Christmas Commotion

I have to be honest.  Around Thanksgiving time I was kind of being a scrooge about Christmas.  I just wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit this year.  But as the season has gotten underway my attitude has changed.  There's just something so magical about watching the kids at Christmas!  I'm also loving that there is a lot more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!  All of the Christmas activities have been much more spread out, so I don't feel quite so frantic! 

Here's how we've been enjoying our season so far:

 Decorating the tree!  This will be the last year for this Christmas tree.  Only about half the lights actually lit this year, quite a few branches are broken, and it's leaning pretty badly, but who cares?!

We inherited a huge number of very nice ornaments from my parents last Christmas, so our tree is looking quite full these days!

The first day of December we took the kids to the Dallas Christmas parade!  It was super fun and will definitely become a tradition!

The kids loved seeing the huge balloons.

We got there about 1.5 hours early and found an awesome, grassy spot, the kids had fun playing with friends while we waited.

Colton loves his dad so much!  

Chris and I went to a fun cowboy themed white elephant party and Chris got to wear his real cowboy hat, I gotta say, I've got a thing for cowboys :)  He's also sporting his Movember beard, which I liked more than I thought I would, but I don't miss it.

Madi has our old Christmas tree in her room and this year the boys talked me into buying one for their room.  Jaxon picked it out himself.  It's so tacky, but he loves it so much!

We've had the normal winter stomach flu going around our family.  Only the boys have gotten it so far, but they've timed it impeccably.  Colton got it the night I was supposed to go out with Chris for a work dinner at a 5 star steakhouse.  It's all good though.  I like cuddles more than steak.

Jaxon got the flu the morning that we were supposed to go to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra family concert.  I was a little more bummed about this, but that's life.  Chris and Madi found some friends to go with them and they had a great time.

Part of the concert included an instrument petting zoo.  Madison wants to play the violin someday.  I think it suits her.

Colton and I have been doing some hardcore Christmas shopping.  He's a super helpful shopper, as you can see.  It is nice, though, because he is still young enough that he can help me pick out his presents and then he pretty much forgets about them within a few hours.  I do know he's going to LOVE what he's getting though.  He gets super excited about everything I buy him.

Speaking of gifts.  I had about a week back in September where I thought "I have time, I should make blankets for all my nieces and nephews and kids for Christmas."  Yeah, that free time only lasted about a week.  So for the last 4 months I've been trying to finish these darn things.  I finally completed all 7 of them Friday night.  They turned out great, but I'm never making something that big for that many people again.

Friday night we also started a new family Christmas tradition: pizza and a Christmas light bike ride.  The kids are LOVING their bikes lately, and the weather has been super nice!

I love it when cheap entertainment is so thrilling.  I got the kids each a Christmas glow wand at Target for $1 and they were ecstatic.  They taped them to their bikes so they could be seen in the dark!

And finally, this is not Christmas related, but Colton is cute and big and I love him.  Also, he and I made this car train yesterday and he was so proud of himself.  He put all the towers on himself and insisted we get all the cars on!