The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Brandon and I love baking and making fun Christmas treats! John is very happy that we enjoy baking so much because he loves to eat the mistakes! ;) This year we made some "krispy trees" for the Cub Scouts.

For Brandon's class we made Rudolph cookies. :)

The other morning it sure felt like Christmas! It almost looked like there was snow on our roof!

Brandon's teacher always has such creative ideas. For the class Christmas party she had them all "sew" big stockings. Then everyone brought in 30 little prizes (one for each child in the class) so they could help fill each others stockings.

After the party, the second graders put on a special Christmas program called

"Elfis and the Sleigh Riders." John and I sat in the front row. :)

Brandon is in the top row, second in from the right.

John's first school event as a dad. :) It is just awesome having him in our lives.

The next day was Brandon's first day of Christmas vacation! Yahoo! We sent a letter to Santa asking him if he could come early to our house. We told him that we would not be home on Christmas day, that we would be in Southern California visiting our family. He got the message and so we prepared for his arrival by making muffins.

A plate for the reindeer. Brandon arranged it all by himself. :) A tiny carrot for each reindeer (except Rudolph gets two!) and a big crunch bar (plus a couple veggies on top) for Comet.

Muffins and broccoli for Santa. Brandon really thought that we should give

Santa some broccoli for "health" as he put it. ;)

My boys just snuggling.

Our Christmas morning! Santa came and brought Brandon some great stuff! He was one happy boy. He loved the shark hat and slippers most! He just had to wear them over to his buddies house later that day.

Edible snowflakes?!

Our first Christmas as a family!

We had a great little Christmas together.

We can't wait to see our families and celebrate all over again!

Lake Tahoe!

A wonderful friend in our ward was kind enough to offer us her timeshare in South Lake Tahoe for the weekend! We were so excited to go since John and Brandon had never been, and I had only been there once before, years and years ago.

After getting settled in, we decided to go explore! We discovered some great stores and an amazing art gallery. While we were shopping we found him...Santa! Right inside a beautiful holiday store!

After he visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus, Santa told Brandon to pick a toy from his big red sack. He said he could dump them all out, or stick his head right in! Brandon did both! He decided on a cute stuffed tiger.




The crisp air and twinkling lights made it such a festive place to be. We watched ice skaters perform and we danced around to the Christmas music playing.

That night back at the condo, we went in the spa, had hot cocoa and watched a movie snuggled up as a family. The next day we enjoyed more sightseeing.


Brandon thought that going across the stateline over and over and over again, was really cool! He kept jumping back and fourth between California and Nevada. ;)

Brandon had the BEST time sledding!! He kept going up higher and higher on the slope until I said he could not go up any farther! I didn't want any injuries!













We had such a memorable trip. We are very lucky to have such a sweet friend who made this trip possible! We are hooked on Tahoe and can't wait to go again!

Christmas fun in our town :)

Our little town is pretty neat. As we continue to get adjusted and learn about our new area, we find neat things to do and see. The downtown "snow day" was an exciting event! Of course Santa and Rudolph were there!



Waiting for the Mayor to light the "Tree of Spirit."


There were all sorts of crafts to do. Brandon had a wonderful time decorating this ice cream cone Christmas tree! We saw his friend Anya there! She made one too!


Brandon even got to go sledding!



We enjoyed a live Nativity and more fun Christmas activities at a nearby church.

Here is Brandon making unleavened bread.


Brandon and Anya. Too cute! :)

We really do have a neat little town, with lots of amazing people. What a wonderful time of the year to enjoy and celebrate!