Our Christmas Adventures

A few weeks before Christmas, someone alerted us to a special visitor roaming the neighborhood.  A good thing too because we nearly missed him (it was bath time).


Who doesn't like Santa driving a fire truck late at night throwing candy out to any kid crazy enough to be up and willing to stand in the cold waiting for him?  Probably a lot of people.  Especially those trying to sleep!


We've also been making TONS of sugar cookies here.  Nadia has been having lots of playdates to try and help her out of her shell and we've centered them around goodies a lot of the time.   I've tried several recipes and am still struggling to find just the right one.  Betty Crocker mixes are great, but they aren't as good when you use the rolling out variation.  I found another recipe I really like, but it was really hard to get the cut outs in their original cookie cutter shape transferred over to the cookie sheet without messing them up.  We may just stick with circles in the future.  Nadia's teacher, Mrs. Casterline came over once too and we made gingerbread houses.  Word to the wise- don't buy gingerbread houses from Walmart.  They were probably made in China and had the worst instructions and quality (tastes like sawdust) that I've ever seen.  Does anyone even like gingerbread?

 Ellie from church

 Kaitlyn from preschool- sweet, sweet girls.

Rowan, of course, wanted in on the cookie decorating action too.

While Steve was gone interviewing at BYU, Livingsocial had a deal on Nutcracker tickets the evening after he got back.  I'd never seen the Nutcracker ballet in person and thought it would be a nice outing after surviving the week without Steve.  We got a kind soul in the ward to watch Elsa and took the other kidlets to go see it.  I was a little concerned because the ballet started at the kids' bedtime, but they LOVED it.  I was holding Nadia the whole time and I could feel her tense the moment the show started.  She was completely enthralled.

 Rowan has gotten to an annoying stage to where he either loves or hates getting his picture taken.  I'm sure you can guess what side of the spectrum he stood on that night.

 We weren't supposed to take pictures.  I snapped a few shots anyways.  So rebellious.

By the time we got home, all the kids were asleep.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to go.  It was a great performance and while it didn't compare technically to the Russian ballet that Steven took me to for my birthday a few years ago, it made up for that with it's costumes, effects, and employing dancers of all ages.  There was even a dog on stage at one point!

  
Another fun thing we did leading up to Christmas was attend a drive through nativity.  Yes, you heard me right.  Nadia's preschool is in a church and they were doing a huge production where you drive through Bethlehem.  It sounds cheesy, and parts of it were, but overall it was really well done and beautiful.  They even had a live camel!  We were driving as I was taking pictures, so forgive the blurry shots.  It was pretty fun though.  All the "actors" from the church were in character and some were even speaking actual (?) Hebrew.

We're in Bethlehem y'all!

Unrelated to Christmas, but I'm adding them in because they are cute.  Elsa has graduated from her baby tub now that she sits up so well.  She LOVES crawling around in the tub and her siblings love hopping in to join her- clothes or no clothes.

I cannot describe how much these guys love Elsa.  The other day Rowan was carrying Elsa and tripped, dropping her on the ground.  He cried harder than she did and not because he thought he'd get in trouble.  He was genuinely concerned and horrified about what he had done to his sister.  I hope they will always love each other as much as they do now.

Rockin' those maple leafs, eh!  I love the clothes that I've been able to utilize for all three kids.  These shoes are one of those items.