Christmas Cheer

The Spirit of Christmas has been hard to grasp this year. Whether it's been the constant struggle of whether or not to drive to Utah for Christmas, the girls getting sick again, or the extreme busyness of the season, we tried to do some favorite activities to bring some holiday cheer.

Early in the month we had our first cookie-making night. Eric is usually the one who involves the kids in all the baking, and they just love it.






Our second holiday cookie-making event included taking treats to our friends. I was very impressed with the excitement the kids had to deliver those little gifts.

In an effort to help the girls learn about giving, we each took one of them to shop for a gift for the other one, as well as choosing a gift for the parent they didn't go shopping with. The girls were great, and each of them specifically chose the gift they thought the other one would like. Here we are all ready for our day out shopping.


The morning of our first snowfall, Eric took the kids outside to play while was at a rehearsal. Mierae was SO excited to build her first ever snowman. There ended up be quite the family of snowmen in the yard as other neighbors had also come out to play.




My mom has the tradition of making gingerbread houses with the grandkids. Since we finally decided not to go to Utah for Christmas, the girls and I took an afternoon to do Grandma's activity. When Eric came home and saw what we had done, he asked if I got super stressed out in the process (since I do get that way when I'm doing projects with the kids). But this time was very relaxing and enjoyable.




Mierae keeps sneaking gifts from under the tree and opening them in a secluded spot! We tried to teach her a lesson by taking back the gift Jolie had got for her, but we did let the girls finish opening a gift Grandma Taylor had sent--new Christmas books! Another one of my favorite traditions.



Hope you have all been enjoying some Christmas cheer as well!