Christmas with the Kiddos, part 1

We decided not to go to Disneyland. :(  We were all very sad, but Matt and I are confident we made the right decision.

But that means we won't be able to bring Matt any Christmas stuff, so I decided we would make Matt a Christmas box.  (And we'll be sending it UPS, because if we sent it through the Post Office, he wouldn't get it until Valentine's Day.)  So to start, we made cookies. Snickerdoodles first, because they're Matt's favorite.

Then we did some crafts.

And yesterday, we took the kids to the library for storytime with Santa.  He read Twas the Night Before Christmas , then everyone sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the first verse of Silent Night.  Then everyone got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas.  Elizabeth was first in line, and promptly told Santa she wants a bike for Christmas.  I told her that Santa is smart and knows we're soon moving to a place where she won't be able to use her bike for a while anyway, and might send it to her later... I'll be including a note in her stocking from Santa explaining, and then when we finally can get her a  bike, I'll attach a note saying something like, "Sorry it's late. Hope you like it. Love, Santa"  Yes, that should work.

Kael was next, saying he wants a toy airplane that flies by remote control.  Can I just say this statement blindsided me! He'd never mentioned anything like that before! Well, drat.  Hope he likes what he gets anyway, and doesn't focus too much on what he didn't get.

Tristan wanted nothing to do with Santa, to start. I merely suggested he go sit with Santa and he had a meltdown! That's that first pic of him, then the second is when I wasn't fast enough to catch his screaming face, he saw the camera, smiled and said, "Happy?"  Then after everyone else was done, someone had pulled up a chair so a mom could sit with her child next to Santa, so I decided to try that, and had another mom there take the pictures for me.  He was about to protest as we sat down, and then he saw the camera... what a ham.

Now I'll wrap a couple of the presents we got for Matt, and put them in a box with the cookies and crafts.  Then when we get to Rexburg, we'll have another Christmas all together.

By the way, for those of you readers who don't know, we did finally find a place in Rexburg to live! We're 2 blocks away from where we were before, and in a completely different stake, much less ward. Oh well, it's still a good central location, and we'll be near friends all around. Thank you, everyone, for all the good thoughts in that direction.