Christmas Time Activities

Let's finally get to the Christmas season now that it was about 4 months ago. We did a few things to try to get into the Christmas spirit this year:

Baylee and Payton got to see Santa! Even if it was before Thanksgiving. A little odd. We walked around downtown Pleasanton to enjoy some Christmasy festivities they had going on. It didn't seem as like much as it was supposed to be, probably because of rain. The kids had fun though, and outside under a tarp was Santa. Baylee was excited to get to sit on his lap, even if Payton wouldn't have anything to do with it. It was pretty chilly, so I don't blame him. Santa was probably the highlight of the night.

Baylee loved decorating sugar cookies. We got a few kits from Trader Joe's that she had a lot of fun with.

Baylee was also so excited to go her Aunt Anna's to decorate sugar cookies with them! They were tastier than the ones we made, and a bit messier because Baylee was able to pile on frosting in more colors and there were more sprinkles to choose from. One of these days I'll start making homemade sugar cookies and frosting. One of these days.

We went to a Christmas party at church. Baylee was excited to wear her Christmas tutu. We enjoyed a nice dinner and musical Chirstmas program. The kids had fun running around.

We had a family Christmas dinner with Ben's parents and his older brother's family before Ben's parents left for Utah to spend Christmas:

Baylee and Owen playing by all the presents under the tree.

Payton absolutely loves his cousin Owen, and had fun watching people open presents with him.

Baylee and Payton opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Hall.

Baylee was so excited to get a set of seven Disney Princess barbies. I think Payton was a little jealous. This present tripled the barbies in our toy collection (and the rest are in storage).

Payton actually being calm with Grandpa and showing off his "cheese" face. He was happy to be playing with Grandma's iphone.

Baylee has been wanting this Barbie vet kit for forever. She was so excited that Grandma and Grandpa got it for her. She didn't have to worry about Santa or the Easter Bunny forgetting it again. Ben's parents really spoiled her this year. I think Ben's mom had forgotten how much she had gotten her.

We took a trip to the Oakland LDS temple to see the lights. The temple was beautiful with all the Christmas lights and nativities.

I love this picture of Ben showing Baylee the view of the city from the temple. In the visitor's center they had an exhibit I've been wanting to see called Reflections of Christ (I missed it when we were in AZ), but it was so crowded that we didn't get to see it. Everyone was trying to warm up from the cold weather I guess. One of these days.

We enjoyed the Christmasy activities that we got to do this year. I'm sure we did a couple more things, but mostly we had a hard time re-learning what cold really is after 2 1/2 years of heat. Next year we shouldn't freeze as much!