It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

I love this time of year!  I love decorating, listening to my Christmas music and watching my favorite Christmas movies (White Christmas is still my favorite), the anticipation and excitement, thinking about others and trying to find the perfect gift, and doing things together as a family.  Zane sang in a Christmas concert put on by our church this year (they needed men more than women, so he got to go while I stayed with the boys.)  I have been busy organizing musical numbers and practicing for the program for our church service on Christmas Sunday.  It has been a busy month getting ready for Christmas, and to fit it all in other things had to be let go (folding laundry, cleaning etc).  It is all worth it as we are making memories!

 We started the month out taking our Christmas pictures.  My sister-in-law caught some get pictures portraying a happy family.  In reality, we woke Dallin up from a nap. He did not want to be twinsies with Gavin that day, and he was in a very bad mood.  Gavin didn't want to take pictures either, so smarties saved the day.  The header picture is the boys looking up at the smarties in my hand!  The picture below though was a natural moment that my sister-in-law caught. It is one of my favorites.

We do a lot of decorating.  Zane has a Nutcracker collection and I have my village and nativities.  Dallin loved helping with lights this year and he really was a help!  He keeps looking at other homes and tells us more things we should put up in our yard.  We failed to get pictures though probably because Gavin was "helping" too with the decorating and we had to watch him like a hawk!

I have also been really busy with preschool.  The boys learned a couple of songs to sing to their moms at the Christmas party.  Here they are practicing a reindeer song with antlers and a red nose!

Gavin got in on the action too.

  We are doing a lot of baking.  I enjoy baking and trying new recipes, so making a Christmas treat for each day of preschool this month was a nice excuse to do it!  I nicknamed Dallin Little Chef awhile ago because he loves helping me in the kitchen.  Most of the time his help means a bigger mess, but I love it.  Now Gavin wants to be part of the action too.  (We are making dinner here, but they have helped make a lot of cookies!)

I love these tortilla snowflakes found here.  Perfect for any kid.

They made sure there were plenty of sprinkles.

Here are the boys at the performance for their moms.  They cracked me up because during practices they couldn't hold still for the life of them.  They sang and twirled and somersaulted around the room.  During the performance they shocked me by standing still except for their rear ends.  All three of them moved back and forth hitting my entertainment center with their rear ends in time with the music.  I think it may be physically impossible for 3-4 year old boys to hold still for more than a couple seconds!

 Singing Jingle Bells

Finally, Dallin got really excited about Christmas when he got to meet Santa!  When you ask Dallin what he wants for Christmas, it changes each time which is great because the things he says probably won't be under the tree Christmas morning due to the fact that they are made up toys.

Gavin was enthralled with him too.  I don't think he smiled once.  He just kept staring...but no tears!

We have really tried hard this month to keep a balance with the fun Christmas activities and learning and understanding what Christmas is really about.  I love the age that Dallin is now because he is starting to understand so much more.  Last week when he saw a manger scene outside, he pointed it out saying, "Look mom, there is Mary, the baby Jesus, and Joseph Smith!"  Some things are catching on and some need some more clarification!  He has also got into some service projects that we do.  He keeps gathering up his cars and giving them to me to give to another child who needs them.  As a mom, I love those moments when you start seeing some things that you are teaching actually stick!

Finally, family will start arriving in town this week.  My brother and sister-in-law are already in from the Netherlands and we couldn't be more excited to see them.  It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas (even without snow!)