The Elves at Gardener Village

 This is the last of our Christmas after Christmas posts.  Over the break we invited Palmer's best buddy from his old school to come up to visit for the day.  We met him his aunt (Palmer's old teacher and one of his favorite people ever) at Gardener Village.  I brought the kids a scavenger hunt paper to do while we check out all of the elves.

 They were all so cute.  Whomever does these cute elves is so amazing!  All the details are so fun.

 None of the boys but Cemryn and Hunter would get under this little arch.  I think that the fact there is a big ball of mistletoe above the seat.

 The peeping Tom elf :)

 Hunter brought this random McDonald's toy around with him. 

 This was my very favorite elf scene. 

 

We found all of the elves on the scavenger hunt so they got to go to the sweet shop and get a candy stick.

They were nice and gave McKay a candy stick as well and when we got home, he was a sticky MESS!  Oh well, he and the rest of the boys had a great time.

Ogden's Christmas Village

 We will continue with our Christmas after Christmas posts.  This one may be a little disconnected as I am listing to the Iowa Caucus results as I write (did you know I am a political junkie...poor Josh.  He definitely knows it...and is very patient) 

On the Tuesday after Christmas we decided to head to Ogden and check out the Christmas Village.  The last time Josh and I had been to this little Christmas village was when Josh and I were dating.  It was fun to go back and see it with our kids.

 I remember being a kid and looking into little houses like these and wishing I could live there.  By the time I would leave I would have imagined all of the things that I would have done living in this cute little house.  I have to admit, these little houses were pretty magical and there were a few that I think I wouldn't have minded living in :)

 This was a cute little "Little Red Riding Hood" scene.

 Weber State house.

 McKay was pretty snuggled into his stroller.  I think he liked looking at all of the houses, but mostly I think he was ready for bed.

 Horrible picture, but this is the house that I had decided to live in by the end.  It was a little ice cream shop run by elves.  I loved it.

 The Grinch was in the little jail house.  Poor guy, I thought he had changed!

Hansel and Gretel house.  So cute!

We had such a great time, and again there wasn't any crowds (I was actually surprised that there were as many as there were!)  I loved having a week long Christmas!

The Christmas after Christmas

 With all of the craziness of the season we never got to take the boys to the store to get presents for each other.  I feel it is important that kids learn the value of giving.  They gave things to their class, but as I did everything I didn't feel like it was the same.  Even though Christmas was over, Josh and I decided that the teaching moment hadn't passed and we decided to still take the kids shopping for each other.  Josh took the boys one by one to the dollar store to get things for each other.  They each used their own money and came home so excited to give each other the things they had found. 

 They found some cute things and I think it is good for them to spend a few minutes thinking "now what would so and so want."

 Josh helped the boys wrap their presents and then we did our Christmas Family Home Evening.  I actually liked doing it a little backwards.  We hadn't gotten to do the Christmas F.H.E. the week before, but it was okay doing it after.  We read the Christmas story again (Luke 2) and talked about the day we had just had the day before.  After we talked about gifts and why we give them and the greatest gift of all that our Father in Heaven has given us.  After that the boys exchanged their gifts.

 There were lost of exclamations of excitement and "that's what I wanted".  I especially loved all of the hugs that they gave each other.

 McKay was thrilled to be opening more presents. 

 It was such a fun night.  I have once again decided that I really like doing Christmasy things after Christmas.

The boys all gave me presents as well.  I especially loved the knight from Hunter with the promise that I can be the good guy when we play.  That was another Christmas miracle.