December activities

During the month of December we did some fun things with the kids.  I wish I would have been better at taking pictures of more of the things we did.  I have always wanted to do gingerbread houses with the kids and never have so this year we finally did.  The kids loved it and we found it was a good way to get rid of the last Halloween candy we still had laying around.  We made a gingerbread village.  Hopefully we continue to do this every year.

 The kids went with me to pick out a Christmas tree.  We only had an hour before it would be dark so we were in a hurry.  We stopped once to look at a tree and decided we would get it if we didn't find a better one.  We ended up finding the perfect one all by its self.  The kids and me walked through the snow and cut it down.  Tyler helped me get it load on top of our suburban and strap it down.  The next day Mason helped me get it in the house and in the stand.  We had cut it the perfect hight.  I got the lights on it that day. When the kids got home from school they put the decorations on the tree.  It turned out to be the prettiest tree we have had.  The kids were as proud as me of our tree. 
We took the kids Christmas shopping for each other, which is always fun to see what they think the other one will like.  They always do a good job.  They just need to be reminded they are looking for someone else.
We made count each of them a count down chain so they could cut their own and there wouldn't be any fighting over who got to cut it. 

We made sugar cookies and the kids actually ended up wanting to frost their own this year, which was a first.  Normally they just want to put the sprinkles on.
We made a pretzel treat for the kids school teachers and the girls at dad's office.  We finally figured out how to make them way faster then we have the years before.
We made chocolate dipped pretzels for us one night.  The only kid that didn't want to help with that was Mason.
We went to the town Christmas party so the kids could sit on santa's lap and tell him what they wanted.

 Elly told Santa she wanted a Buzz lightyear for Christmas.

 Mason told Santa he wanted a Green Bay Packers jersey number 25 the TB.

 Tyler told Santa he wanted a Tim Tebow jersey for Christmas.

We also took the kids bowling one night.  They loved it.  We only had time to play one game. They had so much fun.  The kids had bumpers in one lane and then Jay and I were on a different lane.  Mason beat everyone.  He wouldn't let us forget it either.  He was so excited.  Tyler wasn't very happy about it and told me, "Mason needs to be a better winner."  I thought it was funny.  We went bowling again during the Christmas break with some of their cousins and then out to pizza.  We all had a good time.
This Christmas season was one of my favorites as a parent.  The kids were so cute and excited about everything.  It was fun to hear their thoughts on the whole thing.  I taught the kids some of the Christmas songs.  It was really cute to hear them singing them all the time.  Elly loved "Santa Claus is coming to town."  She sang it all the time.  The boys love "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  We have some cute video of them both.  Every night they wanted me to sing "Away in a Manger" to them before bed.
It was fun to do these things with the kids and spend this time with them.