Christmas Activities

I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. As a kids I was always told that the older you got the faster time went, well now that I am a little older I'm seeing how that is so true. I had a hard time getting into Christmas this year, I'm not sure why, but I'm sure part of it had to do with the stress I was facing at work. I really tried to not let that stop our family traditions and the kids were great to make sure we kept doing everything we have always done.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we put up our tree, the kids always love doing this and this year Brooke let us know that because she is the youngest she gets to put the star on the top. Well after a little teasing from dad, he helped her put it up and it just made her day. I am amazed at how our tree has gone from a nice little organized tree to a tree that is totally filled with ornaments the kids have made at school or have received from Santa and others. As much as I would love to have a perfect tree (like my mom's) I really love the tree that shows off our kids.

Still a little short, so Dad helped a little bit.

Then it was time to start working on candy and cookies, now I'm not one that goes all out and makes a lot of home made stuff, but we do make cookies and dip stuff into chocolate, but I didn't want to be rushed at the very last minute, so on a Saturday that the boys went hunting, the girls were able to get started, we made a whole bunch of sugar cookies, peanut butter balls and we even dipped pretzels all in one day. I had only planned on doing the cookies, but because I had such AWESOME help, we were able to get much more done.

Look at the concentration!

My AWESOME helpers!

We were then able to spend time in the evening after school and get the rest of the dipping and candy stuff done so that we weren't stuck spending all day on Saturdays doing it.
Then it came time to one of our newer traditions that the kids love...making gingerbread houses. I had warned Jaime the night before that we were going to be doing these when he got home from hunting. So as soon as the boys got home the girls were ready to start on their houses. This year we let Ben and Kylee build their own houses, and Jaime and I helped Brooke build her house, well to be honest, it was mostly Jaime helping Brooke I'm not very good at crafty stuff like this. The kids had a great time and I'm always impressed with how their houses turn out. The kids are very proud of them too and I think their favorite part is eating the candy afterwards. I'm thinking next year we may have to come up with some sort of theme for them to build their houses, so if anyone has any great ideas let me know!!

Ben built some bunkbeds!

Brooke's was a tent, with a little campfire and a hidden geocache!!

Kylee's was a little house with a shed on the side.