Happy Holidays!

This was our second "Holiday Season" away from family, and it was surprisingly lots of fun.

 

For Halloween our ward of course had a trunk or treat, and then Halloween night my sister Marie had a bunch of families over before trick-or-treating. Thank goodness our girls are cute, clearly neither Brandon or I were concerned about our appearances that night. P.S. trick or treating lasted less than 30 minutes for our family- it was freezing!



The first of November, we broke out the Christmas decorations (we had already been playing Christmas music since October). Also Brandon decided to participate in "Movember". I am still confused why a mustache is acceptable in Church and in work places, it only brings stress and conflict to a relationship.



Grace loves to "play the piano", but especially loved to play and sing Christmas carols. It was very entertaining.

Meanwhile, Ivy's favorite activity was finding sneeky ways to get her destructive hands on the Christmas ornaments. How can anyone get mad that face!

 Sadly this is the only picture of Thanksgiving. It was definitely one to remember. Brandon was supposed to be able to hurry and get is work done early and be home in time for dinner, but he ended up having an emergency at work was stuck onsite for days (literally working around the clock with "naps"). Meanwhile our friends that were supposed to join us got the flu. Thankfully I had invited another friend whose husband also had to work and she was able to come. In summary, it was a very intimate holiday :). However, I still had fun cooking everything and Grace and I completed our "thankful  tree" and discovered despite our quiet holiday, we are SO blessed.

 Ward Christmas P.J. breakfast. I was especially excited to break out my favorite P.J.'s. My college room-mates and I were given matching ones from Shannon's Dad; I have treasured mine since.

We made lots of treats this season. Clearly the presentation of these was not the goal; it is just super fun baking with Grace. She is one of the few people I know whose sweet tooth is bigger than mine!

I learned to love the snow. If it is going to below freezing outside at least let the land look pretty and be fun to play in.

I can squish and smother those cheeks all day!

I don't know why we even buy toys.

It's so nice to be able to go to my sister's house and play!

Grace LOVES the snow.

 Grace's Joy School class put on a Christmas program at a nearby nursing home for "Grandma's and Grandpa's". They performed the nativity and sang songs. They did great for 3 and 4 year olds! They may not have a career on Broadway, but the people loved it! Grace played pretend "Bethlehem" for the remainder of December and part of January.



More treats. First time making gingerbread cookies~ fun and yummy!

 Dickinson mall Santa: apparently small town Santa's can arrive later than scheduled, but then can sit and talk to the kids for 10+ minutes each! He and Grace had quite the chat about "a Cinderella thing". Obviously Ivy was overwhelmed with joy to see "the big guy".

My second time doing a home made gingerbread house and it was more fun tha I remember. Probably had to do with my special helper! And yes we are eating more sugar. I promise we normally eat well, we just believe in balancing healthy food with yummy treats.

Christmas Eve P.J.s.

Christmas Eve we went to Marie's with some other familes and the missionaries. We had a yummy dinner and a nativity Christmas program. Grace got to be "Mary" and poor girl had to try and keep "Baby Jesus" safe from crazy "Joseph" and the "Shepherd"- she was a little stressed during the program. It was very fun and sweet to see her concern. (Brandon was able to be there the whole night which was awesome!)

Santa finally arrived!

Christmas morning!! I can't imagine it getting any more fun!

Christmas Day we woke up early and did presents, followed by a fun and yummy breakfast. Then Brandon went off to work and I got to play and relax with the girls. Thankfully it wasn't too busy and he was home by dinner to go back to Maries for a fun Christmas buffet. It was a Merry Christmas.

Out of all the toys Grace received, her cheap "Strawberry Shortcake Polish" was her most favorite. I think we spoil our kids for no reason, they are just happy with the little things.