Festive Traditions

I cannot believe that in one week from today we will have opened all of our presents and will already be playing with our new things!! I feel so behind. In fact, last night I dreamed that we went to our Christmas-day party and forgot one of the gifts-didn't even buy it! I woke up just sick. Ick. So, Matt, if we forget your present next week, sooo sorry!

The thing I do love about Christmas though, is all the traditions. This year has been full of them. Last weekend we got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party. He told Lyndsi that she was very much on his "nice" list. Ever since then she has been so excited. Out of the blue on more than one occasion, she'll sigh and say "Oh mom! I can't believe I made it onto Santa's nice list!" It is so cute. I don't ever remember being so concerned if I was going to be on the nice or naughty list.

We also went to the Festival of Trees with my mom and dad while Jeff was out of town. The kids had a ball. They had a little kids area where you could buy tickets and get your face painted, get a manicure, do crafts, etc. McKay even got to call one of Santa's elves! They loved looking at all the beautiful trees. McKay's favorite was the Star Wars tree with Darth Vader on top (a new fav since Disneyland) and Lyndsi's was anything girly. Grandma bought McKay some swords made out of water noodles. When we caught up with my aunt, cousin and some of his friends (all in their early 20s), McKay insisted that they fight him. They did and I can tell you that little boy of mine gave those big guys a run for their money! But, it was sweet that they were willing to play with my little 3-yr-old.

We've had a lot of snow it seems this month (with more on the way in time for Christmas!). I love to take pictures of nature, and these were some that I loved. This is our tree in our backyard. This storm took a lot of branches down in the neighborhood, but our trees are tough and still in good shape.