Holiday Activities

This was the first year in a while where I felt ready for Christmas early in the month. After being in the rental house last year, and not having a single decoration up, it was wonderful to have all our decorations up along with our beautiful tree. It was also the first time as a family that we've ever hung Christmas lights outside. It was quite a project to get them up but fun to finally have them up and come home to a decorated home each night.

I tried to ensure that we had lots of fun Christmas activities for the month. Elfie had been visiting us for the month, we made our annual Goodies for friends and neighbors, we watched Christmas movies and read Christmas books. We also kept our annual gingerbread decorating fun. We spent one day in the east valley eating dinner at a new place we tried called, Organ Stop Pizza and then we went on to see the Christmas lights and decorations at the Mesa temple. On Christmas Eve we made Santa some chocolate chip cookies and milk. 

We stopped in to visit with Santa so the boys could tell him what they wanted. It was the first time that we didn't have any wait at all. It made it so much more enjoyable. The boys told him they wanted some toys that they had never previously mentioned to us. Lincoln asked for the Eye of Cthulhu and a Terraria skull. Santa, and Mommy, used Amazon for about 90% of the Christmas gifts that came to our house...and thankfully they have two day shipping.

 Organ Stop Pizza

 Mesa Temple lights

 We made and delivered our annual Christmas candy to friends and neighbors. I made about 150 items.

 We went looking at Christmas lights one night in conjunction with delivering the candy. We sang carols in the car for most of the ride.

The train outside of Santa's workshop that we visited.