Getting Ready for Christmas

I have been trying to get these posts up for days and even weeks in some cases and I have just had issue after issue with my computer and my family not thinking mom should be sitting at a computer.  I was really hoping to have them up before New Year, but alas it just wasn't to be... better late than never!

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year.  As Charlotte and Bronson were learning about the letter H in preschool, we thought we would use some of our candy canes to make a "Heart" treat and we made these suckers we saw on Family Fun a couple of years back.

They pretty much rocked.

We also had a cousin craft party with our Fillmore cousins and made these awesome giant snowflakes out of popsicle sticks.  The kids also made some very cool gingerbread trees that Aunt Nichole had cut out and supplied, but I was SO insanely busy that night that I didn't get any pictures of the party or the trees :( 

Charlotte, Bronson, and Whitlee were able to see Santa at library preschool time.  And I may have got a little excited too because I am pretty darn sure this guy was the real thing.  I mean just look at that beard and his Ho Ho Ho was just heart warming.  I may have even had a few tears, I was so happy.

Charlotte wouldn't tell him what she wanted, she just said, "It's all in the letter I sent you."

He told her he had heard that she was a pretty good girl and of course that tickled her.

Bronson didn't want anything to do with the guy, until he produced some jingle bells for Bronson to shake, then Bronson decided he must be okay.

What did Bronson tell him he wanted?  A Barbie movie.... ugh.... no more Barbie movies for Charlotte.  He is starting to scare me.  From now on it is Thomas the Train and Chuck the Truck.

This is the best we could do before Whitlee started to wail.  Ignore the finger in Bronson's nose.

And we had a lot of fun this year introducing this little Pixie to Christmas...  She is just so darn cute and obliging I have a hard time not loading a million pictures of her. 

My boys helped us get ready for Christmas by climbing up the roof and hanging some lighted wreaths.  No small feat for my boy afraid of heights (Tanner), but he mastered his fear and spread some cheer. 

I talked Zac into getting me a 12 ft. tall tree this year since we have high ceilings in this house.  It was no small feat finding a tree that size that wasn't $$$$$$$$$.  But finally we found one at Sam's Club that fit the bill and they weren't lying about it being 12 ft.  It scraped our ceiling. I made Zac cut a little off the bottom and it was perfect!

Among other activities that didn't make it into the pictures... The Elf on the Shelf made an appearance and caused some creative mischief.  We participated in our daily Gifts to Christ. We made our traditional family ornaments.  We made gingerbread houses.  Did secret service and visited family and friends. In short, we did a year's worth of activities in one months time.  It was crazy and it flew by, but it was magical at the same time.