December In A "Clamshell"

WHEW!!! What a busy month. I had to work 5 nights a week, 12 hour shifts including drive time; J worked 6 days a week, hours all over the place. But even through the hussle we were able to still make some enjoyable memories with the kiddos.
We started the season by riding the Polar Express!!! With thanks to Monica for getting all of us free tickets from her work. We were able to go with Monica, Greg, Greg's kids, Aiyden and Keahgann, and Greg's parents. We got to ride the train, enjoy cookies and hot cocoa, sing carols, and finally meet Santa and Ms. Clause! We ended the night by eating dinner at Red Robin. We all had such a fun time spending time with eachother :)

Me, Monica, and PBC

Greg's Dad, Keahgann, Ry, and Rhett



The kiddos with Santa

Rhett and Ry

Ry and Keahgann


So this year we were able to buy a real tree from J at Harmons for the upstairs and use our artificial tree (the kids' tree) for downstairs. And even though it took us till mid-Dec, we were able to trim the tree....FINALLY!!!




Then it was a night for decorating the gingerbread house. Unfortunately I couldn't be there for it, but the kiddos had fun doing it with J and Sharon's help. It turned out great but the candy didn't quite make it to Christmas.





And keeping with tradition, we spent Christmas Eve eating pizza and making cookies for Santa at Dawn's house. It was super fun chillin with them, though I think the kids ate more than what stayed on the cookies. Then it was off to our house to get ready for bed and set some cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer.






More things we were able to do was our ward Christmas dinner, an Allen family treat-making night, shopping, passing out neighbor gifts, driving around to see lights, the family b-day dinner at Eastern Winds and some fun skype sessions. All in all a great holiday season!!!