It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.. everywhere you go. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells. Jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. And my favorite.. Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices! Oh, night divine, oh, night when Christ was born! Oh, night divine, oh, night, oh, night divine! 

Yeah..It's Christmas time..LOVE this time of year. I love everything to do with Christmas and teaching my children the TRUE meaning and not just about Santa and toys. I love Christmas music, Christmas gatherings, Christmas cookies, Christmas movies (my favorite is It's a Wonderful Life), and it is a great time to reflect all that we are thankful for, and to give thanks and celebrate the birth of our savior.

We started a new Christmas tradition this year (yes I jumped on the bandwagon) of our very own Elf on the Shelf. His dame is Herald, Katherine named him after Hark the Herald Angels sing. It has been so fun to watch them wake up in the morning and their excitement to find where Herald is and if he did something naughty at night. I barely have to wake Katherine up for school anymore.. she comes running down the stairs.

We are looking forward to another family tradition we started last year, baking Christmas cookies and taking them up to Texas Children's Hospital. There are a lot of families who are spending the holiday away from home and it's the least we can do to spread some Christmas cheer to them. Who knows, one day we might have to spend the holidays in a hospital, so we count our blessings while we can and spread cheer and hope to others. One lady last year teared up when I told her that we had Christmas cookies for her, she was waiting for her daughter to get out of open heart surgery.

This weekend was packed with celebrations. Our friends form Fort Worth came down Friday and we had people over, the kids loved playing with all their friends and the adults had fun.. maybe too much fun as it didn't end until 1:30am :) The next day we went to take pictures with Santa. That night the kids went and spent the night at Matt' s parents while we went to my company's annual Christmas party. We had lots of fun AND I won a $250 spa gift card.. YEAH I NEED THAT!!!

Pictures with Santa.. yes they have for the most part been good this year :)

The "official" Santa picture (well a picture of a picture)

We had our friends from Fort Worth in town, so here are all the kids with Santa. Keira, Katherine, Colin, and Liam.

Decorating the tree

Our elf Herald has been lots of fun, sometimes he's naughty like making a "snow angel" out of marshmallows, sharing some chips with the snowman while making a mess, or just hanging round the house

The house all decked out with Christmas lights

Me on the way to my company's annual Christmas party

All the kids Friday night.. except Kannon wouldn't get in the picture, he was too busy playing!