Well over the last couple of weeks our family has been getting into the Christmas spirit. We got our tree and the kids had fun decorating it. Ella (our Elf on the Shelf) has been back and forth between the North pole and our house. A couple of times a week we load up the kids in the car and drive around Northwood looking at Christmas lights. There's one tree that is just awesome, and Caleb always asks to go by it.
Then on Saturday Aubrey, Caleb, and I went to Grandma Teresa's to bake cookies with Grandma Teresa, Aunt Jessie, Jaxon, and Makayla. The kids had fun and actually helped for most of the time. Grandma Teresa even let them crack the eggs! We made snickerdoodles and sugar cookies. They are delicious, I just hope we haven't eaten them all before Christmas gets here :)
Sunday Caleb participated in the Christmas program at church. He sang along with his preschool class three different songs: Away in a Manger, Three Wise Men, and Baby Jesus Born in a Stable. He loves to sing, but he struggled a bit with stage fright. For the last song of Go Tell it on the Mountain Caleb was supposed to go up and sing with all of the Sunday school kids, but he refused and sat in the pew with his teachers. He was very excited to have Grandma Marjean, Grandpa Dennis, Grandma Linda, and Grandma Teresa in the audience. And when Grandma Marjean, Grandpa Dennis, and Grandma Linda came to our house after church he gave us an encore :) We enjoyed some Papa Murphy's pizza together, and then the grandparents headed home.
After naps, Caleb and I made sugar cookie dough and then rolled out cookies, cut them out, and baked them. Caleb especially enjoyed choosing which cookie cutters to use. We stuck them in the freezer when we were done and will try frosting them next weekend :)
We hope to make it up to visit Santa this weekend too...and if all goes well we might even get Caleb to sit on Santa's lap. When prompted Caleb tells us very consistently that he wants a guitar, a gun, and a movie with blue people with white hats (The Smurfs...we think). So hopefully he's feeling courageous this Saturday when Santa is in Northwood!
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| Hanging ornaments on the tree... |
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| The tree hadn't quite settled down since it had been wrapped at Home Depot. |
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| Aubrey even got a couple of ornaments on the tree. |
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| Happy guy :) |
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| We caught our elf Ella catching up on her reading... |
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| The tree...it really is amazing. |
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| Playing before baking. |
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| Getting the butter out. |
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| Watching the sugar and butter mix together for the snickerdoodles. |
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| Waiting for their turns... |
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| Time to add more to the mixer. |
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| Making the snickerdoodle balls. |
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| Happy to help :) |
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| Break for singing! |
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| Caleb kept trying to read Aubrey the Rudolph the Reindeer "I Spy" book. |
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| He eventually gave up and had daddy read to him. |
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| Aubrey was a bit ornery that day...just look at this face :) |
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| Mixing up cookies with mom now. |
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| Stirring the floor and baking soda together. |
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| Adding the flour mixture to the mixer. |
Sorry...no pictures of the rolling out of the cookie dough and the cookie cutting... it got a bit messy :)
