So I didn't take a lot of pictures in November. :( I was suppose to work Thanksgiving so we didn't have a lot of plans. We ended up having Jamie & Dal and the kids over for soup, pie and a movie! ha ha. It was very un-traditional, but fun. :) I ended up on call for Thanksgiving so my little brother stayed the night and Adam and I were out all night shopping, catching crazy deals! :) We enjoyed some 4 a.m. Burger King, caught a few 5 a.m. and came home and CRASHED! It was actually pretty fun; Adam was a trooper. :)
We usually put up our Christmas tree Thanksgiving night, but since I was suppose to work, we put it up the weekend before. Plus...the kids were driving us crazy about doing it. :) We're easy push overs that way, because both me and Adam LOVE having all our Christmas stuff up and the spirit that it brings in our home! It did take us a few days to do it since we have 2 trees to put up.
Our blue/silver tree in the front sitting room.
Our green/red one in the sun room.
This year we tried to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas since our kids are a little older and able to understand, also Christmas fell on Sunday this year so we would be going to church and we wanted it to be meaningful for them. The other thing we tried to do was help them understand how so many kids don't have very much and that they are very blessed. Mady grasped the concept a little more. We let her choose a name off of a giving tree, a little girl her age, and then pick her out some presents. When we bought barbie stuff, she cried at first that they weren't hers...but after a little explaining she was very excited to wrap them and take them back to the store for the little girl. She was very proud of herself for it.
We also did a late Thanksgiving/early Christmas with Adams mom and sisters. It really worked out great. No one was in a hurry to go anywhere and we all got to enjoy the day together. Plus we got turkey AND ham, yum!
The only thing that was hard is our kids couldn't understand why we couldn't just open all the presents under our tree. LOL.
The kids filled there marble jars at almost the same time and decided they wanted to see Arthur Christmas as their reward. So we took them to the museum where they had a ginger bread house display. We didn't know it when we got there but it ended up that Santa was there too. Mady was BEYOND excited. Noah...not so much. we had to drag him in. lol.
He would only stand by Santa IF Adam was there and he refused Santa's candy cane. ha ha. dang kid.
Mady loved it. :) and then we went and saw our movie.
Also that month we decorated ginger bread houses with my friend Jessica and of course did our goody plates. The kids had a lot of fun helping.
CHRISTMAS EVE
We started like we always do. :) We made a yummy breakfast and then made cookies for Santa. We did pumpkin chocolate chip since those are Santa's favorite.
We just hung out that day and then went to Gr'pa and Gr'ma Huntsman's. We enjoyed some YUMMY food, including some amazing shrimp and then exchanged gifts. It's always great to get together with family, especially on the holidays.
After we left we drove around looking at Christmas lights, but it didn't last long because we had some tired kids. So we headed home after a bit and put cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The kids also get to open Christmas jammies from mom and dad every year.
Then Santa got to work!
*CHRISTMAS*
Mady was the 1st one up and SO EXCITED! She was SO MUCH FUN this year! We loved it and her excitement was totally infectious. She found her stocking and jumped on our bed to show us.
We had to wake Noah up and he was pretty crabby, but when mady told him Santa came, his attitude changed pretty quick.
Their presents to each other. :)
We let the kids play with their stuff from Santa and open 1 or 2 gifts, and then we had belgian waffles and bacon before heading to church. It was an AMAZING church meeting. I wish Christmas fell on Sunday every year. The spirit was amazing and it was so good for our kids to realize that the focus of Christmas is not on presents. we all enjoyed it. Then of course we came home and dug into the presents!
Noah by his loot!
Mady by hers!
Our house was a huge disaster...so we took a nap. :) LOL. That night my mom & John, Jamie & Dal and Craig & Brigitte all came over for dinner. We had MORE food and then opened presents AGAIN. Then we let the kids play and all the adults watched Planet of the Apes. ha ha. we were tuckered out.
It's crazy how much planning goes into Christmas and then it's over so quick! We were all pretty lazy the next day. We hung out in our jammies and played with our new toys. I got Just Dance 3 for the wii and the we played that. Mady loved it. :) We had a pretty amazing Christmas and are so grateful for Christ's birth and all of the blessings we've been given!
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