Lots of Christmas Things

For some reason, the first week of December ALWAYS ends up being the busiest week of the whole month for us. We had lots of festive activities to attend and most of them were well documented...

Ward Nativity
Every year our ward does a very short nativity outside. We sing a few Christmas songs, they read from Luke 2, and we have hot chocolate and treats. It's usually FREEZING cold, this year it was very pleasant.

This year, Kyra was the Angel and Adrie was Mary.

Book Club Christmas Get Together
My Book Club got together on Thursday. We didn't discuss the book this time because its a REALLY long one so we decided to take 2 months to read it. We met at Zupas for dinner and exchanged some fun gifts. We then went to see the movie, Four Christmases. It had funny moments but I think we all were less than impressed. After the movie, we decided to head over to Village Inn (the only close place still open) for hot chocolate and pie. It was fun to ring in my b-day at midnight with these fun ladies! We missed you, Liz, Kari and Tracey!

We call this the "Turtle Down" picture! :)

My 30th Birthday
Because my birthday gift this year was my trip to Pheonix, I really wanted to spend the day with my family. I don't really like cake so I told Tucker not to even bother getting me one. My family is celebrating mine and my brothers birthday this week so I'm sure I'll still get to blow out my 30 candles! Thanks to everyone for all the fun birthday wishes. It really made my day!

That night we took the kids to see the Elves at Gardner Village. They love seeing the witches there at Halloween, but we'd never seen the Elves before. They loved it. We printed out an Elf Hunt list and had to track down 12 of the elves and then they got to pick a treat from the Candy Shop. It was cold, but we had a great time finding and seeing all the cute elves.

After our elf hunt we stopped in the Bakery and had soup, cheese bread and hot chocolate! So yummy!

Avery was bundled up nice a snug in the stroller.

Halle & Aidan were checking the "Naughty" & "Nice" lists for their names but couldn't find them on either one. I'm pretty sure Santa hasn't made up his mind yet which one they'll be on.

This little elf was eyeing Halle's hot chocolate! :)

Festive Christmas Party
Saturday night we went to dinner at Asian Star with Kris & Kecia, Mark & Mark, and Brooke & Jaden as we did for my birthday last year. This time we made it a little more entertaining and dressed in our "finest" Christmas attire.

Following a yummy dinner, we went back to Mark & Mary's home for dessert, laughs and a small photo shoot. Enjoy!

Brooke & Jaden's holiday wear was the favorite of the night!

Mark & Mary

Kris & Kecia

Mark & Jaden having a jolly good time.

Admiring Mary's tree.

Decorating Gingerbread Houses
We had the annual gingerbread house night on Sunday with Tucker's family. This tradition usually happens on Thanksgiving Night but some of the family was out of time this year. The kids look forward to this every year, and although its messy and at times frustrating, they always have fun. This year our house actually made it home without falling apart.

Tucker was on construction duty this year.

Avery was on candy eating duty.

Tucker's mom kept Avery out of trouble.

Aidan with a mouth full of gumdrops.

Avery finally settled in with a chocolate chip cookie.

The finished product....Halle & Aidan's finest work.

Avery waving to everyone in her Santa hat.

Now with just 16 days left until Christmas I can get caught up with the last few things I haven't done yet...christmas cards, neighbor gifts, oh and the WRAPPING! At least the shopping is all done!