Merry Christmas to all!

Well folks, Christmas is just around the corner so our family has been doing all sorts of fun stuff to celebrate. Here is a list of just a few: hay ride through Lights of the South, pictures with Santa, the lighted boat parade on the river, the Ward Christmas party dressed like shepherds, making cookies and candies, decorating a gingerbread house, and of course - getting sick. We have pictures to prove everything below (except for the sickness because a a picture of Bridger's snotty nose, or Jess's strep throat would be less than pleasing.)

Above is our award winning gingerbread house. The award actually goes to Bridger and Brody who helped with the project and is for "The Most Candy Ever Eaten in One Sitting by Two Boys Under the Age of 4". I'd like to say that ours was the best looking this year, but it just wasn't. It was fun to make though and we (Brody and Bridger especially) enjoyed eating lots of goodies. When we were all done with the house, Brody looked at it and said, “We need a chimney so the wolf can go down it and eat the little piggies.” Mmmmm....Christmas Ham!

These pictures are two of many that we took during the Ward party. A lot of people dressed up and though we ate on the floor and had to 'buy' our food with beans, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the simple Christ-centered program. When the primary choir of about 10 kids was up on the little stage singing, Bridger ran away from me to go up there and join them. Rather than call more attention to it by going to get him, I just let him participate. He got right up there with the singers and stood in the front, swaying to the music, smiling and looking around as though he were the star. When they walked off the stage he did too. It was really cute. I'm pretty sure that if Jess had lived back then in that area guys would have thought she was really hot in her head scarf. (unless they were blind - in which case they should have sought out Jesus.)

You can't really see the boats in the background of this picture, but this is me and the boys river side watching the boats drive by with all their Christmas lights on. I thought they would really like it, but all Brody wanted to do was push the stroller around and all Bridger wanted to do was run away.

On the hay ride at lights of the South - the Batman symbol in the back was not actually part of the show. Someone was in trouble! Strangely enough, Brody disappeared for a while right after that and came back sweaty and bruised with a triumphant smile...

Bridger likes trains. Jess likes to be a trucker.

I'm not sure what Santa was saying to Brody when this picture was taken, but I'm pretty sure it was mischevious. In any case, its a cute picture, and this was the first year that Brody actually sat on Santa's lap and smiled for the picture willingly - I guess he REALLY wants that toy crane that he's definately not getting. He'll just have to settle for the Tonka truck. As you can see below, Bridger does not like Santa, but took his candy anyway. I guess he finds no problem with taking gifts from perceived enemies; he wouldn't even let me check it for poison.

By the way, we are pretty sure that this guy was the real santa. He had a perfect beard and a nice hearty HO HO HO. He even reminded Brody to leave some cookies and milk for him. If only he could have known to say something like: "Eat your dinner every night little Brody, or next year I'm giving you reindeer poop."