Getting Ready for Christmas

December always keeps us busy. But I try to make is memorable for the kids, too. This year I was asked to run the class Christmas party for Augie's kindergarten class. The teacher knew someone who had a real beard and often came as Santa (he was actually the husband of another teacher) so we had Santa visit the Kindergarten. Then they got their picture taken. They wrote a little list of things they wanted for Christmas and decorated a "cookie" they cut out of foam. It all went together on a scrapbook page for their class memory book.

We have had a lot of fun in the past week getting ready for Christmas. We started with our ward Christmas party, where the primary children sang a couple of songs for the guests. I have been blessed with children who can sing well. They are very good and cooperative, too. Here is a picture of Sam and Abby with the group--unfortunately Augie was sick that night, running a fever, so he had to stay home with Dad.

This is essentially our whole primary group-- pretty small, but sweet kids!

 Another fun thing we did was visit Leo's Place, a favorite restaurant that serves pizza and burgers and has a playground for the kids. Augie had a birthday coupon that gave him a free kids meal and playland pass. So he got free food, and we got a pizza for the kids. At the end of the night Santa visited and all the kids got their names in a drawing for prizes--TONS of prizes! Since you had to be present to win, two of our children were lucky enough to have their names drawn! Sam won a football player action figure, and Abby this adorable circus-themed tea set.

 Augie got a consolation prize-- a cute rubber ducky "dressed" as a penguin. And with his free food and play time, he felt like he'd gotten a special treat. The only bummer was Jim is too old to be considered a "child." At 13, he's too old for the drawing and the playland. :( But he had a bunch of tokens for the arcade and that kept him happy.

We love Leo's Place. We know the owner personally and he said his wife has a ball planning this special Christmas giveaway night each year. We certainly enjoyed our evening there.

 This week has been crunch time for finishing Christmas projects. I have been working on this quilt for Augie since July. We borrowed a quilt frame from my sweet old neighbor Gay Solomon (we lived next door when we lived on J Street). So I got the quilt on the frame and Abby helped me tie it. The quilt has a lot of Augie's favorite cartoon and superhero characters--Scooby Doo, Cars, Pokemon, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Spider-man, and more. After sewing the yarn ties on I bound the edges, and Augie will have a new quilt for Christmas. I also spent all day yesterday sewing Christmas pajamas.

 A new tradition we did this year was to read aloud a Christmas story each night to the children. We wrapped up each book and opened it each night (like an advent calendar). I got this idea from a lady in our ward, Ruth Arnell. This is a picture of Daddy reading a Disney Christmas Parade book to the kids. As you see, they really were into this story!

Sam,  Jim and I also were reading books that night-- a nice way to pass a cold winter evening.

Now it's just two days until Christmas, and we are so excited! We hope you all have a Merry Christmas, too!