Christmas is Coming...

And we are keeping extra busy.

Friday we had friends over to bake and decorate homemade sugar cookies. The kids intermittently ran around playing while the moms drank coffee and talked. Win. Win.

The recipe I use is quick and doesn't require the dough to be chilled beforehand. I have learned that having to wait on dough is a pain when you have little kids.

At this age, cookies are not beautiful, but the kids enjoyed dumping as many sprinkles as humanly possible on each cookie they touched.

Thanks to my friends, the kids also had fun shapes to decorate, including dinosaurs, and I believe a turkey even made it into this batch of cookies! 

Once the kiddos were sufficiently sugar-ed up, I used my new Roomba to clean up the sprinkles covering the floor and then we all parted ways. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and the kids had a blast spending time together.

After our friends left, I scrambled to get my crew out the door to meet Daniel for a little Christmas shopping. We spent less than two hours knocking out our present shopping before hitting up Chick-fil-a for dinner. Did I mention that it was our anniversary? Not the ideal way to spend an anniversary evening, BUT Christmas shopping is done, so I'll take it.

Saturday morning I had to wake everyone up to get out the door to have breakfast with Santa at the church where Jack attends preschool.

We started out eating pancakes and Santa came by each table. Then we were split into three groups and sent to do various activities throughout the building. The kids made a manger craft, then there was cookie decorating and reindeer food making.

Then we went to play reindeer games, we heard the story of Jesus' birth – from the point of view of Humphrey the camel, followed by the kids getting to sit on Santa's lap (Isaac was not a fan), and then ending our morning dancing to Christmas songs. 

Oh what fun we had!

Saturday afternoon I whipped up a batch of bon bons (my family has made these cookies since I was a kid), and then we headed to our small group Christmas party for dinner.

We enjoyed a fun evening visiting and eating, and ended our night reading the story of the birth of Christ, with a little help from the kids. 

I'm so thankful for all of the people who are a part of our lives and that we can celebrate by sharing some of our Christmas traditions with them.