It's Christmastime....

As usual, it's been a full December.  I love all the fun things happening and the great family things we get to look forward to.  Here's a small snapshot of our month:

Live Nativity--our ward holds a live nativity with a beautiful creche display inside.  Matt was a wiseman (far left standing).  

The fire department decks out one of their trucks with lights and music and tours our town over several weekends of December.  The kids were SO excited and waited all night for the truck to come.  Santa follows the truck in his sleigh.  He stopped and gave the kids big handfuls of candy.  We managed a picture too. 

curbside Santa service...perfect!

 A family photo...surprisingly not too bad

 We were out at the outdoor mall and the kids loved the huge Christmas tree.  Pictures usually turn out better when they are happy...we've done well this month

A visit to Santa's workshop at Wickham Park.  They visited with the head elf who asked if they had been good or bad and wrote down what they wanted from Santa.  They got to sit on his lap then got cookies and hot chocolate from Mrs. Claus.  The best place to go see Santa!

Family shot at the end of Santa's workshop--again happy = good picture

testing out Santa's sleigh

 Decorating Christmas cookies, a family favorite!  I can tell the kids are all getting older b/c the cookies look better every year.

Christmas PJs from Aunt Megan.  We opened them on the 22nd so the kids could wear them to Pajama Day at school on the 23rd--yes, we had a full day of school on the 23rd.

A friend of ours visits a nursing home each year on Christmas Eve and does a small Christmas program for the residents.  We joined them this year and it was so great.  It will definitely become an annual thing for us--the residents and the workers were so grateful we were there.  Lots of smiles and even tears as we visited with them and caroled in the halls when we were done.  The kids had a really positive experience.  It was a perfect addition to Christmas Eve afternoon.

For part of the program, the kids acted out of the Nativity.  Andrew was a wiseman, the girls were angels.

A fun month!!!!