Extra! Extra! (Pictures that is)

We have been going full blast with the Christmas fun and I have loved every minute. We are making up for last year since we spent our holiday in Ecuador. :)

 Here are a few (okay A LOT) more pictures of some of our activities. I am trying to upload a picture of our daily activity on the Christmas countdown post, but of course there are far more than the one I am posting daily.

Thanksgiving Point Lights:
Early in the month, we were able to go on a wagon ride to see the Christmas Lights at Thanksgiving Point with Che', Landon, Hudson, and Carlie. Hallie was in heaven. We had a great time bundling up and drinking our hot chocolate on the ride. I think we will be making this an annual tradition.

Gingerbread Houses:

This has been an annual tradition for us for a while, but this year we went to SLC to Che' and Landon's so that we could do our "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses together. We had a great time eating pizza and sugar cookies and then getting to work on our masterpieces... I will let you see how it turned out instead of just telling you: 

Hard at work

A sampling of the candy...perhaps I went a bit overboard??

My lovely house. Looking really good from this angle

And...not so good from this angle. Really, though, I just built a deck and those are little people having the time of their lives. Yeah...

Devin's true masterpiece. He puts the rest of us to shame. Every year.

I apparently didn't get a picture of it all the way done, but you get the idea

Clearly the winner of the evening. Carlie's. 

Hallie and Che's had a garage AND a carport! Pretty fancy.

Temple Square Lights:

After our gingerbread house extravaganza, our little family made our way to Temple Square to see the lights. It was getting late and it was past the kids' bedtime, but I am so glad we went. We were there on a Wednesday night, which was chaos (mutual night=kids everywhere!), but it was still amazing. 

Such a beautiful sight, all lit up

The best we could do. Flor really struggles with the flash on the camera, so getting her eyes even half open is a success!

The Polar Express/Meeting Santa: 

My Uncle Lynn lives about 20 minutes from us and so we get to see him from time to time. He texted me one day to let me know that he and his girlfriend, Barb, were going to be Santa and Mrs. Clause at his ward's party and that he wanted me to bring the kids. I thought this was perfect because I had told the kids that we could go meet Santa, but didn't really want to stand in line at a mall. I just hoped that Hallie wouldn't notice that she knows them since she really is observant (for example, we were eating lunch yesterday while we were out shopping and my cousin Hadley came into the restaurant. We haven't seen Hadley for a while and it's not like we have a really close relationship as he is a teenager and kind of does his own thing...but as soon as he walked in the door, Hallie turned to me and said "Mom, look! It's your cousin!") 

Anyway, we made it to Lynn's church right at 6. His ward sure knows how to throw a party! They had an elf (fully costumed) direct us to a parking spot and then show us where the "train station" was (the back of the church). At the train station, the kids were each given a bell as their boarding pass for the train. There was a conductor (fully costumed again) and a "worker" at the station (also in costume-- see a theme here?) who helped the kids board the train and then off they went in loops all around the parking lot to the doors on the other side of the church, aka the North Pole. When they arrived, Hallie asked me how my flight was. I wasn't sure what she meant, but she told me that the train conductor had told the kids that their parents would be flying to the North Pole to meet them there. She was funny though, because after she genuinely asked how my flight was, she then said, "It's kind of funny that the North Pole is really just on the other side of the church! Not far at all!" Ha ha...

Another group of elves then met as at the door and ushered us in to meet Santa and Mrs. Clause! We waited in line a minute and then the kids got to sit on their laps and have their pictures taken. There was an official photographer and everything. The decorations were amazing and the whole effect was obviously carefully planned and executed. It was pretty great. After sitting on Santa's lap, his helper handed each a bag of little toys. It had a wooden train whistle, a wind up train, and a candy cane. For each kid! Seriously, what in the world?! Who does this?? Apparently this ward. It was pretty amazing. We might just be showing up every year, regardless of whether Lynn is Santa or not. :) Anyway, well worth the trip up there to see how magical it was for the kids. Jace still hasn't stopped talking about the "choo choo". Hallie asked Santa for a trip to Disneyland....we will have to see how that goes!

At the train station waiting for the Polar Express to pick them up

I have zero pictures of Flor with her eyes open....so....

Hals hopped in with some random girls. I am sure everyone was wondering who the heck we were, but they were all very friendly. haha.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert: 
Last night, I was able to meet up with my Aunt Mari Ann, Uncle Ron, and Carlie to see the MOTAB Christmas concert. This is a free community event and we put in for tickets EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR and have never gotten any. Mari Ann, on the other hand, seems to have all the luck and has gotten them a few times in the past few years. Since she had two extra tickets, she invited us along. Devin and Tim (Carlie's fiance) were both working, so it worked out great for us to go. I got a babysitter for the kids and it was so nice to just have an evening out without them.

The concert itself was great. It featured Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw this year. My favorite part was the touching story that Tom Brokaw told about the "Candy Bomber" from post World War 2 (1948) in Germany. The whole thing was really amazing. Great night. My phone died so I don't have any pictures except this one that Carlie took.

Whew. And that is all for now. The countdown is officially ON! Christmas Day...can't wait!