December in a nutshell....a really large nutshell

Savannah was excited to decorate the tree..

not so excited...

not sure what expression this one is.

And finally some normal happy faces 

 

presents for the teachers, handmade popcorn bowls (made by the kiddies) with treats and movie tickets

Class parties

We visited with Santa at our Ward Christmas Breakfast 

Ginger bread house making and eating

I got to watch Sav do a mini recital to the Nutcracker

Josh had a choir performance in which I think he yawned like 20 or more times...wish I could've caught it on camera, it was pretty amusing

 
The girls made cookies for their primary teachers

and had a taste or two

A little bull fighting to pass the time till Christmas. Z is the bull charging while wearing head gear, 

J is fending him off with an umbrella)

The kids earned a "late night" where we switched places. they where the parents and we were the kids. they put us to bed and they stayed up and played video games, watched movies and had snacks with the condition that they couldn't trash the house and they had to pick up after them selves. this is how we found a couple of them in the morning

 
I'm thinking they didn't last long. the house was clean.

Christmas Eve morning we all made breakfast. Bella is mixing up the batter for our yummy pumpkin waffles

Sav loves to make faces with her food, can you see it?

That night we got together with some dear friends of ours and the kids acted out the Nativity. they did such a great job!

getting ready to open one family gift on Christmas eve...we're starting a new tradition of opening one family gift the night of Christmas Eve (it will be a new family game to play each year)

We got Creationary! We give it 2 thumbs up! All of our kids from Josh to Bella love legos, so this was right up our alley.

Leaving Santa some cookies and milk and a little picture

translation "for Santa, Take it. From: Savannah"

Sprinkling Reindeer food on the lawn

Here they come...what did Santa bring?

A bike for Sav

A nintendo DS lite for the boys! in blue

and in red

Santa made a Lion King and Narnia coloring book for Bella (her latest obsession)

for our family gift exchange Zach drew Josh and gave him these hilarious glasses.

An apron from grammy and grampy...very perfect for Sav

 
And a Madame Alexander from grammy and grampy. She named her Sarah. They're best friends already.

 

playing a little ds

Lily finally woke up and decided to join us at 10am (she's a sleepy head like her mommma)

 
She didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about Christmas morning.

after we played with our toys in the morning, we had one more present to go... a quick trip to San Antonio for a little family getaway. We surprised the kids with this one. So we quickly packed up and made our way to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch. Awesome place. Very family oriented.
 
We got to do lots of indoor swimming and sliding

Smore roasting

riverwalk strolling

 this ginormous tree was in front of the alamo

bubble baths


we had a few movie and game nights, slept in, swam, lounged and just relaxed. a great Christmas gift.


We got a 1 bedroom suite, so the kids took over the living room. they slept on a pull out and they got creative with the bed making. Bella slept on these 2 poshy chairs pushed together, and  J slept on the couch cushions pushed together. Their choice.and they loved it. silly kids.






















 we ended the trip celebrating Sav's 6th bday (on the 27th) We went to see Tangled and ate lunch at her favorite place- Chickfil-A. She also helped make her own cake with her new apron, and watched the sound of music in our room with daddy and Sarah:)

So that was a bit of our december in a nutshell. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!