Christmas Time is here . . . and almost gone

One of the girls', especially Kirsten's, favorite Christmas activities was making Christmas art projects.  Nearly every day this month Kirsten asked if we could do an art project.  It's exciting to see her interest in creating things, coloring, and drawing.  I think she is quite talented.  Reagan enjoys doing Christmas art projects, too, but since she's younger, she doesn't seem to have quite the same attention span for doing art project after art project.  

On December 16th we went to the Springville Art Museum to attend Santa's Art Shop.  The museum had set up four crafts for kids to make, and Santa walked around saying hello to the girls and boys as they made their Christmas cards, reindeer puppets, Christmas tree scenes, and Christmas ornaments.  Santa even provided milk and cookies.  Yum!  Our girls were basically in heaven with all of the art projects. 

The Saturday before Christmas we went to the Rec Center, and Santa and Mrs. Claus just happened to be there!  The girls got their pictures taken, and then we went to Kirsten's Zumba Christmas party.  Kirsten takes a Zumba class every Saturday at the Rec Center.  The class is included in our membership, and she has so much fun.  For the Christmas party they danced to some fun Christmas songs, and they even got a treat bag with an ornament and candy.  Reagan was so sad that she couldn't dance.  The minimum age to participate is four.  It's so hard to be the younger sister.  However, the teachers were so nice and gave her a treat bag too.  With candy in her hand, she forgot all about her disappointment.

That evening Matt and I went out to celebrate our anniversary.  We've been married for 6 years now, and I'm so grateful for the years we've had together so far.  For our date, we ate at the India Palace and splurged.  I even bought a shrimp plate, which is the most expensive of all the meat options.  After that we went ice skating, which was fun.  It was nice to be able to hold Matt's hand while skating and to skate more quickly than we did the week before.  

On Christmas Eve, Matt's brother Jake drove down from Logan.  We all watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town in the afternoon.  

Then we prepared our Mary and Joseph dinner.  The idea of the Joseph and Mary dinner is to pretend like we're eating what Mary and Joseph might have eaten as they traveled to Bethlehem.  Our menu was simple:  pita bread, cheddar cheese, goat cheese, crackers, summer sausage, little hot dogs, clementines, and sparkling grape juice.  I know the meal wasn't very authentic, but it was fun to eat on the floor and talk about Jesus.  We also watched a short movie about the Nativity to set the scene.  

After dinner, we got in the car and went to Spanish Fork to look at the Festival of Lights.  The Festival of Lights is a drive through light display.  It's very pretty, and since you drive so slowly, the girls got to get out of their car seats and get a better view.  I think being out of their car seats was their favorite part of the whole experience.  Freedom!

Christmas morning was exciting.  The girls loved opening their presents, and you know, so did I!  Matt got me a Garmin fitness tracker, which is kind of like a Fitbit.  It keeps track of how many steps you take, how many calories you burn, your heart rate, your sleep, etc.  It's really neat.  Matt and I also bought season tickets to the Orem Hale Center Theater, so that we can go see lots of plays this next year.  I'm so excited.  I love plays!

In the evening, Brian, Norma, and their kids joined us for Christmas dinner, which was a much more traditional Christmas meal.  I baked a ham, and we had rolls, potatoes, fruit, and dessert.  It was yummy.  Following dessert, we had our Christmas program.  Brian and Norma sang "Silent Night" in Indonesian, I played "Gesu Bambino" on the piano, Kirsten sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," Reagan sang "Jingle Bells," Sierra played "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on the melody harp, William told us about a picture he had made from turquoise, Jake read "The Christmas Donkey," and Matt read from Luke 2 while the kids used the Nativity to act out the Christmas story.  

It was a very Merry Christmas!  Enjoy the pictures!

We made these wreaths out of paper plates and decorated them with beads.

 

Reagan with her Rudolph puppet at the Art Museum.

 

 

 

Kirsten with her Rudolph puppet.

The girls with Santa at the Rec Center.

Kirsten in her Christmas dress.

Reagan in her Christmas dress.

Mimzy sent the girls a singing Nativity, and they love it!

Pulling out gifts from her stocking.  The water colors weren't the most exciting at the moment, but now that she's done a few art projects with them, she's pretty excited about them.

Reagan loves her Cinderella magic wand from Santa.

The girls loving their Paw Patrol cups.  Thanks Beth and Marc!

Beautiful Reagan in her new Elsa dress from Nana and Grampa.

Kirsten sledding on Christmas day.

Reagan sledding on Christmas day.  She wasn't up for it.  Too tired from all the other excitement.  Poor girl!

Kirsten is Snow White, and Reagan is still Elsa.

Jake reading "The Christmas Donkey" during the Christmas program.

Brian and Norma gave Matt a big serving fork, so that we can finally stop looking for the big serving fork we never had but always think we have come Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Brian and Norma gave the girls a little squeeze toy and some pretty stickers.

Jake helped Kirsten do the Paw Patrol puzzle she got from Aunt Emily.

Pretty Snow White.

Elsa and Anna are playing with play dough!

Pretty Minnie Mouse.