Our December

At the beginning of December our town had their annual Parade of Lights and Festival with Santa is tow for photo ops. We stopped by the Old Courthouse to go check him out. At first the girls said they didn't want to go sit on his lap. I've learned to just say "okay" and not another word about it. The more I try to coax them the more they just say no. Bentley on the other hand ran right up to Santa and hopped on his lap. He told him all kinds of stories and had everyone's attention. They are pals.

The girls both decided that if Bentley had that much fun they wanted to try it too. So they did. 

We actually got good pictures of the kids on Santa's lap!! I was shocked!! That night we all bundled up and went to the Parada of lights. It was a really good parade this year with lots of floats- it was well worth it! and it really wasn't even that cold outside.


The next week Macy's school had a Polar Express Night. They had 5 rooms and in each room was a different Christmas activity. They had a coloring dice game, make a reindeer, the Polar Express story, a hide and go seek type game, and Milk and Cookies with Santa. Bentley wasn't too into the Polar Express so Kyle took him to find Santa. He was totally into Santa again and Kyle had about a minute worth of video of him talking his ear off.

 
Next up was our Ward Christmas Party. The Christmas Parties here in Holbrook usually are just a small program and dinner. Some wards have Santa and some don't. My Moms ward always goes ALL out for their Christmas Parties and I told Kyle we needed to try and do something a little more fun this year. We decided on a Christmas Village theme and had each auxillary have their own "shop" within the village. We had dinner, a hot cocoa bar, cookie decorating, cards for inactives or people that couldn't make it, a shop that you could make an ornament, a photo booth, the toy shop, and the North Pole where Santa was. They all did a fabulous job with their shops and the party turned out really well.

The North Pole was set up under an easy  up with walls with Santa inside. I thought this was a fabulous idea. Santa was still present, but he wasn't so out in the open and the center of attention.

The primary put together a small program at the end and we sang some Christmas carols. Macy was a little angel.

 Smooshed in December was also a couple craft plays day, a band concert the day before all the lights in the auditorium went down, a choir concert, a wedding Kyle DJed, and lots of cookie making. The last weekend before Christmas we went over to Kyle's Mom's house to do tamales and man was it memorable. We totally burned a whole through a pot AND killed a burner on the stove. Oops! Guess we now know what happens when you forget to put water in with the tamales when they are supposed to be cooking.