Christmas Traditions ...part two

Ok pardon the Christmas posts...after Christmas. Oh well.

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is driving around looking at all of the Christmas lights. We usually do this on several outings. We love to drive around town and the town next door "judging" which ones are best. Here are a couple of our favorite..



This house had displays in their windows and all sorts of light displays. Winner! We loved it!

Our FAVORITE place to go look is at "the music house" as my kids have named it. Each year they place tons of lights and then synch it to music that we listen to on the radio. Each year seems to be better then the last. What I love most about the music house is the sheer delight in my little ones. They really think its magical. Mark cries out "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!"repeatably and is just so excited about the lights. Ben still thinks it is magical as well. He will do just about anything to go and see the music house. The older two still enjoy the house, but they spend most of their time trying to figure out how it works and patterns with the lights. It amuses me. I still think the lights are magical. I look forward to my cup of hot chocolate and watching the twinkling lights in the dark sky.


Enjoy the lights...not just my kids arguing. :-) Mark is cute, when the bell rings, he declares "Ding! Ding!!" Ahh so cute!


I have always wanted to have my house lit up at Christmas time. However, I seem to find many more things to do. I am so grateful for those who put the lights on just for me and my kids to enjoy. Thanks!!!

At the temple..a poor picture but we had a great time.

Christmas Traditions...part one

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is decorating gingerbread/graham cracker houses. The kids love any excuse to play with their food AND have it be candy they are playing with. Who wouldn't love that?!


The kids LOVE finding different ways to creatively place THE MOST candy on their "house". They they throughly enjoy eating their houses in the following days/the next day. --I am not a candy police, if they want to eat all of their candy in one day so be it. Its their tummy.--The older ones have learned this lesson and are pretty good with not eating it all in one setting.


Mark loved this tradition. After giving him his bowl of melted chocolate (aka the glue) and his cup of candy, he promptly dumped all of his candy into his bowl and declared "DONE!...Now I eat it!"


Ben had the most stress. His house tumbled over twice. Thank goodness Luke has had experience in this area of repairing the graham crackers and was able to save the day!! This insured a happy Ben at the end of the evening.



James is a skilled candy stacker. No cracker is unable to hold his placement of carefully balanced candy. If the world ends and grahm cracker houses must be built to save the world, James will be there and see it through to the end. No cracker is to small nor any amout of candy to many to accomplish his task.


Luke enjoys this creative process and is starting to venture out into the more functional, decorative realm of cracker houses. He is adding doors, different levels, and even gumdrop people.

As for me and my house? Well..I skip the graham crackers and just stick with chocolate houses.