Santa at Reams

Went to the grocery store on Saturday and right in the milk section we spotted Santa & two elves sitting all by themselves waiting for kids.
Sarah was with me and he tried to wrangle her in but she was having none of that.
I called Nathaniel and asked him to drive John (and my camera) down to meet us.
John was pretty intimidated and couldn't remember what he wanted for Christmas.
Sarah and I thought it was funny and reminded us of the movie "A Christmas Story" except this Santa was nice and there was no slide or boot in John's face at the end.

We asked John what he thought about it later and he said he liked it but Santa had bad breath.
Oh John!

Temple Square 2011

Despite the cold we made it to Temple Square again this year. We bribed the kids with Chinese food--which luckily worked:) I also packed hot chocolate and cookies in the van for afterward.

I let Peter handle the photography this year.

It was not warm. You can see no one really is feeling like having our picture taken.
Kind of hard to smile when you can't feel your face!

They had a new display of nativity scenes from around the world. That was fun.
Rebecca thought the angel at the top of this one was particularly strange and we were trying to figure out what kind of an animal that is on the bottom right.
Kind of like a platypus but the beak is pointy.

They also had hundreds of lit-up paper bags that people had punched little holes in with Christmas greetings in many languages and scenes from the life of Christ. Peter took a picture of this one because it was in Hungarian where his sister Sally served her mission.
This means "love."

I always like going to Temple Square because we live so close and it helps me remember the real meaning of Christmas.
The nativity is always beautiful and inspiring and we always stop to listen to the messages and the singing, complete with President Monson's words from a Christmas devotional.

Chess club

I went into John's room last week to wake him up and this is what I found on the floor. Kinda creepy, no? He recently started attending the chess club and got this t-shirt that he was very excited to wear to his first meeting, which happens before school on Tuesdays. The girls frequently lay out their clothes at night and that is what I think inspired him. Of course they don't stuff them to look like a body complete with shoes. . .

Just to ease your mind here is where the real deal was at the time,
sleeping soundly, whole and complete.

Christmas decorating 2011

John's Christmas list

Look! My Christmas Cactus bloomed this year! I'm so excited!

We did a second tree in the family room. It was fun but now is starting to dry up a bit even though we keep it watered. I'm wondering how it is going to be faring by Christmas.
The kids and I decorated with bird ornaments we've been collecting.

The tree in front of the window, of course. It always looks the same and I love it.

End of November

For Grandpa's birthday we made him a hat. So cute!
Wanna guess how old he is?

Love this expression on John's face.

On Thanksgiving the girls and I cook for hours . . .

Sarah sets the table . . .

John gives the toast:)

Family spends next two days playing Mario Cart on the Wii.
You can see here Nathaniel knew I was trying to take a picture.