This December was such a fun month! We had a great holiday and got to do so many fun things. Here they are...
In November we made our usual outing to see Santa. Mia was a little nervous but was very brave.
Despite the cold weather I wanted Boo to get out of the house for some walks. I put on her Christmas sweater to give her a little extra warmth.
Mia was so excited to go see Jessica perform with the drill team this month. She decided to make her a sign to cheer her along. She was very animated during the whole performance and thought it was very cool!
The kids begged us to take them to Ihop after seeing the commercials for Elf Pancakes. They thought they were pretty good.
Brandon giving Mia a little mani/pedi.
Brandon got a moose cup from a white elephant party at work. He was excited to use it all month long.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the Festival of Trees. It was great as usual!
The gingerbread houses are always so cool.
This month our friends invited us over to make gingerbread houses with them. The kids had so much fun and they turned out so cute.
We also had to complete a big one of our own at home a few days later.
I got to go watch Mia's tumbling review this month. It was fun to see the progress she has made.
Brandon and Alex were very excited this month to attend the Star Wars marathon at the movie theater leading up to the release of the newest movie. They watched all nine movies in a row. I was very worried that Alex would quickly become miserable but he ended up loving it. He slept through two of the movies but watched all of the rest. He thought it was pretty awesome!
They did it! All nine movies! It took about 24 hours to complete.
The next night we had tickets to see Harry Potter with the Symphony. This was the fifth movie and we have gone to all five movies. They are always a lot of fun.
While I saw the new Star Wars movie with Bayley, Brandon went and helped at Mia's class holiday party that I had volunteered for. She loved it!
At our ward Christmas party the primary sang a few songs. Mia and Alex are up there but Mia wanted to hide behind Alex so you can't see her.
I love dressing my kids festively on the Sunday before Christmas. They were thrilled to take a picture for me.
That night we had a delicious dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Clements and we all got new pajamas. Mia was so excited for hers. They are a little big but she didn't care, she loved them so much!
On Christmas eve we had our usual pizza and white elephant party at Sarah, Jen and Bayley's house. It was hilarious and crazy as usual. It was a lot of fun. Mia really got into posing with all the random presents.
Later we headed home to get ready for the big man to arrive. We set out cookies and apples for Santa and the reindeer.
We got one more picture before the kids went to bed. They like to sleep together on Christmas eve and sleep in Alex's room on the air mattress.
Luckily Santa came!
The kids were so excited to open Boo's presents from Santa, they opened those first. Boo was excited too.
After opening lots of presents at home and having a delicious breakfast of German Pancakes we headed to Grandma Clements. We had more delicious breakfast food and then opened some more presents.
Mia got some new clothes from Grandma so she immediately wanted to change and put them on.
Lastly, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Hettinger's. We opened even more presents and ate even more breakfasts foods. Christmas is the best!
Alex built his new Stranger Things lego set. It was pretty awesome!
A few days later Mia and I hosted a "sock" party at our house for some of our friends and their daughters from our neighborhood. Mia was so excited for this and very hyper the whole time. It turned out great though. It is such a fun group of women and girls.
We wore our pajamas and ate breakfast foods.
At the end of the month we made sure to make it out to see the lights at Temple Square. We always seem to pick the coldest nights! It was cold and crowded but a lot of fun as always.
To wrap up our Christmas celebrations we did the traditional Nativity play. We all are assigned parts and dress up. It is always interesting and always a good reminder of our Savior.
A charming Mary and Joseph.
The angels.
2019 was a great year and we are excited for 2020!
