Father Christmas

This year we weren't sure what to do about seeing Santa Claus. I started searching for ideas and there were so many different options I got a little overwhelmed. We decided to keep it simple since we've been on the go so much lately and we paid a visit to Santa's Grotto in a local store. You have to schedule your visit, 6 pounds per child to see Father Christmas. It was a cute little set up. It was kind of  nice that we didn't have to fight any crowds and the kids had him all to themselves. He spent 15 minutes with them just talking about Christmas, his reindeer, etc. He asked if they knew how many days until Christmas and Allie knew right away, "18".  At the end of their visit he gave each of them a wrapped Christmas present. Although it's been hard they still haven't opened them and they are sitting under the Christmas tree.

Blake didn't want to go near Santa. He was happy to be away from him!

 

We've been doing other fun Christmas themed activities too.

 

Watching Christmas movies

Lots of hanging out around the Christmas tree

 

 

Look for Elfy every morning. Luckily he hasn't been too mischievous this year. Of course, he had to have a tea party with friends whilst visiting England.

 

Of course the kids have been busy coloring Christmas pictures and making us cards, both at home and at school. Allie came home last week with the cutest card. She had it in her backpack for a day or two and made sure Derek and I wouldn't look in her folder. One morning she finally decided to give it to me before heading to school. It is the sweetest thing ever!

I'm not entirely sure why she wrote what she did. I can assure you we have not threatened them with no Christmas presents however they know if they aren't good they won't get any from Santa. We've also been talking about the real reason we celebrate Christmas and it's not all about the gifts, it's about our Savior. AND, we've talked about those less fortunate than us who don't get a bunch of presents at Christmas time because they can't afford it. This was all brought on because while watching their after school cartoons for every commercial they were saying, "I want that, I want that!" It then led to us gathering up some of their toys to donate. Derek's squadron was putting this together to take to Children's facilities around the local area. It was kind of cool because they posted a picture on Facebook of them delivering some of the toys and one of the toys pictured was one the girls had donated. Anyway, it's probably a collaboration of all three where Allie got the idea to write this on and they were probably fresh in her head when it came time to make this card at school. Nonetheless, it is the sweetest thing and will be something we will hold on to!

Every night before we go to bed we read one of the kids' Christmas books. They have a lot of them! We also read some scriptures and sing Christmas songs. Allie loves reading the scriptures to us every night. I will give her a verse to look up and she loves searching for it! One night when we were done reading and singing I found Avery doing this:

"reading" scriptures! This was a big deal to me as Avery does not like going to church......at all. She complains about it all the time. It's a struggle to get her to say her prayers. She's recently been trying to convince Allie that she shouldn't get baptized. So yeah, I really liked seeing this!

 

And what's Christmas without baking lots of goodies?!? I made tons of cookies this year. Some for an Airmen Cookie drive (so the single airmen living in the dorms can get homemade baked goods for the holiday), for the girls' teachers, neighbors, and our church Christmas party and I'll be making more for a Christmas party this Friday. Of course we had some for ourselves too. These are the best cookies ever!

 

And.....another pic of the kids being cute