Christmas Time Happenings!

Christmas is fast approaching and with that comes all the fun activities. Thursday night we took the kids to Rawhide hoping to see Santa. Well Santa must have been busy somewhere else that night cause he wasn't there. Apparently he is only there on the weekends. Well that would have been nice to know before hand, but we still had a good time. There is so much to do at Rawhide. The boys went on a burro ride and they even rode the mechanical bull.

Friday was half day at school, so right after the boys were out of school, we headed to the mall for lunch and to see the movie Bolt. That was a really cute movie. Well of course we had to make a stop to see Santa. Luckily he was there and they finally got to rattle off to him what they want for Christmas. We made them limit it to telling him only the top 3 things that they want. After all, there was a line of kids behind us and they have sent their letters to him already, so we are pretty sure Santa knows what to bring to this house. ;) He was such a cute Santa and we all agreed that he was the REAL Santa! We did some Christmas shopping after and actually finished!

Saturday night was our Ward Christmas party, Luau style. I made a trip to Savers a few days before and bought us all Hawaiian shirts. We had a Hawaiian singer that was singing Christmas songs while we ate and then some ward members participated in Karaoke and a talent show after dinner. It was really a lot of fun. Of course Santa made his appearance towards the end so this time all 4 of us got in the picture with him, Hawaiian shirts and all! Jacob asked me after if he was one of Santa's helpers and I asked him why? He told me that his beard looked fake so there was no way he could be the real one. Haha, very observant indeed. I told him that yes I believe he is a helper cause Santa needs lots of those this time of year. Cole is the older child, but has yet to ask me anything like that. I'm so glad, because I really want him to have that belief for awhile longer.

This coming Tuesday is their music concert for school. They have been busy practicing Christmas songs during music time at school, and I'm excited to hear the final outcome. Cole kept debating last night about whether or not he should get up on stage to do some Karaoke, but he chickened out and decided not to. No big surprise there, he hates getting up in front of others.

I look forward to this time of year, despite how busy it is. We always have so many fun things going on. The boys last day of school is this Friday and they have a party in their classes that day. Nick's last day of work is this coming Wednesday. He will have a total of 17 days off for the holidays. He can't wait, and neither can we! We want to go see the Temple lights, the zoo lights and whatever other lights that we will have time for. We want to go to Tucson to see Nick's dad, and we want to take a trip to the snow to go sledding. Then of course there is Cole's 10th birthday on December 28th. We have agreed to let him have his first slumber party and he has agreed to limit the number of guests to 3 boys. I'm not brave enough for more than that. ;) That is going to be held on New Years Eve, so I have concluded that Christmas break really isn't going to be a break afterall. There is a lot going on, but I'm looking forward to spending time with family! It's going to be a fun one! Can't wait for Christmas!

Pictures from Rawhide:

Here's the boys on an old carriage.

Here they are on the burro rides. Cole looks a little hesitant as he gets ready to take Bert for a ride. Jacob gets to ride Blue. That would have been Jacob's middle name if I would have let Nick use it, but I didn't like that name. Appropriate that Jacob is the one that rode him, haha.

Cole looks a bit happier to be riding him once they got going.

This is where Santa was supposed to be, but he wasn't there that night. Nick decided to take his place. After all he is "St. Nick". HAHA!

Here is Cole on the Mechanical Bull. They bug us everytime we go to Rawhide to ride on it, so we thought we'd let them try it out. They have to wear that helmet so it was hard to see the looks on their face.

Now it's Jacob's turn. He wore his cowboy hat, boots and gun so he could look like a real cowboy of course!

Pictures from the mall:

Here they are telling Santa at the mall on Friday, what they want for Christmas. He was such a cute Santa! He listened to them and was so patient. He was the real one for sure! ;)

Here is a video of them talking to Santa. He discovered that they sure love Star Wars!

Pictures from the Christmas Luau.

The picture on the left is Jacob being goofy with his Lei that he got. I'm not sure what he was trying to do exactly, silly kid. Nick and Cole posing for a picture on the right.

Here is our family photo with Santa. We concluded that this guy was actually a helper to the "real" Santa. This is the only Christmas family picture that we had time to take this year, so this is what people will be getting when I get around to sending out Christmas cards. Don't you love the Hawaiian shirts that I found at Savers? They will be saved for the next Luau we get invited too. :)

I'm thankful for this time of year because I can reflect on the birth of our Savior and the sacrifices that he made for all of us! Merry Christmas everyone! :)