Santa Claus is coming to town

Tom's dad and mom put on a big pre-Christmas dinner and Santa comes to visit all the kids so they have a chance to tell him what they want. All the kids get so excited to see him walk through the door. Chesney was the first one to sit on his lap this year. Jaycie kept asking him where the reindeer where and trying to introduce everyone to him. After the kids sat on Santa's lap he had a surprise goodie for everyone in his bag. What a treat! Not only did they get to see Santa but got to go home with a present as well.

Sleigh Ride

Every year we take the kids to Thanksgiving Point were they have a horse drawn wagon ride through their Christmas light display. We dress the kids up in their winter clothes and out we go to freeze for a half hour but have a great time doing it. This year I got a little smarter and grabbed blankets for everyone. The sad part was that half the lights weren't working this year. So some of the displays had half a figure lit up. One wooden solider only had a hand waving and the big Santa at the end was half a Santa. But it was still fun all the same. Laine got the whole wagon to sing two of his favorite carols. Afterwords we went up and thanked the driver and the kids got to pet the horses that took us around. Then up by the water tower they had two live reindeer on display. They were holding one up to the gate so the kids could pet him. Chesney very carefully picked out some straw on the ground and tried to call the other reindeer over to eat. It didn't work but it was cute! Jaycie kept asking where Rodolph was. We kept telling her he was with Santa. It was a good time had by all.

Gingerbread Houses

This year we added a new activity to our list of holiday fun. Decorating Gingerbread Houses! Kaylee got her own house to make. Chesney and Jaycie got to share one. They had so much fun. Chesney wanted hers to turn out just like Kaylee's so she paid close attention to what older sister was doing so she could do the same.

Here is me trying to keep the house from falling down!

And here are the finished works of art!

Decorating the Tree

The weekend of the Thanksgiving holiday is the weekend we put up the Christmas Tree. The kids were so excited! Although, all of them got pretty board doing it pretty quickly.

Random Cuteness

I have to jot down this story before I forget it.
So as parents when your children are learning to tell jokes you do a courtesy laugh to make them feel like they have done a good job. Apparently we have done it to much at our house. The other night at dinner Chesney was asking us if we wanted to hear a job and telling us different versions of the chicken who crossed the road. Jaycie, of course, couldn't be left out and asked everyone if they wanted to hear a joke. We all said yes and waited for her to continue. Nothing but silence. After about 15 seconds Chesney bursts out laughing. "Ha ha ha. That was a very funny joke!" We all lost it. It was the funniest thing that had happened in a long time.