We went to a wonderful activity at the beginning of December in Cedar Rapids at the Stake Center, where there were hundreds of unique nativity sets to look at, as well as music groups from the community performing, and a cute children's room. We plan on going to this every year. Here's John dressed up as Joseph, holding/manhandling the baby Jesus. Very cute!
I found this cute little fluffy owl at Pier 1 and put him in the Christmas tree. As you may know, I love owls!
I took a bunch of pictures of the Christmas tree ornaments without the flash on (trying to be more artsy), and almost all of them came out too blurry, but these are two that made the cut and didn't get deleted.
I took the kids to a gingerbread cookie-decorating activity at the library a few days before Christmas. It was the best gingerbread-cookie activity I've ever been too. The cookies weren't hard! They were soft, fresh, and very good, and there was plenty of frosting and tons of toppings to choose from for decorations. We will definitely go to this again next year! (John had already started eating the toppings, as you can tell by the blank holes on the cookie!)
Here's our "Elf on the Shelf." His name is Brian and this was our second Christmas with him. John had fun looking for him in in his new hiding spot each morning (except for a few times when we forgot to put him in a new place the night before...oops!). He works pretty well as a threatening tool for good behavior. ("Brian's watching and he's going to tell Santa if you don't stop that right now!")
I love this view from upstairs in our house during the holidays. I took this picture on Christmas Eve night. I don't know what that white dusty light is on the left. Angel dust maybe?!
My boys at play on Christmas Day.
