December Instagrams

 My friend Kristen and I went to The Nutcracker up at WSU, as we do every year.  One of my favorite traditions.

 We got the boys skis already for the season (Hunter had been to a Pow wow that day and still had his face paint on).

 Lincoln earned his Bear Award in Cub Scouts.

 One Friday night we decided to do a late movie (it was already 8:30 when we decided this), we headed to the grocery store and let each boy pick out a treat to share.  

 We loved Utah State football this year, we were so excited they got to go to a bowl game!

 McKay has the best imagination, all we have to do is bring him a few "guys" and he is good to go.

 Decorating for Christmas!  This year we had a mantle, which was fun to hang our stockings from!

 Our Elf "Scout" made his return.  McKay was pretty obsessed with him this year.

 The boys were part of their school choir again this year.  I always love their Christmas concert.

 We got the boys trees up in their room.  They love to fall asleep to the lights of their Christmas trees each night.

 Lincoln sold "Logo Books" at his 3rd grade Economics Fair.

 Reading our Christmas books by the Christmas tree.

 Palmer made it to the finals of the Geography Bee.

 For the first time ever we got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.  I was pretty amazing.  Palmer and Grandma Ann went with us.

 This is how our boys watch TV, although most of the time they all have their hands behind their heads.

 I took some Christmas pictures of our Miss Syracuse queen and Miss Syracuse Outstanding Teen queen.

 I made a HUGE batch of these gingerbread men and we all ate them for most of our meals.  

We had some gorgeous snowfalls and lots of hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows in December.

 This is what we gave our teachers this year.  

The boys and I studied Michelangelo this month.  I am always so happy that they love art.  They really do listen when I teach them about different artists.  I love it.

Christmas Staycation-Tea With Santa

After experiencing Witches tea at the Grand America, we knew we wanted to take our boys to Christmas tea with Santa, and it did not disappoint.

Our view was of this gorgeous Christmas tree while it gently snowed.  Seriously Christmas snow globe moment.

 I wasn't sure what the boys would think of the whole "high tea" thing, in fact I had visions of them throwing tea cups and saucers, but they actually did really well and totally went with it.

Yummy whipped cream.

I was impressed that the boys all tried the "different" foods.  The Grand America did provide some very fancy peanut butter and jelly for those who were picky (cough cough McKay and Lincoln).

Hunter insisted on having herbal tea like me.  The rest of the boys and Josh all got the delicious hot chocolate.  I humored him and little did he know he would love it, and now asks me to make it for him all of the time.

In the middle of the tea Santa arrived!!

Lincoln got to go up an help ring bells while the kids sang songs.

 I wasn't sure what the kids would think of visiting Santa, but they were all good sports (and I think were way into it).

 McKay was shy around Santa and his wife, but they were so cute with him that he quickly warmed up to him.  We hadn't prepped him on what he wanted and he asked for a "

After all of the kids got to see Santa, he read a story with them.  At first Palmer wasn't going to have anything to do with it, but as you can see, he sneaked up there and listened. 

 Once it was over, we checked out the decorations of The Grand America.

We also did the window scavenger hunt.  The windows were so cute and each window had a question the kids had to answer.

The scavenger hunt ended up at this huge real gingerbread house.  It was so amazing!  The kids also got a treat for finishing.

This year was another successful staycation.

Christmas Staycation-Day 3

 The last day of our Christmas Staycation, we woke up to this beautiful view.  I love looking over City Creek and Temple Square.

We had a slow relaxing morning and later went to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and treats.  

We spent some time walking around City Creek and seeing all of the Christmas decorations.

We always stop into Deseret book and see what they have in their windows.  It is always something awesome.  This year they had a machine that you could put little parachutes in a tube and it would shoot it out another tube.  The boys loved it.

After that we went to their candy counter and filled up some bags with their yummy treats.

We also checked out he incredible ZCMI (Macyes), windows.  They were huge ornaments with pictures done in candy. 

 After that we headed to an art exhibit by Al Rounds.  We bought the boys paintings of the temple for their rooms.

We were lucky enough to be there when the artist was there and he signed the boys pictures.  

 After that we headed to the Grand America for tea with Santa (next post).

Our last adventure of our staycation was to drop McKay off at a babysitter and head to Savior of the World.  It is a play that is put on at the Conference Center about the birth and death of The Savior and it is INCREDIBLE.  Hands down my favorite Christmas thing we do.