...before Christmas

The first of November I made the decision to get all my Christmas shopping done before December. I'll admit it was a crazy November but I did it and by December 1st I had all my presents wrapped, neighbor gifts ready, decorations and Christmas Tree up! You're probably wondering, why the hurry?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I constantly stress about how fast life is going. I feel like just yesterday it was Christmas (oh wait, it really was LOL). But you know what I mean, life is going soooo fast, my kids are growing up way too fast and I feel like I hardly have time to breath and take it all in. I decided and was determined that I would not let this happen this year, I was going to do everything I could to help my family and I feel the magic of Christmas the entire month of December not just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

I ended up putting together a calendar for my kids which I filled everyday with a Christmas activity. (My parents did this for my sisters and I when we were young) They were simple things like... seeing the lights, buying a Christmas ornament, decorating cookies, visiting Santa, watching a Christmas movie etc.. Everyday when Jake woke up he would run down stairs and see what we were going to do that day. It was sooo much fun!

The best part is... I feel like I really accomplished what I set out to do. I definitely will make this a goal every year. I loved worrying about something fun to do with my kids rather than worrying about what to buy for my kids. The entire month of December was so fun, so amazing, so not stressful and honestly it was magic!!

As you can tell from the pictures below, we did a lot of fun things and of course I took a lot of pictures doing those fun things. Here are just a few of the highlights of the month. I apologize that some of the pictures are so small, I figured this was the best way to show a lot of pictures without making my post the longest post in the world.

Enjoy!!

My Mom planned a trip to see the lights at Temple Square, at the last minute we decided to leave the kids at home (Jake & Coco had a fun night with their Grandma & Grandpa). It was fun hanging out with just the adults without having the crazy kids around. Definitely need to do this more often.



Here we are at the Woolf's annual Christmas Caroling Party. The kids got really into it this year, Jake and Logan loved greeting the people at the door & wishing them a Merry Christmas, Courtney loved watching everyone sing and would join in on Jingle Bells and Lydia sat in her stroller swaying and waving.


Some people laugh when they hear we Carol every year but to all of you non Carolers, you can't mock it until you have done it. There is just something special about singing Christmas songs at night in the cold to the elderly! And the funny thing is, this is coming from me who is a non singer.

Of course Christmas isn't complete without seeing the lights in Ogden. Sooo cold but still fun!

My sisters took my kids to Weber State to see Santa's reindeer. The picture of the kids with Santa was at the Ogden Festival of Trees (Jake is very proud that he saw Santa 4 times this year and swears that one of them was the REAL Santa). The pictures of Jake and Coco by the Christmas tree is the night that Laura & Lydia slept over.

We had a Christmas family home evening where the kids reenacted the Christmas Nativity. The other pictures are us at the lights at Willard. It was our first year seeing these lights and they too were amazing lights. Definitely a new tradition.

So again, these are just a few highlights. I would share more but I don't want to bore you to death if I haven't all ready :)

Merry Christmas!!!