Tis the season (2012)

Last year my mom came to our house and made a gingerbread train with the boys.  

And apparently it's going to be a tradition because when I pulled out the gingerbread house to decorate, McKye looked at me and said, "Grandma Bowen is coming?!?"

So we called grandma up and made a date with her and gingerbread. 

If my kids feel like that is something to be done with grandma, I'm gonna go with it.

Traditions that grow out of memorable, happy times are so much more meaningful than those we try to orchestrate.

Speaking of orchestration, I got way to involved in the house building, with my candy color-schemes and enforcing of patterns, that I felt like we needed a re-do, a real let-loose-with-grandma- free -of -mother's- "orchestration" time of fun.

So when Daddy was out of town one weekend and Glenwood was having their live nativity....it was perfect. Out to Grandma's we went, for what I think will also grow into a nice tradition. 

A December sleepover under the tree at grandma's house.

 We involved a bit more gingerbread....of course.

(Is it just me Liesel, or does McKye look like your Greg in this one?)

How I love seeing those grandma hands guiding my boys pudgy little boy hands!

Enjoying the finished product(this was grandma's ginger bread baby in a snow suit)

Then it was off to the live Nativity and crèche display.

With hot chocolate of course.

We did take some pictures with Santa (though smart ol' me snapped a whole bunch of photos without a SD card in my camera, luckily a patient Santa let us do the whole thing again!)    

Aaron was more interested in riding a cow to Bethlehem then sitting on Sanata's lap.

Another pre-Christmas happening was our church Christmas party.
I helped put together a bit of a skit for the evenings entertainment that included....

one hum-bugger who has a change of heart thanks to a jolly friend in some fabulous christmas attire

a flash mob of carol of the bells

missionaries lip singing to a children's chorus

some well dressed carollers

a simply beautiful silent night

a few more ugly Christmas sweaters and a fireplace photo bomber

a quartet of O holy Night

I love my ward!

We did a little decorating (although, my poor tree spent more of the season, looking more and more flattened by Aaron repeatedly knocking it over!)

And McKye had his first Christmas concert. (you'd never know he spent the hour leading up to it crying, and then pouted through whole performance, without singing a note, because he was too busy wiping his nose!

Silly boy.

And that was our pre-Christmas fun!