Christmastime was here

This is a lengthy post with a lot of photos. So brace yourselves. Hands up! I hear it's more fun that way.

We took family photos. This is one of my favorites.

We went to the tree lighting at Foothills Mall. It was cold and windy! We watched a little show, watched the tree lighting and some ice skaters, and then went inside to see Santa Claus. We went last year too, and it was better the first time. There wasn't any fun activities for the kids like coloring and cookies, and no reindeer this year. The main point was to see Santa though, so that was good.

Dallin was cute with Santa when he was alone...

but once the girls were there too he was like, "I'm outta here!" See progression below:

I found some cute Christmas crafts for the girls to paint. They did a great job! 

I also made my own craft.

Christmas is so special with little kids. Definitely adds magic that you can't know otherwise.

There was many a request for me to print them Christmas pictures to color. 

We decorated the outside of our house for the first time ever. We got two 60-inch wreaths and some greenery to put by the front door as well. We love the white lights.

Inside was all a-glow too.

This is Maya's friend from school, Aliya. They went to preschool together last year too. They're very cute together.

For the last day of school before Christmas break I styled their hair into Christmas trees.

We had church on Christmas Eve this year. It was a wonderful service with a lot of Christmas carols. The kids all had their new Christmas dressy clothes on and looked adorable.

After church on Christmas Eve we baked sugar cookies to have a treat for Santa Claus.

I also made pretzel rolls to take to Christmas Eve dinner that we were having with friends.

We got home from dinner around 7:30. Since it was so close to bedtime we had the girls each decorate one cookie to put on the plate for Santa Claus. We got the plate and Nog (a soy variety of egg nog) set out for him and then it was off to bed for the kiddos!

I sang Silent Night to Dallin before bed that night. He seemed sad that it was the last time I would sing that song for a while.

In the morning it was noise noise noise! Not really. That just came to mind.

In the morning Dallin woke up a little before 7 AM. By the time he was done nursing the girls were awake and ready to see what Santa brought. They were not disappointed!

Dallin got a bunch of new (at least to him) toys. I am sure those toys were pretty thrilled to come out of storage again. 

Both girls have a huge like for anything horse related right now. They both got a lot of horse things (especially Brianna).

The girls spent literally all day long playing with their new toys and getting along. I felt so happy that they were enjoying their new things and being friendly with each other.

Brianna has been asking for paints and paintbrushes since before her birthday. Santa brought her some in her stocking and she was quite excited!

During Dallin's afternoon nap the girls and I finished decorating the sugar cookies we had made. This was a new recipe that I tried this year called Honey Sugar Cookies. They were yummy, and my favorite part was that the cookies didn't lose their shape while they were baking so you could tell what everything was. I also put a couple tablespoons of meringue powder in the frosting to make it extra shiny (and maybe a little harder too? I don't know).

For dinner on Christmas Day we went to Himalayan Bistro with my parents. That was interesting. The food was delicious, but the restaurant was understaffed because some employees didn't show up due to it being Christmas (go figure). We were sat right away, but we waited 30 minutes to get greeted at the table, another 15 minutes to order, and 45 minutes to get our food. Thankfully we ordered the food for the kids as soon as we were greeted so it came out way before the rest did. All three kids were miraculously well behaved the entire time, so the experience ended up being a positive one. It was fun to go out to eat on Christmas!

The day after Christmas we hosted dinner for Ryan's side of the family. The main dish we served was a Rib Roast and it was delicious. I see that being a tradition for future years. 

There was one photo taken of the group at the table, but it is on Ryan's phone, so instead you get to see the pretty set up, courtesy of Ryan. He did a great job setting it up while I was busy in the kitchen.

We had a fantastic Christmas season this year and I look forward to discovering what 2018 brings for our family!