Christmas Lights at Salem Pond

 During our Christmas break we decided to take a ride as see all the Christmas lights. Our first stop was the city park in Spanish Fork.

 

Next stop was at Salem Pond. Talan wanted to get an up close look at the Nativity. 

 It is so pretty to see the lights reflecting off of the pond.

We love to ride around as see the lights, but I was kind of disappointed that we didn't have any snow. I  love when the lights shine through the snow.

 Even though it was so cold outside we couldn't go to Salem pond and not walk over the bridge. The ducks were so excited when we got out of the car.  I am sure that they thought we had brought them dinner. Lincoln was more excited to see the ducks than to see the lights.

 As we drove home Talan and I were judging people's Christmas Lights on a scale from 1-10. I asked him what he would score Salem Pond and he said it was 100!

It was such a fun evening. I love spending time with the boys.

Busy time of year.

This year our elf Mrs Peeps has been getting into a lot of trouble. One morning we woke up and she had Toliet Papered our Christmas tree and family room.

Another night she found a marker and drew mustaches on our photos.

One of Talan's favorite activites durning Christmas is to get out the Nativity Set. We usally watch the Nativity movie and then talk about each peoples as we place them.

 

 

This year we decided to watch the "Real Grinch" as Talan calls it. In the years past he has only wanted to watch the cartoon one because the on with Jim Carey was to scary. But this year he was brave and watched the whole movie and liked it.

Jason and Linx made it through about half of it.

One morning we woke up to Mrs Peeps making a pie. So we decided that it was the perfect day to spend in the kitchen so we started on some cooking projects we wanted to do before Christmas.

 

Our neighbors made us some awesome hot chocolate stiring spoons so we decided to make some more for our Hot Chocolate bar that we do on Christmas Eve.

 

We warmed up the chocolate and poured it into the spoons. I only had blue spoons, not Christmas colors but you couldn't pay me enough to run to Walmart today to get some more festive ones.

 

Then we added crushed peppermint and sprinkles to make them pretty. It is so fun to stir your hot chocolate with these chocolate covered spoons and yummy to.

We couldn't forget about Santa reindeer so we made some reindeer food for them.

On Christmas eve night we go in the front yard and scatter the food around. That way the reindeer can have  a treat while they are waiting for Santa to drop off the gifts.

 

Our finished products.

Christmas Time

Talan making some candy-canes and reindeer for his tree.



He has been so busy making decorations for his tree next year we will have to get him a bigger one/

Saturday we decided to venture out to the Festival of Trees. It was fun to see the trees but way too many people for my taste.

The boys loved this cars tree.

The festival had a gingerbread town. Someone had even made the White House out of gingerbread. 

Jason is trying to talk me into doing this tree next year.

Go Raiders. I am laughing thinking that Jason almost had me talked into naming Talan, Raider instead.

I loved the colors on this tree. I wish I could just come up every year and take home an already decorated tree. One less stress for the holiday season.

On night we decided to just spend a relaxing night watching the Polor Express and enjoying popcorn and Hot Chocolate.

The Polor Express was so cute. I can't believe we had never watched it before.

 

Linx was busy playing football.

He would throw the ball behind the tree and giggle while he crawled under it to retrieve it.

Linx pretending to be a puppy.

 

On Sunday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's to make a Christmas Count-down with Brayden.

The boys had a fun time decorating the signs with stickers.

Everyday they will get to take off one Hershey Kiss.

Cutting off the first Kiss.

December is always a busy month around our house. We try and squeeze as much out of the season as we can. We have been busing making crafts for our tress, visiting the Festival of Trees and making a count down. Now when Talan wakes up he wants to know what today's activity is. Such a fun season, I hate to think that January is just around the corner. Can you say Blah and boring. 

Its Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

We have had fun week getting every thing ready for Christmas. Both of the boys have been decorating the trees in their rooms

 Lincoln had been really good about leaving the decoration alone.

One night while Jason was at school, Talan and I decided to make some more decorations for his tree. So while we were painting, Lincoln was having fun playing with the bubbles in the sink.

Linx will stay entertained for a long time just filling his spoon with bubbles then rinsing it off.

Talan working on painting his Christmas tree decorations.

Working so hard to keep the paint in the lines. It surprises me how long his attention span is. He can stay focused on a project for a long time.

After 2 straight hours of painting, Talan finished his project. His determination is a quality that I admire in him.

Talan painted these 100% by himself. Artistic ability runs in the family but it must have skipped me and went to Talan. He did an awesome job for a 5 year old.

 When the decorations were all dry and we were going to hang them on a tree, Talan told me that he painted the Christmas tree for Lincoln's tree. It makes me a proud mom to know that Talan thinks of his little brother.

This week we found Mrs Peeps in a pile on candy. She is being more mischievous this year than she has been in the past. Who know what kind of trouble she will find.