'Tis the Season!

Since coming home from our fun trip to Arizona, it feels like we haven't had a moment to catch our breath! It feels like all I've been doing lately is just trying to get caught up!

I decided after many months of people trying to give me clothes for our ward to go ahead a put together a clothing exchange. After a month of collecting, we finally were able to get all of the clothes out of Kassandra's house! It was a fun thing to do and I even came away with a really cute (and warm) sweater! However, we'll be doing it a few months earlier next year and not on the same day as a ward party!

Later that night was our ward Christmas party.

After a wonderful dinner and program, the kids all got to meet Santa. However, Anne wanted nothing to do with him...until she got the candy cane but even then she wouldn't smile for him. Oh well! We'll try again next year! She didn't cry, she just wouldn't look at him. It was also WAY past her bedtime so that might have had a little to do with it...very little.

One of my most favorite things to do is watch the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional. I look forward to it every year! Since we don't have satelite, cable or a digital converter box, we have to watch everything online (which I love, love, love in case you were wondering) and so Anne and I made a fun night of it.

We (meaning I) moved the love seat over by the computer so we could be cumfy while we watched. We popped pop corn and brought up the yummy cookies from Aunt Jessica and sat back to enjoy. Anne didn't sit the the whole time but for the most part (mainly during the singing) she did watch it. It really helps get me into the true meaning of Christmas! Especially after all of the holiday shopping I've done.

A new family tradition for us is to go and get a Christmas ornament for Anne as a family. We decided to go to Gardner Village since they have a fun Christmas shop there with so many ornaments to choose from! We ended up picking a darling one of a Santa kneeling next to a manger with baby Jesus. I'll post a picture of it once it is on the tree!

After our busy and long day of getting all of the "last minute" shopping done (I like to be all done by December 1st but with going out of town, that didn't happen this year) we FINALLY put up our Christmas tree.

This is Anne trying to get Daddy to help. She didn't really get into helping me until about this point as well. But, she got really good at handing me the branches I needed.Anne really is the best present anyone could ask for! We just love her and her cute little personality. The tantrums however, we could do without but we'll take them for now since it means she is still little enough to have them! (How's that for looking at the cup half full?)

This is the "final" product from the night. We don't have any ornaments on the tree yet because a dear friend of mine is going to let me borrow her tree fence that she is no longer needing to use since her kids are past the undecorating stage. Anne took so many ornaments off of Jessica's tree that I had decided we'd just do without them this year on our own tree rather than having it not decorated on the bottom 2 feet! So, we'll post a photo with us once it is all done and more exciting!

Phew! It was a busy weekend but lots of fun!