It's beginning to look...

The kids got to see Santa at the ward Christmas party.

Elijah asked for "Spiderman clothes"

Cora was very shy.  She asked for princess toys.

The funniest thing happened at the party.  Apparently there was a mix up and two different people were asked to be Santa- so one Santa came in and sat in the chair and started talking to the kids. Then another Santa came in through the door and shouted "Ho, ho, ho!" Then he spotted the other Santa, paused for a second, then ran out the door.  Luckily most of the kids didn't notice but the adults were all laughing.

Singing their cute little Primary Christmas songs.

Picking out our Christmas tree at the tree farm!

Showing off our tree all set up at home!  It was so fun to have a real tree!  We got a cute little one so that we could perch it on top of this little table we got at a thrift store to keep it out of reach of Betty.

One of my favorite evenings, the decorating the tree FHE!  Betty really wants to get it!

She really wasn't much help.

The table was perfect, kept the tree just out of reach.

Too short! She couldn't reach the tree - but she did eat a lot of pine needles this month.

All decorated!

And lit up.  Love that sight.

The kids in their Christmas Sunday outfits, the Sunday before Christmas.  Cora's dress matched the tree skirt and blends right it, makes it look like a big hoop skirt or something.

Grandma and Papa came for Christmas which was wonderful!  We hadn't spent a Christmas together since Cora was a baby.  They brought a fun gingerbread house kit along with them that the kids loved!

Cora's side:

Elijah's side:

And of course, we had to make sugar and gingerbread cookies!  My very favorite tradition from Christmas going up is making and decorating cookies together, so it was so fun to recreate that in my own kitchen with my kids and my parents together!  Mom even wore her old apron that I remember so well from my childhood that I have since inherited.  And we used the mixing bowls I inherited from my Grandma Betty to mix up the doughs.

Elijah always has to stick his tongue out when he concentrates.

Everyone helped decorate!

Dad's favorite cookie creations. A samurai and poop. :P