Christmas Season 2016

We've had a really nice Christmas season, so far.  I haven't pulled out the real camera as much as last year... partly owing to the fact that we don't have a newborn I'm trying to take good pictures of.  And partly owing to the fact that we have 4 full size little kids, and I'm struggling to always keep up with them.



We've been enjoying visiting the farmer's market each weekend.



We visited Santa's Village again this year.



MUCH less crowded than last year (b/c we didn't go on the "Richardson Residents Thursday" this year.  Good decision).



The kids liked walking around with Mimi and Papa.  They were disappointed we only went into three of the little houses, but the lines were long.





We did get to see a brief presentation of Tuzer's "The Nutcracker," which was the perfect duration at around 15 minutes.

We went on our "long walk" this week.  It was approximately 3.9 miles of misery.  Maybe that's overstating it.  But Oliver bit the sidewalk early on... resulting in a bloody mouth/lip and scraped up nose.  He insisted on being pushed while standing on his scooter for basically the whole walk.  It was okay, because I left the stroller at home and just had Charlie on my back.  The ducks were the highlight of the trip.  Nothing is as funny to preschoolers as bottoms.

Here they're laughing at the duck bottoms sticking up while the ducks were fishing for their food in the pond.

I've begun making bread again.  I hadn't made it much from the time I was pregnant with Lucy until now.  I'm not crazy about the white flour, but at least it doesn't have preservatives.  Plus, I'm teaching the kids valuable culinary lessons about making bread... in a bread machine.  We watched a couple YouTube videos explaining the role of yeast in baking.  It was very educational.





A few nights ago, we drove to the end of my friend Jennifer's street and then rode down the street on scooters (obviously Daniel and I walked).




The lights on that street are the best in the neighborhood, and the kids liked riding their scooters down to her house.



Once there, we decorated cookies and drank hot cocoa. It was really fun.







We went to "mall church" this last weekend with some friends.  The kids did an awesome job of playing quietly and coloring.  Until they were done.



We went bowling the other day with our small group, and the jokers at the bowling alley wouldn't let us use the ramps for our kids!  They said the ramps were only for special needs.  I was irritated, but the kids had a good time anyways.



We used to watch Claymation Christmas every year when I was young.  How excited we were to find that it's on YouTube!  We watched it while eating popcorn last night.



We've also been doing Advent readings/activities each evening, which the kids look forward to.  We light the Advent candle and then read a Christmas story or something from the Bible.  Sometimes they get a Hershey kiss at the end.  It's pretty fun.






We bought the worst Christmas tree ever.  It practically sneezes needles if you so much as touch it.





We can't stay on top of the needle droppage.  But that's okay, because Lucy and Elliot have been having a grand time scooping up the needles with construction vehicles and throwing them into the fire.



It's pretty great.



The kids have been saying our lights are not as beautiful as many of the other houses' lights in our neighborhood.  So today we took on a family project: candy cane PVC pipe light posts.



I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't as time consuming as I thought it might be.  We were lucky to knock it out during the couple hours before the temperature plummeted from the 70s to the 20s.



We hurried inside to make a fire and enjoy the rest of our Saturday together as a family.  I love these days when there's nothing on the calendar and Daddy's home.



They really are wonderful.