December...late

 In December we:

Got our personalized Advent Calendars in the post from Granny McArthur...a favourite treat from her. I must make these boys pose for too many pictures; their faces are killing me! ha.

Decorated our widest and tallest tree yet!  Jack says he wants to go bigger next year, but I'm not sure that would even be possible.

 Went to Zoo Lights for for the first time. We rode the train and had a great time with some friends that came along with us.  Too bad it was so completely freezing that night, but at least it wasn't raining! 

Visited with Santa at Ryan's work Christmas party.  Santa was trying to be funny and crack jokes about each of the kids names; some of our's included "Say Hi to Popeye for me", and "See you at the top of the beanstalk."  Jack actually burst out laughing when he heard what Santa said; the evidence is in his face in the pic below! 

Took a family picture by the Christmas tree at the Work party...this was the best of the many attempts!

  Had our first snow fall of the year; it was sad that it only lasted for a day.  Jack had the day off school, which always cracks me up after the weather we had in Utah and there were never very many snow days.  The twins and I stayed inside to watch as the boys headed out, but they only lasted about a half hour of so.  

 Made Sugar cookies from a nice easy recipe Grandma Liz gave me.  We then made some more when Grandma was here spending Christmas with us. 

 Attempted some more family pictures on the Sunday before Christmas...it's a difficult task with these wee ones.  The girls were wearing lovely wee Christmas smocks borrowed from a friend.

 Drove around looking at Christmas lights (which is a Harris family tradition) on Christmas Eve after the Shepherd's dinner I put together (one of our relatively new tradition's that I stole from a lady in our ward).  We set a sheet out on the floor to eat a picnic style dinner of meats, cheeses, bread, crackers and hummus dips; it's completely delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoys the experience.    

Opened Christmas P.J's and set out our homemade cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and his Reindeer.  Jack couldn't contain his excitement the following morning when he ran straight to the plate to see if the goods had been eaten.

 (In the pic below he's grabbing the plate for the 3rd or 4th time to show someone else in the family that Santa had REALLY been!  We had a lot of gifts under the tree...there were 15 total in our house!)

 Watched our wee ones excitedly unwrap their gifts from friends, family, and Santa.  This is Penelope's new wee facial expression that she tends to do a lot...it's pretty cute. 

 Devoured a tasty Christmas feast of Ham, roast potatoes, and lots of other goodness.  I managed to burn myself pretty badly on the wrist about 10 minutes before dinner was ready....I guess that was my way of getting out of having to do any more work! haha.  No, it did hurt like made and I had myself a wee cry for a moment or two, but the dinner was a great success and I was so happy with how it all turned out.  The Christmas crackers always add that extra feel of home for me.  At first no one had theirs hats on, but soon enough everyone was wearing one. 

 Gathered the wee cousins together for a picture by the tree!

 Listened to a bit of screaming from dear Olive, who wanted everything she couldn't have! 

 Let the boys finally eat their chocolate names from the advent calendars..they were mega happy about that!

And finally,  smothered these two wee lovelies with kisses because they were as gorgeous as can be in the matching p.j's from Grandma and Grandpa Harris.  It was a brillso Christmas!