Getting Ready for Christmas!

Jacie and Rylie were so excited to get ready for Christmas this year! Jacie kept bugging us to get things ready pretty early this year. When she saw some lights starting to go up on houses around us, she replied "Everyone is getting ready for Christmas except us." So, the Monday after Thanksgiving we decided it would be the perfect family home evening activity and we had a fun time getting all the decorations up, but most especially the Christmas tree. Jacie makes sure that we turn the lights on as soon as it starts to get dark and every morning when she gets up, it's the fist thing she asks about. It really has been fun decorating and anticipating Christmas this year!

The kids also went to see Santa Claus at our local library. It was the first year we have seen Santa Claus without tears, Jacie has been petrified and unsure of him since the first year until now. She assured me before we went that she now likes Santa Claus and wanted to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

And lucky for us, I mean, him, she wrote her own list this year...a little late since I do Christmas shopping early every year and I had already bought all the presents and not a single one was on her list. Santa had to make a few last minute changes. Next year, the rule is the list must by made by October!!!

We also went to see the lights at Temple Square. It wasn't quite as cold as last year, but still it was pretty chilly and we ended up only staying for about 30 minutes. Jacie seemed uninterested and kept wanting to leave, but Rylie really wanted to see baby Jesus. So, we went to look at the nativity and listen to the story and we also went up to see the statue of the Christus inside. She was so worried about baby Jesus and why he was outside. She kept saying that she wanted to take him home. Cute girl!!!

Christmas Eve

We have a family tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve (my Dad started this tradition with my family and I thought it was fun so I wanted to continue it with my own family). We've just done pjs in the past, but I thought they should also get something fun from us so we at least get one day to be the ones giving them the excitement of Christmas before the big guy steps in on Christmas and gets all the credit. So, they each got a Barbie princess doll with their pjs...I think this picture shows their excitement pretty well!!

Then, it was on to party with the Phillipps' side of the family. We had some dinner and then, the kids got to decorate gingerbread cookies to leave for Santa and the adults got to play games and talk while the kids played. Then, it was the reading of the Christmas story and singing Christmas songs to go along with the narration while the kiddos "acted" out the story of Jesus' birth. Jacie didn't want to participate because she wanted to be Mary and Lydia already had been given that role, so she sat this one out. Rylie, however, wanted to be in it and wanted to be by baby Jesus so she was a wiseman bringing a gift to the baby Jesus. It was cute to see just how carefully she was holding her "gift" to Jesus. It was just some material rolled up and when it would start to unravel, she would insist that we fix it for her.