Christmas Eve

We got to spend Christmas Eve with Drew's family in Utah this year.  It was a lot of fun because all of Drew's family was there, including all 4 of his siblings and all 6 of Alden and Anders' cousins.  It was fun to see all the kids playing and having fun together while getting to interact with all of the family.  We had fun making paper chains, decorating the tree, visiting, letting kids decorate sugar cookies with Mimi, and watching Christmas videos in Christmas pajamas.  We had a good and memorable Christmas eve.

The kids had a lot of fun making the giant paper chain.

Drew and Magann went down and helped finish using all the paper at the end too.

Alden loved getting to play with the dogs, when they were interested.

Drew, the paper chain monster, getting ready to decorate the tree.

Drew and Nathan got the paper chain put up around the tree together.

The boys had a lot of fun putting ornaments on the tree.  Anders needed some help but still had lots of fun.

Uncle Nathan helped all the kids put ornaments higher up on the tree.

The boys were very excited to open up their one Christmas Eve present.

I love seeing Alden and Anders loving on each other!

The boys showing off their new Christmas pajamas.

We ended the day watching Christmas movies together before putting the kids to bed so that Santa would come!  It was a very nice Christmas Eve.

Salt Lake Temple Lights

Whenever we are in Utah for Christmas time we love going to see the lights at Temple Square.  This trip we got to go with my sister, Aunt, Uncle and cousin and we had a great time even though it was rather cold and Alden was feeling a little sick.  We did not get to stay and look at the lights as much as we normally do but it was still well worth the trip to see the beautiful temple and light displays.  I love seeing the lights surrounding the temple and seeing the wonderful nativity displays all over the grounds.

 It was beautiful!

 I love this nativity of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus on the pond.

 Anders and Alden were mesmerized by everything and loved looking and taking everything in.

 Alden wanted to be carried 90% of the time because he was feeling sick which was part of the reason we didn't stay too long.  (It was also very cold)

 I love the giant nativity that they have with lighting and narration.  It tells the story of Jesus' birth and shows what the true meaning of Christmas is very nicely.

 I loved just taking in all the lights and it was really nice to have some family with us too!

It is fun to see the nativities from all over the world showing the same story in different ways.  I loved visiting temple square with the family and I am so glad that we made the time to do this while we were in Utah.

Zoo Lights

For the past few years we have always gone to zoo lights in Washington and so we decided to try and continue that tradition this year, even though we are in a different place.  We went to the zoo lights here in Colorado Springs and the boys had a great time.  We had to try and time our visit so we didn't go on a night when it was less than ten degrees or snowing too much but we made it work.  It was still really cold but we all bundled up enough that we were okay for the hour and a half that we were there.  The boys had a great time looking at all the lights and Alden was really happy that he finally got to see Santa.  Anders was much less thrilled with meeting Santa and just cried, but besides that it was a successful evening for everyone.  We are excited to go back and see the zoo sometime during the day when the weather is nicer.

The giant light up Christmas tree near the front of the park.

The boys really liked this giraffe that moved to look like it was eating.

The boys were really excited when we got to go inside one of the buildings and see the giraffes.  It was neat that we got to see quite a few animals while we were there for the lights.

Alden was excited about the snowman.

Inside the building where Santa was they had a station to write letters to him and Alden was very excited to do that, on green paper of course.

Anders was very unhappy about seeing Santa but Alden loved it.  He was so excited to tell him about the bow and arrow and the firetruck that he wanted.

Alden was excited that he could see the rhinos and elephants in here.

The giant crocodile.

The boys liked seeing the wallabies in their home inside.

They had really cool light displays all throughout the park but I only got a few good pictures.

This was one of my favorites.  We all had a great time seeing the lights and a few animals!  This was a great way to spend a night in December!