It finally looks a lot like Christmas around here

On Nov. 30 we went to Justin's work party at Trolley Square. This is the view from the parking

garage which I thought was super pretty. 

One afternoon the kids went down the street to sled on a hill and James felt left out so I suited him up so he could play in the snow. For him that means walk around and find spots to taste.

And you better believe he did it again.

Henry wrote this sweet letter to his teacher. He never gave it to her and I think he threw it away so I'm glad I got a picture of it. He can be so sweet.

Thursday was his turn to do his country report. He chose Brazil because he's heard of the Amazon river and that they are good at soccer. So his report was about the Amazon river and how good they are at soccer. Or "futbol, which means football" as he explained in his report.

He wanted to do a powerpoint presentation with lots of pictures and Brazilian music playing so that's exactly what we did. He was the only student to do a powerpoint.

While I helped with his report, James and Erica spent the hour at my mom's. James found this Christmas decoration. It has 2 little ice skaters that move around by a magnet on the mirror while a song loudly plays. He's pretty much obsessed with it and I had to carry him out kicking and screaming.

Hooray we finally got our tree! Justin took Friday off from work and we took the kids to Ephraim to get a tree permit at 7:45 in the morning. (4th graders get a free permit with their EKIP pass) Then we drove Spring City canyon, suited up in our snow gear and started looking around.

Well the kids mostly sled while Justin and I looked around.

It was so pretty up this wooded narrow canyon. It was a winter wonderland.

So many trees to choose from!

Then Justin and I came upon the same tree from opposite directions. It was a magical moment!

James sat in the snow and ate snow off his gloves and whined while Justin cut it down and did the same thing again while he strapped it to the roof of the car.

We were done by 10:15 am! We ate some fudge and hot chocolate in the car before we headed back home. The big kids ate lunch and I took them to school. Not bad for a morning's work.

I put the lights on the tree while the kids were at school and James was asleep. I went to the store then we decorated it until dinner. Not sure which one of my kids took this picture.

I left my phone at home while I  was out and I have a dozen of these shots.

Now that some of my kids are taller, their ornament placement is getting more spread out so I hardly put any ornaments on at all.

 Using the stool helps.

James purposely broke this candy cane so he could eat it.

This year has been fun with James because everything is new to him since he doesn't remember and he gets super excited.

 Oh the teen angst is starting early with this one. She read her book on the stairs because she was pouting about something.

James got this sled ornament at the store the day before and is driving it like a car on the floor. 

 Speaking of which, I don't even know where this ornament is or if it ever made it on the tree. He may have put it with his toy cars.

Aren't they so cute?!

 Here's a good sequence of events:

About 20 seconds after this she herself fell off the stool and took down the wooden candles off the shelf with her. She landed hard on her bum and cried out, "I'm sorry, Mama!" Broke my heart that she was concerned about messing up the decorations when she hurt herself so bad. I had to hold her for a few minutes and reassure her and once we put everything back she was okay.

This is as good as a treasure chest for me. Look at all those homemade and schoolmade ornaments.

 Ta-da! It's a little wonky shaped and wonky leaning and I love it.

Erica has to have the wisemen of my new nativity huddled together just so.

Here she is explaining why.

It looks like they are coming up with a game plan before they head to the stable.

These are my new candlesticks. I've wanted some nice ones for a long time but they are hard to find for the taper style candles. I found these at Joann's but since I am cheap, I bought them one at a time  over the course of a month as I got the best deal with coupons. But then they were out of stock for awhile and they only ordered 2. Let's just say it took 2 phone calls and 3 trips to the store in one day to finally complete the set. Totally worth it.

Saturday night was our ward Christmas party. They had a photo booth and I handed my phone to Sarah and I got a few gems in return.

BF Myer and Henry

Sarah and Max Stephenson in his ugly Christmas sweater that gave me the creeps.

That's all for now. I'm going to spend my week making cookies and fudge and finding more spots to hide presents.