One Final Christmas Post

I was looking back at our December pictures and realized there were several activities I forgot to share with you. So here goes...

First, we had lots of fun with our Elf on the Shelf.



For those of you unfamiliar with this cute little guy, this Elf is sent from Santa to our house during the holiday season to keep an eye on our boys to see if they are naughty or nice. He returns to the North Pole every night and comes back to a new place every morning before we wake. Carter had so much fun looking for the Elf every morning. On most mornings he would say "Elf on Shelf are you?" on the the way down the stairs.

We of course did a lot of holiday baking.

And batter licking.



We made chocolate and sprinkled covered pretzels.


And sugar cookies.



It was all very yummy and very fun.

We also had a few very special additions to the Christmas ornament collection.



The wise men ornament was made by Daddy and Carter at the Children's Museum. Adam started with 3 toilet paper rolls and then they added all sort of fun fabric scraps to decorate the wise men.

The Baby Jesus manger and pipe cleaner bell were made by Carter during Sunday School. I just love having ornaments he made on the tree.

And the drum ornament was from a Christmas Party. We brought this ornament for a Dirty Santa ornament swap. I think we drew number 3 and Carter decided to open a new present from the pile instead of taking one of the first two ornaments that were already opened. Well, the last person decided to take the ornament that we had opened which meant we got to pick a gift from all of the other opened ornament. I decided to let Carter pick so everyone showed Carter their opened ornament. Of course Carter picked the ornament we took to the party which he helped me pick out at the store.

Finally, we went to see the lights at our botanical gardens. Here are some of my favorite shots.



We roasted marshmallows...



And enjoyed eating them...





The children's garden - with giant pumpkins, carrots, squash, tomatoes...



This is a tunnel in the children's area that Carter loved running through over and over again this summer. He remembered it and ran through it several times that night too.



It was a VERY cold night, but Ben bundled up and enjoyed the view from the stroller.



To top it all off, there was a great train track display set up indoors. It had lots of buttons for the kids to push that would activate certain things on the track. Carter was mesmerized.



Can't wait for it to get warmer so we can start visiting our gardens again!

Are you in the holiday spirit again? Only 11 months to go until Christmas again!