Happy Holidays (Part 1)

Frankie and Sophie looking wintery in November.

Also in November: The Jubilee of trees. Jeremy was off work and came with us which fun. The man helping Santa said we should all get in the picture. Our first family picture with Santa. Frankie asked him for Jake's Pirate ship. Meaning the toy pirate ship based on Jake and the Neverland Pirates. That pretty much always made his list, as well as a Skylanders game and this crazy (and pricey) remote control car thing he spotted in one of the toy ads.

This year the boy's favorite tree was the Lego tree.

Making sand creations in the kid craft area:

Frankie did this once, and the fish pond twice. He scored a cat Beanie Baby at the fish pond. He was quite pleased with that, and I hoped we'd be able to keep him from the temptation of the toy booth because of it.

But alas, as you can see a brand new "Telly" toy came home. It plays Christmas music in an octave that shouldn't have to be heard by human ears. But it's little winter hood is cute.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving Karen and DeVere were kind enough to transport us to the Home Depot to pick out a Christmas tree. Here are the boys working on set up. Frankie loves pulling out all the Christmas decorations - he made the box tower. It was really hard to talk him into leaving the ornaments off the tree until I was done putting up the lights. To be fair, I'm a little ocd about the lights and it takes me a long time.

Jeremy used our only big knife and a hammer to chop off a few branches that were too low and making the tree too wide for our stand. (My Dad would be proud.) The knife did not survive. He got some new knives in his stocking at his parents house. The big one was labeled "for big branches," the smaller "for small branches."

In the first week of December my Mom had her Grandma Christmas party and talent show. Jessica had the idea for the youngest boys to do a dance to a cute remix version of "Once there was a Snowman." It was very entertaining to watch them.

Being snowmen:

And doing some break dancing:

Here are a few of the other talents:

(Watercolors my Mom did while in Hawaii.)

After the talents my Mom gave all of the kids a wooden flute. Doesn't she look a little mischievous in this picture? She knew what was about to happen.

Bleeding ears. But we love her anyway. 

It was a cute party, they got to have pizza for dinner, which they ate outside, do the talent show and open their presents. Frankie and the other boys his age scored new Lego sets.

Frankie has been taking an after school dance/tumbling class once a week, and they had a little recital for all the after school classes in December. He's had fun getting to go with Kennadi and even ride home with her that day. They told us to put him in "fun and colorful dance clothes." So we went for a Mario shirt. 

Waiting for things to get going with his fan club:

It was hard to get a decent picture while they were dancing. Mostly I got the backs of people's heads. But it was cute, and rather humorous.

The other little boy in the class is also in Frankie's Kindergarten class and is one of his good buddies.

On the ride home I mentioned I was sad that I missed a picture of Frankie's final pose with his arms folded. After a dinner at Pizza Factory, when we got home Frankie offered to do his pose for me so we could remember it. 

Some obligatory Sunday clothes pictures in front of the tree. He was a stinker about these and was standing so awkwardly. We didn't get one that was amazing.

But there are some good out takes.

We had a full-out progressive dinner this year with a visit to all my family's homes in the St. George area. We started at Jeff's for appetizers. His new house is perfect for he and his kiddos.

Little boys playing video games. Whenever possible. But I always love these pictures because you can tell how much they love each other.

Next we visited our house for soup. I managed to make Zuppa Toscana, like what they have at Olive Garden, and it was actually very good. Go me! 

Our tree picture. A pretty good one I thought.

This year we ran a Geo Trax train around our tree. I loved the Josh and Logan were the two that played with it.

Next stop was Greg and Jessica's, where Jessica volunteered to give us some "food for thought."

She gave each of the kids their own mini Christmas tree that lights up. Then she gave them one tiny hand-crafted ornament at a time, first telling the symbolism behind the ornaments. It was so sweet. 

And the kids were so excited about their trees.  Frankie's got to be in his bedroom, he loved having his very own tree, which became his night light for the season. 

Soren is one of the best smile on demand kids I know. 

Next we went to Christina and Ryans, but I can't put their picture up because they were being a Foster Family to a cute little baby at the time, who is in their family picture. It was so much fun to get to snuggle a baby for a few weeks, even if it was sad to see the baby go.

We had the main course at my parent's house. The table setting was lovely.

Mom and Dad's Christmas tree picture.

In the excitement of the mini Christmas Trees, we forgot to take a picture of Greg and Jessica and family in front of their full size tree. So we got one at Mom and Dad's.

Last stop was Laurie's for dessert. Ashley joined us for the dinner even though her hubby was working. It was fun to have her.

Laurie's kids always want a silly picture too. And they always make me laugh.

Some of the kids playing at Laurie's. Check out the Netflix fire on the TV. Frankie thought this was the greatest thing and we had to watch the "fire show" at our house several times after this.