The First Two Weeks of December

The kids loved all of the inflatables at the house across the street.
Jack and Luke even turned it into their own battle ground.

The Christmas celebrations began promptly, with a Breakfast with Santa party put on by Ben's work the morning of December 1st.  It included a yummy buffet of real food, a second buffet of candy, and a hot chocolate bar.  There were coloring pages on the tables and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was projected on a screen on one end of the room.  Then there was a great-looking Santa sitting in front of a green screen, with a photographer at the ready and a table of photo booth props.  We had a great time.

Later in the day, Ben and Jack bought our Christmas tree from Costco, ceremoniously grabbing a random one out of the back of a semi.  (The tree then sat in our garage for three days before being placed in a stand in the living room.)

And at home that afternoon, in typical fashion, the kids enjoyed seeing decorations and books that are familiar but tucked away 11/12ths of the year.

Then that evening we hung out at the cousins' house while Joe-z and Lindsey went on a date.  My kids had lost TV privileges but nobody seemed to mind a screen-free evening of play.  It worked out great.

We got a good amount of snow that Sunday and the kids were still enjoying it a few days later.  I think this was their first attempt at building snow forts this winter.

Jack received a few awards at Pack Meeting that night, and the kids enjoyed all of the knight-related activities: jousting, pulling a sword out of a stone and being quizzed on how they apply the Scout Law in their lives, and posing for pictures holding a real (heavy) sword.

While I was in Salt Lake singing at the First Presidency Christmas Devotional a few days earlier, Jack began a project that I will try to relate without editorial commentary.  He decided he needed a Polar Express train, so he took several Thomas train cars (considered vintage by our standards) and drew on them with black Sharpie to make them look more like the train in the book/movie.  Then he did the same with our wooden Thomas tracks.  And he wanted buildings and accessories, so he constructed a dozen out of Duplo blocks and similarly branded them.  He wanted me to document the finished product before the tree was placed in its spot.

Luke really loves eating snow.  I only wish he was more discerning about it.

And finally, the fateful night I wrote about here,

including the Ward Christmas party and our family Christmas tree decorating fiasco.

I took this picture because it cracked us up that Jack, perhaps the biggest child listening to Santa read a story,
was ridiculously anxious to be a part of this group.  It reminded me of Buddy the Elf saying,
"Santa's coming!  Santa's coming!  I KNOW HIM!"

Back at home, Luke found a way to entertain himself
while we tried to figure out how to solve the light dilemma.

 The next day, Saturday again, we were able to enjoy the Polar Express train ride.  This is such a great little tradition and I love that the families do so much work to put it on year after year.

12/12/18
A snowy, Christmasy view in the living room.