It's begining to look a lot like Christmas......

We have done many fun Christmas things so far this year and are creating wonderful memories together.  I hope our kids will always remember the fun things we do every year to get ready for Christmas and pass some of these traditions on to their own families.  I have many, many great memories of Christmas when I was growing up and I know our kids will too!

We went to Lights of the South, which is a huge light display that you can take a tractor ride through to view all the lights.  The kids loved it again and we had a great time.  It was a really warm night- we didn't even need the jackets we brought!  They have a really great Santa Claus there, so of course the kids had to sit on his lap and tell them what they want and make sure he could come to our house early.  Troy was all talk the week leading up to sitting on his lap.  Sure, he said, he will sit on his lap.  He's not scary, he said.  Well....... we get there and Troy is scared to death again and finally agrees to just stand next to Santa for the picture.  He did talk to Santa, though, and asked for motorcycles and tractors with wagons.

We also did our annual cookie decorating and candy making.  Adria was helping me make some of the Christmas goodies and she said when she grows up and does this with her family she is going to be the one doing all the chocolate dipping!  It made me smile, though, because she is already thinking of doing this with her kids.  Then I sent the kids out to all of our neighbors to deliver the treats!

We did the Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes again this year.  This is one of my favorite things to do with the kids and we included Troy this year.  He didn't quite get it and thought all the stuff we were buying was for him and I kept trying to tell him it was for another little boy.  He kept arguing with me and finally I just let him believe it was for him and when we got home he didn't say another word about the stuff.  Maybe next year he will catch on :).  The older two love doing it and picking things out for other kids.  We packed the boxes up and prayed over them and they helped me deliver them to a church that was mailing them out.  It was so fun!

And of course, Johnny the elf is back!  The kids were excited to get him out of the box and read the story and put him on the mantle.  Then his magic officially started and no more touching him!  He has travelled to a lot of different places in our house- stockings, light fixtures, riding motorcycles, writing on mirrors, leaving notes and such.  Sometimes Johnny gets lazy and forgets to move and the kids don't understand why. We tell them maybe he didn't want to report to Santa their bad behavior from the day before and he was giving them another chance.  Yes, we are mean parents.