Santa on the Beach

Last Saturday we had the special opportunity to hangout with Santa Claus for about 20 minutes on the beach...

They got a gift bag of Christmas books (from me) that was fun to look at with Santa...

Christmas Preparations...

Saturday morning, after the Pepers left, we kicked into full Christmas mode and the holiday preparations began.  First up for the boys was to hit home depot and get a few more things to decorate the house.  PJ & I had decided we wanted to do a Christmas tree made out of lights this year.  And when we were in DisneyWorld they had many examples for us to get some inspiration from.  

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And of course we pulled out our snowmen and some of the inside decorations as well.  I love how the kids set up the nativity...

Tuesday we had playgroup at the park.  The Flanders brought their shaved ice machine so the kids could build mini snowmen - so fun right?!  And the kids did love playing in "the snow" but they preferred to have snowball fights instead.

Friday night many people had their work Christmas parties so we ended up watching the Mathews and the Youngs (who also stayed to spend the night).  It was one big party :)  And PJ really enjoyed having the older boys to play XBOX and stuff with...

Yesterday, on Sunday, we went with our Branch caroling at a Nursing home.  And then spent the evening baking cookies for the Airmen...

We tried this idea for our Christmas pictures... It obviously didn't work too well and we needed to tweak a few things.  But PJ insisted we use one anyway...