Christmas Season 2009

I decided that I've got to hurry up and blog about all this stuff, or it just isn't going to happen.

Our Christmas season was quite busy this year. As I'm sure it was for everyone. We started off on Dec. 2 with the Light Up the Night Parade the city of Moscow has every year. Our ward Primary always has a truck pulling a trailer with a live Nativity scene then the rest of the primary kids walk behind and sing Christmas carols. I am the primary chorister so I get to walk and sing too, and it is a lot of fun. This year Stephen, Anne, and Ellen were chosen to be Joseph, Mary, and the angel. (I did not choose or even suggest.) James, Naomi, and Noah were able to watch the parade and even saw Santa Claus. It was quite cold that night so we hurried home as soon as we were done.

That Saturday, the 5th, we all went as a family to cut down a Christmas tree. It turned into quite an adventure. It's kind of a long story, so let me just say that we ended up spending about an hour - hour and a half all squished together in the Jeep. And I mean squished. Noah knew that we were looking for a tree and didn't quite understand why we weren't choosing one of the many, many trees right around us. Every now and then he would point out the window and say, "Tree!" But we did have a very nice time together. The snow was beautiful and we (mostly I) sang Christmas songs and I really enjoyed being so close to my most favorite people. And we did end up with a very nice tree.

Dec. 13th was our ward Christmas party. We sang Christmas carols, then enjoyed a nice dinner served family style (which means the food is on the tables and we don't have to wait in huge long lines and juggle plates! Yay!!!), then we did get in a huge long line so that we could see Santa. Except for Stephen. He decided that he is getting to big for Santa's lap, so he and James helped clean up. The rest of the kids all got to tell Santa what they wanted and got their picture taken with him. I wasn't sure what Noah would do. He didn't say anything, but he didn't cry either.

We had two Christmas concerts, one for Stephen for band on the 14th (and I forgot to take my camera) and one for Stephen and Anne for school on the 17th (I did bring my camera, but Stephen was sick so he couldn't go). They were both great concerts! This picture is all of the 2nd graders of Lena Whitmore Elementary. Annie is in the middle row, 5th from the right. It's pretty hard to tell which one she is. They did a really good job!

On Dec. 18 Stephen was feeling much better and I had a little shopping to do, so we all went down to Lewiston after James got home from work. There is a park there called Locomotive Park where the city puts up a huge light display. It was so neat!

All the trees were very bright.
The very biggest tree has lights that go off and on in time with the music that is playing in the park.

There is a large mat, probably 20 x 20 feet next to another tree. The mat has big square buttons under it that you can jump on. When you jump on certain squares certain colored lights on the tree will turn on and off. Very fun, even for James and I.

They had a nice big fireplace.

A tunnel of lights over the sidewalk.

Dancing Penguins!

We had such a good time!! We will definitely be going back next year.

We had a nice Christmas Eve and Day. It was nice and relaxing to have just us at home, but we did miss our extended family. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!