Christmas Traditions

During December we have a lot of traditions we like to do with the kids.  Here are a few we did this year.

One of our favorite traditions for the Christmas season is making gingerbread houses. 

We make our little gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and left over Halloween candy.  It was fun watching all the kids do their own designs.  They get really creative with the candy and icing.

Logan went to town on his even though he was not feeling well the day we made them.  Emily is funny to watch.  As she gets older, her house is starting to have some cool details. She watched Mom make her house and wanted hers to look like it. Colby was a tootsie roll house with Santa on top of the house.  He even made a sleigh and a reindeer to pull it.  Charlotte had fun eating the candy and putting it on her house. She probably ate more than she used on her house because she is our sugar addict. They all turned out really great. We always have a great time making a huge mess and creating our houses. We just let the kids do whatever they want on their house and we don't even need to help them.

Another fun tradition we do every year is go to the Live Nativity in Nibley. 

This year they did it a little differently. They had the nativity set up in a smaller barn rather than the bigger one. I actually liked this set up better because it was less crowded and it just flowed better I thought. It is also cool to see a real camel in the middle of winter. 

 Moses the Camel is there every year and the kids love to pet him and see him.  We also love the hayride to get from the parking lot to the Nativity and back.  We like singing Christmas carols with the other people as we ride.  It was good to see the Nativity and remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

This year the kids wanted to be more festive, so Tiff got out the ladder and put up the lights without me. I got a text message saying Tiff was so proud of herself. I laughed and texted her back with a big thumbs up. She was not happy with the plugging in part. She didn't think about where the plugs were at when she finished. Thank goodness for extension cords.  I think it looks good.  

We are all excited for Christmas and celebrating our Savior's birth and life.