This sweet Christmas at my parent's house began with a humble Christmas tree.
Ben went to Island Park to (hunt?fish?ishouldknowthis) and promised a tree.
I was looking forward to the scented pine and imagined a tree not unlike the giant we got in Oregon for $5. When Ben brought this home I immediately loved it. It wasn't a full giant, clearly. And even though I don't think the branches would have supported many ornaments, I liked it without many.
The big disappointment was that it didn't smell good!!
We celebrated Macey with a dinner and a piñata.
It broke and became a giant baseball
It snowed and I snapped a quick picture of the amazement and delight that my kids have in eating things that fall from the sky. It was still the most amazing novelty to them:)
We went to a Bar J Wranglers concert. It was the same as I remember!
Classic Fun Center I think we went to for Macey's birthday. I should catch up and not be a year behind to really know for sure.
We helped plan the ward party and part of the party plans included life sized pictures of all the missionaries.
Of course Santa came to the party.
Since we're on santa pictures, this is fun, and in no particular order:
We went to temple square
I take a picture every time my gas gauge (in the bottom right of the screen) turns to zero. I've never run out of gas and had to push, but i've definitely "pushed" it.
Ben finally got a truck.
His life is now complete.
This is in my list of pictures this month and I remember taking a picture of it because I found it so funny that aliens thought the highest form of art on earth were plastic flamingoes. My parents talked all the time about the vast number of people who decorate their yards with flamingoes in Oklahoma. Not sure why.
We attempted family pictures.
They were too far away.
We went BACK to temple square because all I had wanted to do when we were there was go to the Light the World vending machines and we didn't.
So Ben humored me.
The kids each got to pick one thing they wanted to donate.
This was my favorite thing we did this season:)
We also had to look at the windows
We made candy with Bonnie. It is an art form I've never experienced before.
And so GOOD.
I really enjoyed the art of candy making
and when we were done I wrapped them up and gave them to friends.
Macarons are also their own art form and have to be sifted TWICE to turn out. These semi turned out, but they're not perfect. But not bad for my first attempt.
Gingerbread houses. Check.
WHY I did this during the holiday season is escaping me now, but I refinished this desk. Maybe I did it earlier in the year.
I always love a good Macey note.
This store is one of my favorites in Bountiful.
Maybe my most favorite thing Mackayla has ever said.
Made even better by the fact that Ben used to tease her about how crazy her hair was in the morning.
But there was no fake-making-a-joke in her comment, and she super hates when people laugh at funny things she says when she doesn't intend them to be funny. So I kind of felt bad, but mostly was just laughing.
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Macey had her hip hop performance at their studio. She did awesome! She always got nervous at the freestyle time when they would circle up and take turns improv dancing but I thought (I know I'm her mom) that she did the best because she tried the hardest and didn't just do a spin and tap someone else. She would totally put everything out there and bust out some moves:)
We went somewhere and did something here:p
Christmas party at the Croslands.
Family pictures take two.
It was a little cold and a little ambitious, but we got them done.
One of Macey's favorite things about the Christmas season is the nativity play.
So we did our own and gathered our own gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Snow playing!
Christmas presents at Grandma Bonnie and Papa Jeff's.
Then, the kids and I loaded up and flew to visit Nette and hang out with my parents, Steph and her kids and Nette and Jon at their house. Nothing like holiday travel:
To be continued!
