Happy Holidays!

We love Christmastime!  This was our first time our little family stayed home for Christmas, so it was definitely a different one.  Luckily we got to see Josh's family in November, and my parents came for a few days after Christmas, and we got to skype for a bit on Christmas day.  I seriously need to do a better job of taking pictures (and having a camera with me besides my 1 megapixel phone camera).  So here's what I've got:

We went to a really big greenhouse (at a nearby park) that was all decorated with lights--not quite Temple Square, but still awesome!  It was a fun FHE activity with my cousin Alicia and her family.  I'm glad Grant got some use out of his reindeer hat :)

Keeping the tradition--sleeping under the Christmas tree on Christmas Adam (day before Christmas Eve).  The girls actually slept there almost every night while Adrienne was out of school. 

 Our Christmas Eve snowman family--we each helped build our own snowman.

Christmas day nap with dad while watching movies.

 hanging out by the tree.




We went on a journey to the North Pole--which was a boat ride in Coeur d 'Alene, although the kids are certain it was the real North Pole.  I got a great deal on Groupon, so it was worth it!  It was freezing cold, but we had a blast!  My favorite part about it was the arrival at the North Pole--you stay on the boat and look out where all the Christmas lights are and Santa is outside and reads the nice list.  Of course, all of the kids on the boat get their names read.  Adrienne and Jacqui were beaming when he read their names.  They also noticed Josh's name, but not mine.  Apparently there were no children named Melissa on the boat.  Josh and I had to hold in our laughs as Santa tried to pronounce all the kid's names on the nice list--they were so ridiculous!  I wish I would have written some of them down--it's amazing how many crazy names there are nowadays.  Poor Santa, he was struggling and I could tell he was holding back plenty of laughs himself!  Adrienne was so excited to tell her friends at school about it, and apparently the next day she announced it to the class and told all the kids that had their names read that they were on the nice list!  Then all the other kid's were really concerned if they were on it too.  Anyway, her teacher told me how sweet it all was and that she assured the others that when she went, she would listen for the rest of their names.

waiting for the boat ride

on the boat

more fun in the snow

more fun eating snow

not having fun in the snow--we tried to get him to make a baby snow angel...

nutracker party--we dressed up and had yummy treats, made a craft, and attempted to watch the nutcracker at a friends house.  needless to say, we were the first to leave--but we did have fun!

reading with grandpa in their new Christmas jammies

Some of our other events included:
-- a fun Christmas party at my cousin Nicole's house with her family (I brought fondue--because you HAVE to have fondue at Christmastime)
-- a candlelight dinner on Christmas Eve (basically we had Thanksgiving food all over again because it's just so good)
--singing Christmas songs by the fireplace, complete with toy instruments
--ward Christmas party, journey to Bethlehem (really amazing night with the whole focus on the Savior's birth)

Wow.  that was a lot jammed into 1 month.  now if i can just survive these next few months of dark, dreary winter...yep. it's dark by 4pm. :)