Holiday Fun

LETTERS TO SANTA

The girls wanted to write letters to Santa this year! For us this hasn't been a regular tradition but Idaho Falls has a fun Santa Mailbox in front of the museum, and they wanted to be able to go put a letter in it. I helped them write to remind Santa what's on their wish list this year and then they drew nice pictures for him. We put them in envelopes and headed to the mailbox. The girls posed for a picture and put their letters in the mailbox. Jay was in the car sleeping and of course a train came down the track (its RIGHT next to the parking lot) passing just feet from my car with its horn BLARING. I was sure it had scared Jay out of sleep, it was so loud. So we all went running back to the car (it was so loud I couldn't hear myself trying to talk to the girls, and I was yelling as loud as I could. lol). To my shock, Jay was sound asleep still. I seriously couldn't believe he could sleep through that. He didn't even flinch when the horn went off again!

CRYSTAL'S SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

I attempted to video tape their song but the music was too loud and we couldn't hear the kids sing. And I was zoomed in so far that every tiny movement is prominent so its a pretty shaky video. Sorry. lol.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

To avoid large crowds on Christmas Eve, we decided to go see the Klingler and Belnap Christmas lights this week. We parked our car and the kids climbed in the front seat with us to watch the show! I loved both of them! And the kids LOVED the Belnap's Frozen song light show!

PRESCHOOL CHRISTMAS PARTY

I only have one picture that I can post from Lily's preschool Christmas party, but the girls had a ton of fun. We started off by singing Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas to their parents and the girls gave them a present they had made for them earlier in the week. Other than a little stage fright which prevented them from singing -- lol -- they did great. 

After the parents left, we played Pin the Nose on Rudolph. I had other activities planned but after the first game it was movie time already! They watched Polar Express while coloring a Polar Express/Santa coloring book I made for them. We also had hot chocolate and a cookie for snack! After the movie I read a christmas story about how giving is better than receiving and gave them their Christmas present from me! I hope they had fun! I know Lily and I enjoyed it!

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

Grandma and Papa Cook had a breakfast with Santa activity in their Ward on Saturday. They had the girls spend the night at their house and took them with them! The girls were so excited! They had a ton of fun!

CHRISTMAS SUNDAY

I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their Christmas dresses/clothes. Jay refused to stand by the girls so I had to get in the picture too. He also insisted on wearing his jacket... Oy. The girls dresses came from Grandma and Grandpa Cook. They are adorable!

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE WEEK

They were both playing on Ty and I's tablets, but at least they were cuddled into each other. (Sisterly Love)

Santa and His Reindeer

SANTA AND HIS REINDEER

Crystal came home with a flyer saying that Santa was going to be behind Edwards Theater with his reindeer Wednesday night. I thought the kids would love it, so we decided to go check it out. We got there an hour before it ended, and I couldn't believe the LINE! Ty, who wasn't thrilled about it anyway, tried talking the girls into an ice cream cone instead, but they wouldn't have it. They wanted to see Santa and his reindeer (one of those moments where I wish I hadn't of told them where we were going ahead of time. lol). I wasn't really prepared for a line like this.  I thought it would be a ten minute wait tops, so Crystal was the only one properly dressed for an hour long wait outside. December in Idaho Falls is usually in the teens if not colder, but we've had a major heat wave this month so at least it was in the 40s. Poor Jays hands were still pretty cold by the time we were done. While we waited in line people were bringing by free hot chocolate. The girls LOVE hot chocolate so it helped pass the time a little (Lily of course ended up wearing a lot of it). We saw the reindeer and Santa! When we left the line was still a good 30-45 minutes long, and it was 15 minutes passed the time they were going to end. The girls still said it was worth the wait in line, but I think Daddy would beg to differ. lol. 

Grumpy Grinch

This kid was whiney and crying, but he'd stop to smile for the camera. It was hilarious!

The girls made a new friend. They were trying to see passed the people in line to see Santa. They were thrilled to see that Santa had brought Elves as well!

Crystal once again froze up when it was time to sit on Santa's lap, so she doesn't look happy. I promise she enjoyed it. Its just her shyness getting the better of her.

Jay was pretty interested in Santa. But he was also cold and wanted down to play with the trees. It didn't help that it was a bit past bedtime by the time we got to Santa's lap. haha.

Lily thinks Santa is great and wonderful. She made sure to remind him what she wants for Christmas as we were leaving.

MORE DECORATIONS

We finally got our lights up early this week!

I finally finished my Grinch blocks. I did the letters last year, but I just barely finished the block for the quote underneath. Now to finish this year's project. lol.

 CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
I wrapped all the presents and put them under the tree the other day. Jay has left them alone so far thank goodness. This is the first year that the girls have really been curious about what's under the tree. I told them they could explore the presents as long as they didn't open any, and only when Jay is down for a nap. He would just rip them all open if we brought them to his attention. lol. Its been fun watching them look through the presents. They pulled them all out and explored each one telling me what they thought could be in them. It made me smile. :)

RANDOM PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Lily was taking a good portion of her dolls for a walk in her stroller.

Christmas is near!!!

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

I finally got all the decorations out. I decided I'd better get pictures before the kids destroyed them. lol.

PICTURES WITH SANTA

I mentioned this last year, but this year I'm even more disappointed. Every year we take the kids to the mall to see Santa and snap a picture for the scrapbook. I'm certain we aren't the only family that does this. Three years ago when we went to the mall in Provo to see Santa, they asked that we only snap one picture which seemed to me like a reasonable request. The next year we were asked to stay outside the Santa area to take pictures. This was a little frustrating, but honestly the area wasn't that big, and it was easy to get a good picture standing outside of it. NO big deal. But last year the mall wouldn't allow people to take pictures with their own cameras at all. I was pretty frustrated, but the mall here in Idaho Falls still allowed pictures outside the roped off area so we waited until we came for Christmas to get pictures with Santa Claus. This year we happened upon the Santa square in the mall just after Thanksgiving. In front of the square is a sign that asks that you refrain from all picture taking. And their only photo option is $25. I'm rather upset by it all. Its a good way to turn a happy momma into a grumpy grinch. :-(  Okay. Rant over. 

The good news is good old Wal-Mart not only has a Santa (not nearly as impressive as the mall Santa of course), but they take pictures and print 5x7's of them FOR FREE! We just happened to be shopping there Saturday afternoon when they said on the intercom that you could get a free 5x7 picture with Santa back in the photo center. I figured they'd put all three of them on his lap and snap one picture, but the girl took picture of each of them and printed them all! It was rather refreshing after the whole mall incident... Anyway, I didn't think to take my own pictures for the blog so I took pictures of our 5x7's. They look much better in person but its the best I could do.

Lily LOVES Santa. The second she saw him, she went RUNNING up to him and gave him a HUGE hug! It was the sweetest thing to watch! She then told him that she hopes to get a Spiderman Costume from him for Christmas!

Both times we've seen Santa this year, Crystal has been insanely shy. She's always been a little shy in general, but the past few years she's done great with Santa. I'm not sure why she's being so timid this year, but we had a hard time getting her to even smile for the camera. She asked for an Elsa doll.

Jay liked Santa ... from a distance. He gave him a high five and smiled, but he wasn't about to sit on that man's lap. lol.

RANDOM PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Ty was trying to get Jay to show his muscles but for some odd reason Jay thought that meant to mush his cheeks together. lol. It was hilarious! Crystal tried showing him too but he kept doing the same thing. lol.