assortment of Christmas lights and decorations. Hailey was really into the lights this year. So fun!