I think it's a safe bet that we won't have a white Christmas here in Arizona. In some ways, I thought it would be hard to get into the spirit of the season, when I can get away with a long sleeve tee/no jacket most days. (I actually laid out and got a tan the day before Thanksgiving..crazy). We've had a few cold and blustery days here and there, but for the most part my prelude to the best holiday of the year has been warmer than I'm used too. Wesley has been working overtime almost every week, and I've had my usual pre-Christmas pile up of hair appointments. It's been a bit hectic some days, but I'm grateful for the extra income :) In spite of the warmish weather and occasional chaos, I feel like we've been able to celebrate with every spare evening! Every Saturday there have been free Christmas events going on at all the major shopping centers. We haven't had time to do half the family things that are available to us! So far this season, we've gone to a tree lighting festival, our ward Christmas party, a giant gingerbread house display (where the kids got to meet the Grinch!), A "snow day" festival (with an actual truck load of snow, dumped and fenced into a parking lot!), and numerous shopping excursions where everything is lit and decorated, with festive music blasting (live bands a few times). I've been so impressed with the amount of family oriented and free activities that are being offered everywhere. It's awesome! I have some great photos from a lot of the things we've done, and will work on updating this when I can.
Holidays are SO MUCH FUN with little kids. Last year Jake was pretty excited about Christmas, but we are on a whole new level this season. He is loving it all, and taking everything in! Omi got him a little nativity play set a few weeks back and he loves playing with it. Although he is definitely looking forward to opening his presents on Christmas Day, and talks a lot about Santa coming over "to eat some cookies and bring toys", we are also trying to remind him about the true meaning of the season.
Jake seems to really feel the magic of Christmas this year :)
This is technically Mia's second Christmas..but since she was only 10 days old last time--does that one even count? She's finally getting old enough to show true excitement about new toys, so we are gearing up for a very fun Christmas morning :)
Our ward Christmas Party. Jake was so eager to sit on Santa's lap! Here he was practically shaking with joyous anticipation :)
ear to ear grin.
He asked Santa to bring him the "Winnie the Pooh" movie. (we red boxed it once, and ever since, he's wanted it)...don't worry, we ordered one on amazon, it'll be here soon!
We threw Mia on Santa's lap at the end to grab a quick photo. It's not the best--Jake had already ripped off his "itchy christmas sweater" and Mia..well Mia didn't seem to trust that Santa guy.
One of the nicer shopping centers had a "snow day" for families last weekend. At 10 am they created a big pile of snow in the middle of a parking lot, and left it out for everyone to enjoy until it melted. It wasn't the Utah powder that we are used to, but Jake loved the hard crunchy stuff anyway! It was a very fun morning, and besides the snow, they had live music, lots of free giveaways, cookie frosting, snacks, and a Santa with sunglasses!
Mia's first experience with snow. She loved it.
Nate and Sawyer joined us after awhile, and as usual, Jake had 10 times more fun. :)
Frosting cookies :)
Jake wasn't too sure about this Santa. Can a 3 year old connect the dots that this santa looks almost nothing like the ward party Santa? hmm...maybe he just thought this guy seemed shady with those sunglasses...pun intended ;)
I still have lot's more to post about, but I think I'll stop here for tonight. One last photo: Since Jess and Nate were going to be out of town by my anniversary, we arranged to go on our special date a little early. They watched the kids for us on a weeknight so we could go to the movies. There's a new theater in town where you can order food while you watch called the "Studio Movie Grill". We had a great time, and Jess and Nate were awesome babysitters (as usual) Jake had fun frosting Christmas cookies with Sawyer :)
I'm so grateful for the Christmas season. It's been a wonderful month! I hope everyone is feeling the magic, making and keeping traditions, and finding joy in the small things.
Stay tuned because my next post will have pictures of a gingerbread Whoville, the Grinch, and my cutie cute kids.
2 comments:
I really liked this post! It's true there are surprisingly a ton of fun things to do in Phoenix at Christmas time. I'm glad you've been able to take advantage of most of it and see the good things all around you! I'm glad Sawyer got to share some of those experiences with Jake. We miss you guys!
What kind of Christmas activities did I do with you guys when you were little! I don't think nearly as many fun things! Frosting cookies, cutting out snowflakes and such.maybe... You're awesome to seek out all the fun around and making it such a memorable Christmas for your kids!!
Post a Comment