All things Christmas

Well, we put up Christmas decorations much closer to Thanksgiving than last year.  Back to our normal routine.  Though outdoor lights went up on a day with decent weather.  It seems like we just keep getting busier.  The price of having athletic kids that love their sports.  So it makes it harder to get things done that we really like to.  That being said, we had a good pre-Christmas season. 

Carson was helping put the village up and this picture just cracked me up.  Every year he and Kayda bicker over the way the village is set up.  It all worked out in the end.  Someday I'll remember to get a picture of it.  

The kids actually did a lot of the decorating on their own this year.  They brought in the tree and started decorating on their own without any prompting.  We ended up putting up our cheap Walmart tree in the bonus room.  Then Carson helped me cut off all the "pre-lit" lights from our other Christmas tree.  It was our first artificial tree and is still in good shape.  So we had three Christmas trees up.  The main one fills up with all the kids ornaments.  The "first" tree is full of mom and dad's ornaments, and the Walmart tree just has lights.  It was pretty fun.  We actually didn't add any major decorations this year which was a surprise.  

Carson desperately wanted to make gingerbread houses so he and Daddy headed to Winco to load up on candy.  Then we made graham cracker houses...who wants to wait for the gingerbread?

Every year (except the year we moved into this house) I make decorations for the kids and nieces and nephews.  I like to try to do different things so this year we tried to do spin painting.  Carson did the first few, then Kayda helped me finish the rest.  It was really fun to do.  They didn't turn out quite the way I wanted since they were too small to really get the effect I wanted.  I'm terrible about mailing them though...they'll get there someday lol. 

This is more like what I wanted to have happen on them.  

We made Aunt Anna's sugar cookies again, just like every year.  Hers are definitely prettier.  Kayda and Carson had a great time, though frosting all of them is a bit daunting. 

We played a LOT of board games.  The day we did sugar cookies was dedicated to board games anytime we weren't with the cookies. 

Dillon has been very interested in pies.  When we went to the pumpkin patch for Halloween he got a couple of sugar pumpkins and we made pumpkin pie.   Then he wanted to try a different one, Daddy suggested banana cream pie.  Pretty easy to make, we just bought a pie crust at the store but the rest was scratch.  It turned out pretty well, and he didn't even try it!  He still wants to try other pies.

Kayda was so excited for her Santa gift...a trip to Las Vegas to visit her best friend Ari.  She face-timed Ari to tell her and Ari actually started crying.  

Dillon is BIG into airsoft guns right now.  He and his best friends like to do battles with them (with the appropriate head gear).  

Carson gets a kick out of his electric scooter.  It snowed the day after Christmas so it was a while before he got to ride it for very long. 

When we were in Mexico I saw these cool metal peacocks.  They have a rock to balance them and they rock in the wind.  I didn't get one because we couldn't figure out how we would get it home.  Kayda spent quite a bit of time to find one for me!

Daddy was really excited about finding this frame for Carson.  It is an ongoing "battle" with Carson.  If you tell him that you love him it's immediately "I love you more" and it continues.  

Kayda had to figure out how to get her huge gift from Grandma and Papa G out from behind the tree.  She ended up dragging the tree out from the wall to get it.  

Kayda was on it with some gifts this year.  Another unique one was photo socks for Carson with Ozzi's face on them.  

In the evening Grandma and Papa H came over and we played some games and had dinner.  It is always fun to spend time really interacting with people we love.  

It was a great Christmas break and none of us were ready to go back to school again when it was over.  

 

Halloween and its activities

We actually were able to do fun stuff for Halloween this year!  We started with a trip to the pumpkin patch with friends.  We love this particular farm because there are SO many fun activities.

The main reason we went though was to experience a haunted corn maze.  Dillon wanted to do something scary last year but it just didn't work out.  So I made an extra effort to make it happen this year.  It ended up being really cool.  It was expensive so I was worried it wouldn't be worth it.  It actually was though.  It was really long and had a lot of different scenes with TONS of characters.  Dillon went ahead with his friends. Carson stayed nearby.  He was nervous at first but he quickly warmed up to it.  He and his friend Avry quickly started being "look outs" to see if they could find the people trying to scare them.  Made it kind of dull for the rest of us though.  

We found the $1 pumpkins again!  The kids didn't want as many pumpkins as usual but we went and got some.  They had a great time carving them.  I'm very grateful for the shop since it makes cleanup so much easier now.  We just turn on a propane heater and it works great.  

On actual Halloween I ended up not feeling well.  Kayda and I stayed home. Dad took the boys to meet their friends at CJ's house and they trick or treated around there.  Kind of nice not having to deal with trick or treaters at the new house, even if our kids have to go elsewhere to be able to participate.  

I don't have a picture but Dillon and his friends ended up being the seven dwarves.  Dillon was bashful which was super appropriate for him.  

Christmas decorating and Christmas

Last year we were moving so we didn't get to decorate for Christmas beyond a couple strands of lights outside and the stockings and the Christmas tree.  I desperately wanted extra time with our Christmas decorations this year.  So, November 1st we put up our outdoor lights.  Since the house is so big we bought garlands and extra lights for outside.

We discovered kind of late that we didn't have any anchors on the roof so we were unable to decorate the second story.  We tried everything to no avail.  Hopefully next year we'll be able to make it work.

Daddy spoiled me and let me buy garlands to decorate our staircase.  I was so excited!  It's one of my favorite things from growing up, walking down Christmas morning with the railing all lit up.

We also splurged and got a new tree.  We have a couple of fake ones from before.  One was our original but the lights no longer work, the other was a really inexpensive one that just looks sad.  This one is gorgeous.  It's a 10 ft tree and barely fits.  We can't put any kind of topper on this one, but it doesn't need it. We didn't put it up until just before Thanksgiving.

My absolute favorite candy in all the world ... Of course it's only good during the season.

Cookie decorating! 

Christmas morning they're not allowed to come down until Dad is ready with the video camera.  It's very different than when I grew up as we went down to see Santa's gifts in the early, early morning.

The boys got hoverboards and we're very creative about riding them.

 Carson loves to give hugs to say thank you!

Grandma and Papa H came down for gifts and Christmas dinner.  It's the first time we've had a nice Christmas dinner in a long time.  We like to lounge on Christmas usually.

Grandma and Papa G came to visit after Christmas so we waited to celebrate with them.  

The boys were really excited about their riding boots.

We played "What do you meme" family edition.  There were a few things that really got everyone laughing. 

When Grandma and Papa G come visit there is always an abundance of candy.  Carson made a tower with the Costco size candy jars.