Christmastime is Here

Aside from all the birthday fun, we had some fun Christmas-y things going on in December, too.  

First off...SNOW!  It snowed over Thanksgiving and I don't think it has melted since.  We've had a ton of snow, compared to last year.  Eli has actually enjoyed playing in it a lot more.  

Eli and Nate playing one night:

We had our ward's Christmas breakfast at the beginning of the month.  Our primary chorister had these awesome costumes and asked some of the older kids in Primary to dress up like elves and help with Santa.  Elizabeth agreed to do it.  When it came time to actually do it she was embarrassed and was so funny in the beginning trying to hide behind the curtains.   Then she loosened up, though, and did a great job talking to the little kids and helping them not be nervous to sit on Santa's lap.  It helped to have these fun friends to do it with:

Here she is talking to Eli, who was very nervous:

He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap this time, but he did talk to him.

The only one I got pictures of was Natalie:

Probably asking for a puppy again. :)

Gingerbread houses!

I caved and bought a kit this year, which was easier on me but not necessarily easier to assemble.

Th girls did pretty well with it.

There were some cute moments with the boys that I wanted to remember.

Eli cut out a piece of paper and then held it up and said, "Idaho!"

Nate had to have a picture of him, too.  He wanted me take one of his balloon.

I love these cute boys:

Nate brings home all these adorable pictures from kindergarten.  I love his drawings:

I loved this one, too:

Natalie drew some awesome pictures in church one day:

We started a Christmas countdown thing in an effort to read our scriptures more.  Sadly, we only did about 4 days worth of it.  One day we were supposed to write a list of our blessings.  I loved the kids' lists:

(I love that Nate's says "moreeo" or "Mario")

Sadly, I completely botched the Christmas cards this year.  I got both of the girls' ages wrong!  Then, when Elizabeth pointed it out, I was still insisting that she was only 9.  Whoops.  

We used this picture that my dad took while we were in CA:

Right before school got out Nate had his kindergarten Christmas concert.  I took the day off, and Joe was able to get away too, and we went to watch.  Kindergarten concerts are the best!  You couldn't help but smile through the whole thing.  The kids had individual lines to say and they sang a bunch of songs.  Nate did his perfectly and was singing so well.  I especially loved the little things they had them wear:

So cute.  We got a lot of great video of that.

Then, it was finally time for school to get out, not only for the kids but for me too!

We got this picture of the math department (minus one teacher) on the last day:

That's actually in my room.  You can see my students' geometry art projects behind us.

They are great people.  I really like our department.  The four of us in front are all new.

We left only a few hours after that for UT.

More on that next time...