December Happenings

I post in spurts so here we go.  We've had lots of fun this month decorating, making Snoopy gingerbread houses, going to see the lights with friends, touring our neighborhood lights with hot chocolate, looking for our elf, shopping, our annual trip to SLC, and caroling with neighbors.  I've only taken pictures of a few of them!  The boys were all so excited to decorate and get ready for the holidays this year.  We started while Ian was napping and when he got up he was so amazed and asked, "Is this Christmas?"  Cute!  The boys have their own tree which is decorated with old ornaments from my childhood and a few of Jer's as well as the new ornaments they get each year from grandparents.  It is getting quite full.  This year Luke and Seth did the whole thing by themselves, and I could hear them in there almost every time they opened a box saying "look at this one" or something like that.  They were at it for over an hour, and it looks great.  No pictures though.  Oops.  They have also had fun looking for their "elf on the shelf" each day.

After a great Thanksgiving with my family this year I braved the Black Friday shopping with my mom again.  It has become a fun tradition.  The only time I really enjoy shopping is at Christmas.  I don't like big crowds or pushy people, but I do like to people watch and be entertained.  We decided on a whim to go check out Walmart at 10 pm.  I thought I might buy a Wii game that was on a good sale.  Fat chance! I had no clue what I was getting into.  It was pandemonium at the games.  People were yelling, including the F word from the teenagers I might add, and shoving!  Some people walked away with like 15 games and guess how many I got--big fat zero.  That's right I had nothing to show for that experience except major violations of my personal space.  I will not be hitting the game section again.

At the beginning of December we headed down to SLC with the Liechtys.  We drove to Ogden and then rode the Front Runner train down.  The kids thought it was awesome.  I have to admit it was a pretty smooth, nice ride.  We ate at the Gateway and rode Trax to Temple Square to see the lights.  Seth was Steve's little buddy all night and did not want anything to do with holding our hands.  Steve ended up with the job of keeping track of him in the crowd which is no small feat.  It was a great night with good friends and really got me excited about the holidays.

 We teased Seth about being "Elmer Fudd" quite a bit in this hat.

This past weekend we headed back down to SLC for our annual shopping trip with my family.  Luke had a basketball game at 8 am and then we hit the road.  After a stop at Einsteins in Ogden where Ian drank tons of chocolate milk but would not eat a thing we headed on again.  As we were cruising down the freeway, with Jer on his cell phone trying to work out a sale of a KSL item we had, I hear Ian whining that he's messy.  I looked back to find the understatement of the year.  He had puked big time and there was curdled milk everywhere.  I was telling Jer he threw up only to see him upchuck about a gallon of fresh chocolate milk that seriously filled up his car seat.  At this point, while Jer is still trying to have a phone conversation, he told me to "clean it up."  Um, with what?  The inside of our car needed a car wash.  It was a rocky start to the weekend, but we were able to check in early and send the laundry out.  Jer also gave the car seat a thorough hosing down in the hotel shower.  Poor Ian had the runs so bad the whole weekend, but he was a good sport and no more puking.

We shopped, ate out, the kids and guys swam, we went to the Little America brunch with Santa, and went to Sacrament at my parent's ward on the way home.  It was a great weekend.  One of the boy's favorite parts was shopping for the person they drew in our little family.  We draw names and do $5 gifts just with the five of us, and the kids have so much fun shopping and spending their own money on a little present.  I was once again slacking with the pictures, but I did take a few at the brunch.

 Seth was singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and sang the whole thing for Santa while sitting on his lap.  He then gave Santa a five and "pounded" Mrs. Claus.