Christmas Catch-Up

As promised in the last post, I said that I had Christmas catching-up to do. We have been quite busy with the holiday season. The first of the month we were invited by my mom and Whit to the First Ward Christmas party. It was fun to kick off the season with a Christmas party. We had some fun with a dinner, Christmas carols and...Santa! The boys still are trying to figure out how come all the Santas are just "Santa's helpers". They are pretty good at detecting "frauds". Greyson, of course, was scared of Santa and Ella wouldn't let Phillip go. After all who would want to go to a huge, strange man dressed in red with a big beard??? Not me.Cooper letting Santa know what he wants for ChristmasThis is about as close as Grey would get to Santa's lapAuntie Whit and out little Ell-Bell at the party

The Daddy's helping the kiddos decorate some ornaments
Whit and Spence went to Utah for Christmas to visit his family, so we all wanted to squeeze in a visit to Chickasha to see the lights. It is seriously the best light display I have ever seen. We haven't missed a year that we have lived here. It is one of the best things about the season, for me. It was great weather to be outside. It was the night before a really big cold front moved in so it was calm and mild.
Here is a picture of my kids before we start the walk around the park

Here are all the kids sans Scarlett (she was bundled up in her momma's sling). I could hardly believe that they all looked at me all at once...Christmas miracles do exist.My boys in front of one of the displaysMy fam.Me and little Ell. We are on the bridge, which is one of my favorite displays. You get to walk under a canopy of lights...so pretty! She's just too darn cute!A rare picture of both me and Phillip. It's rare that both of are on one side of the camera together...thanks Spence!

Our next little cram-in session included making gingerbread houses before Whit left. We decided that baking the gingerbread was just too much so we opted for graham cracker houses. It was a great compromise. The kids all had fun and it was fun to see what they came up with. My bil Spence, who is an engineer, helped Ez construct quite the house. Needless to say it was very structurally sound.My little men before they decorated their housesA glimpse at the aftermathGreyson showing off his finished product Cooper showing me a piece of pull n' peel...which was part of his "genius" plan

We had a great time and it is fun to have the graham cracker houses to decorate our home. It was also fun to celebrate some family traditions with Whit and her family. With both of our moves looming closer I find I am a bit more nostalgic about the traditions.

Alright, this has been long enough. I have more to show off...but I'll break it up. Thanks for sticking with me this long. I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season. It is truly a special time of year.