Gingerbread house decorating and Bake off

Another tradition we have every year with my Mom,sisters, neices and nephews since Sydney was 2, is to decorate gingerbread houses and to bake to our hearts content...and beyond. Mom, Kim, Kristy, Ashlee, Dillon, Brenden, Ethan and Kalin all came over to decorate the gingerbread houses and also to bake cookies, bread, bars, fudge, peppermint bark and more! We started the festivities bright and early, at 9 am. We set out the candy for the children as we iced the gingerbread houses, which wasn't such a great idea. It took a long while to ice the houses as the icing would not stick to the houses very easily. By the time we had all the kids houses iced, they were FULL of sugar...yikes! Oh well, lesson learned on that. Each child had their own creative house, some with loads of candy and others with just a piece here and there. As the kids get older and older,t hey become more and more creative. It will be interesting to look back over the years at the photos of all the different houses over the years. Mom, Kim, Kristy and I baked and ate and ate and baked. We had a blast, as usual. By the end of the night we were wiped out. No more baking for a while.

Holiday Concert at Monticello Elementary

When Sydney first started singing "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" I had a hard time figuring out where she learned it from. It finally dawned on me a day later that is was for her school concert. I guess I didn't realize December was approaching faster than I knew it! The day finally came which Sydney and her classmates prepared for. The kindergartners got to wear the PJ's to perform in. The boys wore Santa hats and the girls wore halos like little angels. They all sang "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" as loud as they can. They also sang jingle bells and got to ring bells along with the song. Sydney had a huge cheering section of her own. Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Uncle Scott, Auntie Kelli, Auntie Kristy, Uncle Jeff, Tyler, Kalin, Ashlee, Brenden, Hailey and of course Darin and I were all there to watch and cheer her on. We all had a lot of fun!

Snow on the Altamont

Wow! What a morning! Alright Sydney has proven me to be a liar. Yesterday as we set our for our Christmas tree, Sydney said I wish it would snow here. I told her "it was cold enough to snow but it doesn't snow where we live, we have to go to the mountains to see the snow." Well we woke up to another freezing cold morning and Darin came in as I was getting my coffee and said it was snowing. I thought, ha ha, yeah right. I had to go outside to look, it was truly snowing. It was so beautiful. I packed the girls in the car as usual and off we went. I have to tell you it was a slow drive, but it was the most gorgeous ride over the altamont ever. It was a snow flurry, literally. I took a photo on my photo, which was way too dark to see, but thanks to Gaber, I got a picture. Thanks Gaber!! By the time Hailey and I headed back over the altamont the snow stopped falling but the hills were sparkling with the sun hitting off the snow. What a gorgeous day! I would take that commute any day!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Boy it has been FREEZING here the last day or two! We set out a week later than we usually go to pick out our Christmas tree. Kalin had spent the night, so she joined us on our hunt. We bundled up the girls with their jacket, hats and scarfs to start our mission. We headed to the place we got our tree last year, the boyscout tree lot, but we were a day late. All the large, 12' trees were gone. So we went on a mission to find a lot that had 12' trees, what a nightmare. We went to several but they were all gone. So we headed back to the lot by the mall and picked a tree from the lot there, we settled for a 10' tree. It was still a beautiful fresh tree. Sydney, Kalin and Hailey had fun with all the signs of Santa, the reindeer and Frosty.

Christmas at Grandpas's-Scott Christmas

We celebrate Grandpa's birthday and Christmas with the "Scott" side of Darin's family every year. My the family has grown over the years. Between the 6 aunts and uncles Darin has, add the cousins, then cousins husbands/wives, and now all the children equals a house FULL of people! We counted 16 children alone between the ages 2 months to 8 years old. We celebrated grandpas' 89th birthday. We had a nice lunch with plenty to eat for sure, as usual. We also had a surprise guest, Santa! Yes, Santa came to visit at Grandpa's house. He had a sack full of small toys for the children too! The kids were thrilled. Each child received a small toy which they were really happy for. Santa reminded each of them to be on their best behavior not only until Christmas, but all year! We had lots of fun!

Thanksgiving Concert

Being that Sydney is in Kindergarten, they have not only a Christmas Concert, but a Thanksgiving Concert. The Thanksgiving concert was for the Kindergarten class only. The kids in the class dressed up as pilgrims and Indians. Sydney was a pilgrim, she is at the very far left, last kid in the row. Her pilgrim hat is so big you can't even see her face. They sangs 3 songs, told a story and sat in a circle and told each other what they are thankful for. Once they were done, the kids continued to sit in a circle and they were given a snack, which was made up of all the different things the kids brought in for their feast. It was really cute and fun.

Christmas Pictures with cousins

Every year we set out to have "Cousin" pictures taken with all my mom's (Donna) grandchildren. Ashlee, Sydney, Dillon, Brenden, Hailey, and Ethan all together. This is always a major feat. Mom buys all the grand kids matching outfits and they are dressed to the nine's. There is always one child in the group that acts out, which last year it was Dillon. Well low and behold this year it was my child, little Hailey. She did not want anything to do with sitting next to anyone, candy, singing, Mickey Mouse(which is her favorite right now and should be a no brain-er, she'd cooperate with Mickey!) but nothing worked. So Mom wound up with pictures of everyone minus Hailey. After the kids took pictures we headed off to see Santa. Sydney and Hailey were all about it until Hailey got close to Santa and ran for the hills. Sydney took a picture with Ashlee and Santa. So cute. Santa was so patient and listened to everything the girls told him. Santa at Stoneridge Mall is the best!