SHOOTING THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE, polar bear swim, CHRISTMAS EVE FUN!

Every year at Christmas, rather than throwing away the rock hard shell of our gingerbread house, we take it out in the boonies for target practice.  This year was no different.  EVERYONE looks forward to it.  The Carroll's, and my dad joined us this year...

We started out shooting the houses from way back where I took this picture.  After awhile we decided to walk over and survey the damage...

We stayed a little closer now - we say it was for Jace ;)

Then Sarah and I went to town on those houses.

We changed it up to something a little more powerful - and there was basically nothing left of those houses when we were through...

Here we were going after clay pigeons situated in the trees and bushes...

Then we moved onto the shotgun and shooting clay pigeons out of the sky...

Once again Bryan tried to throw crazy stuff he thought I couldn't hit...but I did!

When we got back home, the kids quickly changed for the Polar Bear Swim!  It was 47 degrees in that pool...

I only took the one picture.  I was shooting video instead.

That night we started with a beautiful dinner.  My mom set a gorgeous table, and my dad made his famous Clam Chowder.  It is the best I've ever tasted!

After dinner we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", "The Polar Express", a special Christmas story that Sarah read to us, and then Mark read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.

After that it was time for our traditional Christmas Eve presents - a new pair of jammies and a book!

After that, we met up with some friends in our ward to join in their special Christmas Eve tradition...biking around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.  We all had our bikes decked out with blinking strands of Christmas lights.  We were quite the sight to see!  The kids got to choose their 3 favorite houses (as far as decorations).  They knocked on the door of the people they chose and awarded them with a loaf of yummy bread, explaining that they had chosen their house as one of the best decorated in the neighborhood.  Such a cute idea!  I hope we do it again next year!!

After biking we came home, changed into jammies, and sprinkled "reindeer food" on the front lawn so Santa's reindeer would be guided to our house and have something to snack on while Santa was inside our house.

Then it was off to bed so sugar plums could dance in their heads!

sLeEpiNg UnDeR tHe ChRiStMaS tReE

I asked the kids two days before Christmas if they would like to sleep by our Christmas tree.  They all JUMPED at the chance!  I snapped this the next morning before they woke up...

Bryan is tucked back between the recliner and the wall.  I remember sleeping by the tree when I was growing up.  It was always so magical! Nothing like being a kid at Christmas!

Grandma's Special SANTA COOKIES

When I was growing up, my siblings and I took piano lessons from Sister Andersen.  She was an amazingly talented pianist and teacher.  Every Christmas she would hand out these very cute Santa sugar cookies that were so sweetly decorated.  We LOVED them and looked forward to them every year.  As many times as my mom asked, she would not share the recipe or where to get the special cookie cutter with my mom.

Last year my mom surprised my siblings and I with the special cookie cutter and the recipe as a Christmas gift.  She had also made up a whole bunch of the cookies to share.  She was so excited and so were we!!

This year she invited our family over to decorate the cookies with her and my dad.  She explained how to paint the hat, cheeks, and lips with the red food coloring.  Then you frost the hat and beard and sprinkle them with coconut.  Next you add little mini chocolate chips for the eyes & done!

Here is my mom explaining how to decorate the cookies...

Fun AND yummy - the perfect combination!!

Colton's bAnD cOnCeRt

Colton was at a different school last year and decided to play the flute with the band there.  He learned the flute and is actually very talented at it!  This year, when we started at a new school, we discovered that kids couldn't start playing an instrument until 6th grade (as opposed to 5th at our old school).  This meant that if Colton kept on going with the flute, he would be bored out of his mind all year because they would be learning the stuff he just finished learning the year before.  The solution?  He asked me if he could learn the trumpet!  I was all for it, and he has excelled at that just as much as he did the flute.  I'm telling you - TALENTED KID!  I have to say he's quite the pianist, too - but that's another subject.

This was his Christmas band concert.  They played multiple songs, and actually sounded really great!  I really like his teacher, but more importantly, Colton does too.

our elf ALFORD

We adopted the new tradition of Elf On The Shelf this year.  Kyle named him Alford, and he reappeared each morning in a different hiding spot around the house.  Colton and Kyle raced around every morning searching for him.  Sometimes it took them all day, but most of the time they were awesome finders!

The idea is that Alford flys back to the North Pole every night to tell Santa whether the kids are being naughty or nice.  Then he flys back before morning to hide in a new spot.  If any of the kids touch him, he loses his magic and can't fly back to Santa.  Our kids were very good about not touching him.

This was one of my favorite spots we found him...kneeling in front of Jesus' manger by the light of our Christmas tree.