Being in the Nativity

About a month ago my dear friend(the ward activity leader) Tina called me up to see if my little Autumn would like to be Mary for the Ward Christmas Party. I told her that Autumn would love it. Then she asked if Ashlyn would like to be one of the Shepard's. Again I told her that she would be honored.
So this afternoon we had a short run through of the Nativity Story with everyone in costume and on stage. My girls were hamming it up on stage. By the end they were pretty tired and being a little on the silly side during the last practice. Autumn held baby Jesus good for about a min. or so then kept dropping him on his head. I found out after practice Ashlyn was in a wiseman costume so we had to find a shepard outfit. I hope all will go well this evening.

Making Goodies

The girls have been asking me and wanting to make sugar cookie with them. So for FHE we made the dough, rolled it out, cut-out stars, Christmas trees, and candy canes, and baked them. Of course no cookie would be complete with out frosting and sprinkles. To the girls decorated their cookies amd then ate their creations leaving a few for some friends. The girls had a great time baking. They love to cook and help make things in the kitchen. We had so much fun together.

Holiday in the Park

Yesterday evening we took some good friends of ours to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for the Holiday in the Park. They have three kids the same ages as our girls so it worked out great for all of us. We invited our neighbors little boy Jeremiah, who has his own pass, to join us on our adventure.The rides were all open and the park was all decorated for Christmas. Each area is decorated in a theme like Toy Land, Christmas Tree Forest, and Candy Cane Lane. They have shows, a parade, and a snow area. We watched a Toy Box Christmas, caught the end of the parade, and played in the snow. It was a little chilly, but we had a marvelous time.

Posada

At Ashlyn's school they had a Posada. It is a time for you to walk from class to class and play games, walk the cake walk, take pictures with Santa, do crafts, eat food, and hit the pinata for some yummy candy. Sadly I forgot my camera so there will be no pictures of this memorable night.
The 1st activity we did was watch Autumn and Ashlyn hit the pinata for their age group. Autumn whacked that pinata really good. Several kids later it was busted and ready for them grab and bag the candy. Ashlyn had several kids go before her and when she stepped up to hit the pinata it was hanging by a thread. Ashlyn took one swing and the pinata came crashing to the ground. You should have seen the look on her face when it happened it was... priceless.We then went to do some other activities and visit with friends. The best part of the night was the cake walk. We were the last group to do the cake walk before closing. They just started calling everyone up to get a plate of goodies. They loaded each of my girls up with three plate fulls.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The girls were really excited to decorate the Christmas tree. We had to teach them not to put all the ornaments at the bottom and in one place. Once they got the hang of it they did a great job and had tons of fun. We have been letting the youngest child put the Angel Moroni on the top of the tree, but Autumn wanted to do that and Aubrey didn't care. Autumn did a great job at putting the Angel on the tree. She was really excited about doing that.

Babysitting and Santa

Every year our ward YM/YW have a babysitting night for the parents to go do some Christmas shopping for a couple of hours. Noah has had to help every year so I get to shop solo. I was able to go to three different stores and get a big chunk of the Christmas shopping done. Meanwhile the girls and Noah played reindeer games, frosted cupcakes and ate them, drank hot chocolate, made Christmas cards, took pictures with Santa, and watched Santa Clause is Coming to Town. They had a great time and didn't want to go home at the end of the night.

The Perfect Christmas Tree

This evening we set out to find the perfect Christmas tree at Smith Family Farm. The girls ran to the first tree they saw to claim it. We let the girls know that we needed to look at all the trees available so that we could make a better decision on what to buy. We walked around and back and forth from tree to tree . And then we saw it...the perfect tree. After some pictures in front of our tree we walked around the farm to see all the fun decorations they had up. Then we paid for our tree and they loaded it up in the truck. We didn't have time to decorate it tonight, but at least now we have one.