Christmas Is Here!

We're in full Christmas mode! The decorations are out, the shopping has started, and the festivities have begun! I love this time of year! We got out all our decorations the day after Thanksgiving and realized, as we started to get stuff out, that our TV was where our tree should be. This turned into a whole rearrangement of our house...again. We like the set-up, so we may just leave it. Anyways, the kids were so excited and were bugging me all day about every little detail. Finally, it was done and they were happy! It looks great! We're decked out inside and out. Jeremy's so good about getting lights up every year. He gets pretty excited. So, here's the set-up...

Samantha did most of the work, while Parker found the train for our village and attempted to hang a few ornaments on the tree. Collin was very excited to see the tree and loved to touch and admire it. We have no tree topper due to our tree being too tall! Sad, but true. I haven't figured out what to do, except bend the top, but that didn't even work!

We've been out to a few Christmas events as well. The first was a Christmas Creche. There were over 500 nativities, with a beautiful choir, refreshments, and some crafts for the kids. It was put on by the church, at one of our Stake Centers, but open to the public. It was so wonderful! The spirit was strong and the atmosphere was just gorgeous. I wish I had pictures.

The second was our traditional visit to Coulon Beach on Lake Washington. Every year they put up a great light display around the park, which they call Clam Lights. It's really pretty and the kids love it. We went on one of the coldest days EVER! Seriously, we've been having some major cold weather, yet so sunny...very deceiving. It was Sunday, so Samantha insisted on wearing her dress. She was freezing. I changed, so I was less freezing, but not by much. We didn't stay long, but long enough to snap a few photos and take a stroll around the dock. Then, it was back home, where we started up our hot chocolate maker and got warm.