Christmas Festivities

Time to pick out a Christmas tree!

By sheer luck, we planned to get our tree on the snowiest day possible.  It got us in the spirit of things, traipsing about in a winter wonderland.

 Some of the family agreed on "the perfect tree", and some of the family just got plain cold.

Two really cute snow bunnies 

You know you've got great eyelashes when they get covered in snowflakes

Trimming the Tree:

Camden and Emmie kept occupied with the jingle bells and storage bins while I strung lights and cranberry strands.  Then the kids get to put the ornaments on.  

Of course no one wanted to hang ornaments on the backside of the tree - you can't see them back there and it's scratchy, besides.  I think that it why our tree fell over when it was almost finished being decked.  Fortunately it missed a little person by a few inches.

 There is a frustrated mom in the top right corner.

It just didn't look the same after we put it upright again.  Back to re-stringing the lights, and the cranberry strings....  Not easy with a 12 foot tall tree, I can assure you.  This will be my last year stringing the lights - I am ready to pass the torch!  (I wish I could convince my family to get an artificial, pre-lit tree).

This is how Camden gets ready to go out to play in the snow.

Emmie and Daddy bundle up to go outside and look at the pretty lights on our street when he gets home from work.

Ward Christmas Party:

Must be Santa...or Bishop

Some silly selfies of the photographers

The bishopric is in the hot spot - and Drew may have been a little worried about his daddy so he joined in, too.

Seeing the Lights on Temple Square:

Decorating Cookies:

I love to see how creative my kids get

Swimming at a fun pool on Christmas Eve:

This may be a new tradition to wear the kiddies out!
While we were at the pool Camden had to take a break to pee 3 different times - and it was an emergency, every time.  And still, in the 10 minute drive back home he had a serious emergency and couldn't wait any longer.  Being Christmas Eve traffic was a little heavy but he insisted that he couldn't wait five minutes until we got home.  We may have stopped at a deserted parking lot and let him pee in a snow drift.  Just maybe.

 Picking up a new bed on Christmas Eve!  Our Honda is handier than you might think for hauling things like queen-sized mattresses, our canoe, and our Christmas tree!

We banned the girls from their rooms and all people from the basement starting at 2pm on Christmas Eve.  We snuck in our new mattress to our room, and after the kids were settled in upstairs that night we snuck our old mattress down to Callie's room.  She had been using her new queen-sized bedding on a twin mattress on the floor ever since moving into her new room.  On Christmas morning she got a note saying to go check her bedroom for a surprise.  She was thrilled to see a big bed all set up with her new stuff!