First half of December 2013

On December 2nd the kids, Sirui & I (Tony was still at work) went to the Kaysville lighting ceremony and parade. They had hot chocolate,

a live band, and lots of lights.

The parade didn't have many floats, but it did have this cool fire truck with a light-up Santa on the front!

We didn't love it and would have to give it some thought before committing to attending another year, but I'm glad we got to see it at least once.

That evening Christian tried a beard of his own.

The next night, Faith had an "ugly sweater" party for Young Women's and made this beauty for the gift exchange.

Here's the one she came home with:

On December 6th Faith got to perform with her ballroom dance class at Festival of Trees.

She did great and looked so pretty!

Afterward, we looked at the crafts and trees with Sirui and my mom & dad. I loved this "names of Jesus" quilt.

At the end we did some activities and crafts.

Since we were in Salt Lake, we decided to stop by the Winter Fantasy Faire that was going on. Christian decided to take on the kids' challenge where you had to find certain people or things and get stamps on a passport. We got this cute picture with Steampunk Santa,

visited with an ice queen,

got a shell from a mermaid,

and won a Medieval game of chance. Because of his diligence in completing the challenge, Christian received a ring and got to be knighted.

We got to see guys in armor fight with metal swords and axes (it was real and violent enough to scare Sirui!),

try on some leather armor,

and bought some fuzzy hat/mitten combo things.

Buddy loved it, Faith was bored, and Sirui & I were only slightly amused. I think it would be more fun during the evening when it would be busier. The more nerds, the merrier!

On the 7th we went to breakfast with Santa at Station Park Harmon's. We were about three minutes late and missed the big guy arriving via LifeFlight helicopter, but heard that those who witnessed it first-hand got eyes and mouths full of rock salt which the wind from the helicopter blades picked up from the parking lot and pelted the bystanders with. 

The breakfast was large and delicious. It was only four dollars per person, and the full amount was given to benefit a local school for children with disabilities. The ingredients were donated by the grocery store and the meal was cooked by volunteering firefighters.

After we ate, we went into the store and were delighted when a flash mob bell choir treated us to a performance of "Carol of the Bells!"

Next, we went to Home Depot where the kids built a "Despicable Me" tic-tac-toe game.

We got some snow that day, and the kids had fun sledding down the slight incline of our side yard.

It turned into a bit of a blizzard on our way to the kids' Christmas piano recital, and we all enjoyed Buddy's idea of opening up the sunroof and letting it snow inside the car! Sirui thinks we're a silly, fun "happiness family."

The kids both did beautiful jobs on their recital pieces, and we got a chuckle out of Christian's dramatic double bow.

My mom gave each of the kids music note tree ornaments :)

That night, we went to see the Christmas village at the Ogden park.

Faith didn't have boots that fit, and soon became miserable with freezing wet feet, but we stopped by WalMart for some dry socks and slipper boots and still had a wonderful meal at Lee's Mongolian.

We even stopped by Roy city to see the lights and the huge tree synchronized to music.

When we got home, Buddy donned the elf ear/wig combo he'd picked up at Target along with some crazy teeth he already owned, and TOTALLY freaked Sirui out. I think that girl will have nightmares for years after spending time with us!

Because we had gotten some snow, and we never can know how much we'll end up with on a given year this far west, we decided to give the kids an early Christmas present on the 8th--cool sleds!

They used them as makeshift snowboards down the driveway,

then we took them to (now nonexistent) old South Ogden Junior High hill for sledding after church.

Tony went with the kids, and Skittles and I stayed warm in the car.

We have an "Elf on the Shelf" this year who has been making himself at home, in a different location each day. One day Buddy found him chilling in the freezer, and made me this tree ornament as a gift to commemorate the occasion.

What an artist! You'll see how true to life this is on my next post, all about his adventures.

The 14th was our ward Christmas breakfast.

That evening we went to the Dickens Festival.

They had a fun magician, but the rest was just booths of stuff for sale and we weren't very impressed.

Next, we decided to take Sirui to Cabella's.

 

Here, Faith is posing with the puppet she bought at the Dickens festival with some of her leftover birthday money. I was a bit weirded out that she was so enamored by the strange little guy, but I can never quite figure Faith out.

Sirui got to learn about guns, first from this shooting gallery, and then from perusing real guns at the store.

To round out the night, we enjoyed the drive-through lights at Thanksgiving Point.

When we went through the drive-through at Chic-fil-A for dinner, we were the recipients of an amazing random act of kindness: the car in front of us paid for our meal! We truly felt the Christmas spirit and were inspired to pay it forward.