Festival of Trees

The Festival of Trees is one of my favorite Utah Christmas traditions! I was so excited to get to go last week! This was my very favorite tree this year. It was a life-size Grinch dressed as Santa with the decorated tree and toys and gifts stuffed in his sack. SO cute and creative!
We took a break and enjoyed delicious warm cinnamon rolls and cinnamon sugar scones. You could smell them almost immediately when you walked in the doors; how could we resist?! Silly Andrew chose popcorn instead.

When Logan sat down and looked at his scone and popcorn he announced, "Now that's what I call a MEAL!"

Christmas Tree Stars and Primary Teachers

A few days before Christmas, Andrew came to me and asked why our tree didn't have a star at the top. I told him that I always put a big pretty bow on the top of the tree instead. He looked at me like that was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard and said, "A BOW?! That's not how you're supposed to do it, Mom! You're supposed to put a STAR on the top to remind you of the star when Jesus was born!" I felt a little sheepish, being reminded of an important symbol of Christmas by my five-year-old!

I believe the credit for this goes to my friend, Kimberly, who is our ward Primary President. I've been told that she did a great Sharing Time about the symbols of Christmas a couple of weeks ago. It obvoiusly left quite an impression on Andrew!

This got me thinking about all the wonderful people who touch my childrens' life for good and how grateful I am for their positive example and influence in their lives! THANKS to all those who serve in the Primary... for Dane and Natalie, Andrew's Primary teachers, and Kolby and Alison, Logan's Nursery leaders. Thanks so much!

And as you can see, we found a STAR for the top of our tree! Thanks, Kimberly! Ü

My handsome little men on the sunday before Christmas

Setting Up the Tree

Well, Summer unboxed the Christmas tree today along with the countless boxes of ornaments and decorations..... despite the fact that it's still November. Still, I have to give her credit; her mother frequently has the house decked out in Chrismas decor the day after Thanksgiving. That being said, the tree is up and she's happily decorating it while Christmas music chimes away in the background (yes, there are several stations already playing Christmas music). The kids came up and pulled out their old Mickey Christmas caps from when we spent Christmas in Disneyland a few years ago. That sure was a fun vacation, and it was nice to get away from the snow.

Speaking of snow, Logan loves to play in it. The first snow of the year came on Thanksgiving and Logan kept looking out the window yelling "IT'S SMOWING!!! SMOW! SMOW!!" Everytime we go outside to get in the car, he takes a detour onto the lawn to step through the inch of snow that actually stuck to the ground, and Andrew's already asking if he can pull out the sled and slide down the hill on the north end of the elementary school. Unfortunately, it doesn't work when there are only a few patches of snow here and there.

We're planning on sticking around for the holidays again this year, especially since it would cost over $1200 for us all to fly home, and it's probably best, seeing as how we'll be t-minus two months from Hannah's arrival. We stayed in Cleveland last year, and it turned out really nicely to be able to spend the morning together with just our family, and then spend Christmas with friends the rest of the day. We even fired up the webcam so the kids could chat with Summer's parents and show them what they recieved from Santa.