Let the festivities begin.....

Friday night was our ward Christmas party. One suggestion from the activities committee was that your children could come dressed as shepherds, wisemen, or angels. Luckily a few years ago, I was on the activities committee when we did a Back to Bethlehem Christmas extravaganza and I still had the costumes I made (ripped from sheets) for my children. They only problem? Which bin were they in? After I froze my digits coming up empty handed, Mel came home and somehow found the bin full of all of the kids' dress-up clothes. We haven't seen them that excited in sometime. I do believe the word 'PAR-TAY' was thrown around several times. But, we were running late (from a longer search than was anticipated) and shepherds were to be made. Not bad for pulling from a bin and throwing on children in 10 minutes?




The party was fun and festive, the kids all had a great time - complete with a visit to the fat man's lap. One wants a drum set, another wants a bicycle - preferable blue, and the third would like a pink puppy - ahh such simple lovely requests.



Saturday was our 'get the tree' day. We loaded the kids in the car just as it was getting bitterly cold and beginning to snow. In an effort to save a little money, we discussed where to purchase the tree this year. I hate to admit now, but Home Depot and Wal-Mart were actually part of that discussion, until Tyler made his opinion known. He wanted to go somewhere special - NOT Wal-Mart! That was lame. Plus, he would like to see reindeer. We've been going to this great place that has the great-great-grandson of one of Santa's official reindeer - we can't come to an agreement on which one exactly, but they have moved a few times, and we weren't sure where they were this year. I remembered seeing that Beaver Bark advertised that they had reindeer this year, I wondered if maybe they had partnered with our old place, so we decided to check it out, but not to actually buy our tree. No, way, that would be crazy.


So, we enjoyed checking out Donner and Vixen - who were delightful, BTW. They are here until Christmas Eve.


Did I mention it was BITTERLY cold? It was, and there were trees, and Mel and I spotted 'the one' A Noble. Not too big. Perfect shape. So we talk to the tree guy and it was a little more than Wal-Mart, but not quite as much as our old place, so we decide to just do it. As we walk into the store, he asks which vehicle is ours. So, he can secure it to the top. (Hello! Wal-Mart doesn't do that! Neither did our old place.)



As we are defrosting in the beautiful shop, Zoe finds the tree of her dreams:

Perfect for a little Princess, don't you think?

Anyway, we enjoyed a little warmth, the kids all got some free popcorn on the way out the door, and the best part? Mel didn't have to freeze getting the tree secure. YAY!


Oh, and we had some pretty happy kids:


I'd love to say that the whole evening was all sunshine and rainbows, but if you know me at all, you know that's not how I roll. Let's just say it's done. And here is Zoe in her new Christmas dress from Aunt Megan to prove it.