Walking in a winter wonderland :D

Ella: (singing): "In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Charlie Brown..."
______________________

Caleb: When we get a dog (common theme at our house) maybe we can get a laboratory like the neighbors.
Me:...a labrador?
Caleb: Yeah.

_______________________

Rachel: Mom, what is frankenstein-cense?
Me: You mean frankincense?
Rachel: Yeah.  The wise men brought it to Jesus.
_______________________

We have survived the holiday rush or finishing school, making gifts, youth activities (and scouts and activity days) at church, the ward Christmas party, piano recital, a visit to Utah, and teaching Sunday lessons.  I should be enjoying the season more, right?!  Kip was kind enough on Saturday to take the kids all day per my request so I could finish gifts and wrap everything for this week. Whew!  I still have not figured out how to find the balance of "slowing down" and "simplifying" with the season. :)

Caleb was very concerned that we had not yet made our traditional ginger bread houses, so we did that this week.  I didn't get a very good picture, most of them turned out blurry.  But believe me, they were having fun, including cousin Anders, who got to eat a lot of marshmallows with us when Brian and Rebecca stopped here for a night on their way out to Washington.

Our friend Maria also invited the kids over for a party, where they ate pizza, made cookies, and then a visit from (a very young and inexperienced) Santa! (I say inexperienced because he did not know to look up for photos - he just leaned around trying to talk to the kids.  Which was good in it's own way I guess.)  Caleb and his friend Noah were two of the three oldest kids there - Caleb was feeling pretty bummed until Noah showed up.

 

Kinley says CHEESE!

  

Rachel and her friend Parker showing off their green sprinkle tongues:

 

 McKinley was enamored with Santa.  When he walked in, most of the kids shied away, hung back, ran to their moms and dads.  Not Kinley.  She screamed "It's SANTA!  It's SANTA!" Over and over again.  While hopping with both feet.  She ran back and forth from me to him again and again, I had to keep calling he back to me so other kids could have turns on his lap.  She was so happy.

 Ella even wanted to sit on his lap, even though she joined the "I know the truth about Santa" club this year.  She kept loudly asking at dinner times that she wished someone would just tell her the truth about Santa because she was so confused, since some people said he is real and some people said he is not.  So, I did.  I told her the same story about the real St. Nicholas that I told Caleb two years ago, and that she is now a "secret Santa helper" for mom and dad.  She was excited and has made a real point of telling Rachel, "Santa is real!  He will bring you presents!" Funny girl.

And...this is about the best "Christmas" picture I could get of all the kids.  It'll have to do for this year.  The cards that I ordered from Snapfish  are not scheduled to arrive until Christmas Eve (when we'll already be in Grand Junction), so with apologies that we probably will not send out Christmas cards this year...here are the pictures that made the back side of the card: