Santa Claus is coming to town

This Christmas season was more fun than I could have hoped for! Simon, now 4 years old, was old enough to understand Santa, and to really enjoy what Christmas is all about.
Here are a few random shots from the beginning of December:

We got out our Christmas decorations, and the boys tucked our little owl friends under our red Christmas blanket. It was so sweet, I had to share.

 The boys also got to try dippin' dots style ice cream for the first time. It was a hit! They sell this stuff at the grocery stores now and I have a feeling this will be a new family favorite.

mmmmmm.

I let the boys paint Christmas bird houses. I felt especially brave and let Simon free with my acrylic paints, no more washables for him! He loves lots of color in his pictures and paintings and he added as much color as he could to his cute house.

We chose the washable paints for Ryan. He went at it like a pro. His house turned out so cute!

We added some ice and jingle bells to the boys' houses and mine was covered in glitter! I can't wait to get them out next year to show the boys what a great job they did!

 Our tree. Every year Jeremiah have a fight  discussion about what color of lights to put on our tree. I vote white lights, he votes for colored. Once again, Jeremiah won. (I couldn't find the white lights)
 We have had this tree since the year we got married. I think we paid $20 for it at Wal-Mart. It has served us well.

The boys were excited to put up the tree but they were even more excited for this:

 The Christmas TRAIN!!! They played with it non-stop until the batteries were dead.

I threw in some homemade gifts this year. Somewhere between shopping, decorating and preparing for Marie's wedding and company, I found some time to make some stuff.

This apron was for my neice, Allison. She loves helping her mom bake.

For my sis-in-law Dana and her girls, I made a box of hair clips, pins, and headbands.

 My favorite project this year were the cookie jars. I made one for Randi, and one for Dana. I designed the monograms and cut them with my vinyl cutter. My mom loved them too so we made some for her give as gifts. We made one for my Grandma Udall and one for Aunt Darla.
I also made some shirts for Talyn, a couple of printed tote bags, and  big FAT elf shelf-sitter for Sue. I forgot to snap pictures of him, We call him PJ, Prince Jingles. Hopefully I can get some pictures later.


On Chrismas Eve Eve (Dec 23rd) We headed up to RV! We were hoping for a white Christmas but all we got was a couple of inches of snow outside of Show Low. On Christmas Eve we got a flat tire. :(
Jeremiah, my hero, changed it in no time but the tire was blown and can't be patched so we have to buy a new one.

Christmas Eve night we went to my Grandma Udall's house for the annual party. We had some spicy, delicious, mexican food and lots of dessert. We listened to the family missionaries talk about what Christmas was like in the mission field. When it was Jeremiah's turn, Simon decided to stuff a huge green olive in his mouth and it made him throw up! ewwww! 

After the clean up, we had a white elephant gift exchange. Then we headed home to wait for Santa.

 I didn't get many pictures on Chrismas so here's what we've got.

Simon was sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas and I had to drag him out of bed to open presents. He was happy once we started.

 My favorite reaction of the day. This is the elf, PJ, for my MIL. I think she liked it. lol.

 We had to pack up most of the toys after they were opened so when we got home we opened everything and our house looked like Christmas all over again.

I think it wore Simon out.  He snuggled behind our big leather chair for a snooze.

The gifts were great but the best part about the whole trip was being with our family. My favorite memories always spur from family game nights and just shooting the breeze with the people we love the most.