It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh, December is such a magical time! The kids asked us every day about Santa and making sure he would know we would be in Utah.

(Jordan alluded to that in the car accident post. We seriously didn't think we would have a vehicle in time for our trip)

And they asked about presents and reindeer and everything Christmas-y.

We had this awesome FHE where we talked about the Christmas symbols and what they meant.

For example: Red and Green are the Christmas colors because red represents Jesus' blood and green means Jesus will live forever, also same with the Evergreen green tree. Candy canes are white and red for purity and Christ's blood again and in the cane shape for Shepherd's staffs.

-(kids in the tree box)

The kids seemed to enjoy it and I think they learned something because on our drive to Utah,    weeks later, they would see decorations and ask about the symbols again.

 We were scheduled to have family pictures done with Megan Robbins up in Mesa the weekend of JD's wedding. The weather ended up being pretty windy and rainy so Megan postponed them until the first Monday in Dec. We were cutting it close to the deadline of sending them out. We loved the bright colors of our outfits (like Christmas lights)
Miss Gemma was pretty tired and grumpy when we got there so we knew she would be a little difficult.
At least her hair looks great!

I love these kiddos!

Family Home Evening - annual decorating of the tree. Gemma grabbed her gold glass ball and squeezed it until it broke. Nice.

And then, she wouldn't put her pants back on. My attempt to cover her.

Jaxon was so excited about pulling out the Polar Express train

How festive! Lottie's new stocking got to join the family

 The outside. We had lots of fuses blow this time so I made multiple trips to Ace Hardware. The boys did most of the roof. We didn't have to ask twice. For some reason the left side icicles were brighter than the right side. Next year we'll have to replace those.

Jordan decorated his high school room differently this year.

SANTA!! Or his helper came to Jaxon's school one Saturday morning for a free breakfast. Jaxon was very excited and anxious to see the BIG man. He even made Santa a present. How thoughtful.
Not my favorite "helper", but the kids didn't notice.

Lottie's first Santa sitting. Too bad it's blurry. Santa was nervous she was going to poop all over him so we hurried and it's blurry.

Awe! Aunt Charlotte gave is this Christmas dress when we stayed at her house for JD's wedding.
Too cute, Lottie.

Our 'mild' winter.
Teaching Kodee the Spider swing move

Jaxon performed a Very Berry Christmas in his music class. Well, ALL the music classes did. It was at the CFA and SRO. Parents were standing everywhere holding cameras. We tried filming Jaxon, but he kept moving back so kids were in front of him. It was a cute show. He knew all the moves.

Lottie all nestled in her bed taking a long winters nap.
I am sad to say our Christmas goody plates did not happen this year. We bought the ingredients and ran out of time? oh yeah, we were so stressed about our car situation. We didn't get the rental until 5 days before vacation and then it was only a compact car. I couldn't even fit all the kids in it. So if I went anywhere it could only be 3 kids at most. Lots of juggling around.
Jordan got a van the day we were leaving.
Good thing it was a brand new van.
It was a sweet Dodge Town and Country
That's what Jordan's dad said we should get, but we just didn't like something about the seats. they were pretty narrow.

This year our community put on a Live Nativity on the fields right by the temple.
We went on a windy, cold night right as it was starting so we got to sit in the front.
It was the neatest spiritual Christmasy thing we've ever done.
They had real animals and soloists and dancing angels.
At the end Mary walked along the front holding and showing off the baby Jesus. She stopped right in front of Kodee and he loved that. He felt special for being able to see the baby. I think the production made the Nativity more real for the kids.
Afterwards we walked next door to the church to see the Nativity displays. It was super crowded! There were so many of them, we decided not to see all of them.
All in all, a great night out. I can't wait to see it again next year.