It's Almost Here!

Isn't Christmas time so much fun? Family, friends, giving, worshiping and the whole magic of the season - I love, love, love it! The hectic shopping, materialism and snow, uh, suck, but I've found that I can avoid them for the most part (the first two anyway).

In the past week, we've baked, decorated, visited Santa, had a Christmas gathering with friends and baked some more. So much fun! Having kids just makes it all that much better.

I've never been a "see-Santa-at-the-mall" kind of person. I actually kind of hate the mall in general and avoid it like the plague during the holidays. Taylor really wanted to go this year, so we headed out last Sunday morning.

It was as nuts as I imagined. The kids were good, but we had nearly TWO HOURS to kill before we got to see the big guy (1:15 on the wait list and 45 minutes in line). When we finally made it to the front of the line, their reactions were priceless. They loved him and I was sucked into buying the $15 photo.


In front of the tree before we left.


We've done a little baking the last few days, too. First it was sugar cookies, which was easy for everyone to participate.



Taylor's pink Christmas castle.

Some of our creations. Look at all of the icing and sprinkles on some of them! I just let the kids decorate them however they wanted.

We also made cake pops! Sugar cookie preparation is kid friendly...cake pops, not so much! Taylor wanted so badly to help, but it's a long, pretty precise process that even I flub quite a bit. The results are so cute, though!


It's okay if I can't help, Mom. I can still eat them, right?


On Wednesday night, we met up with our friends/former neighbors for the kids' gift exchange. I miss our neighbors and the kids had so much playing.

Next year, Ben's little sister (due in February) will join in on the fun!

Ben!

The kiddos...

...And their parents!

Just looked at the clock and it's officially Christmas Eve! Have a wonderful, safe and blessed Christmas!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel