Lately...

Lately we've been busy getting ready for Christmas. I've almost gotten all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped. Lillie found the trampoline that was going to be pretty much the only thing the kids were getting this year a week or so ago. So, we've put it up in the yard and the kids have loved jumping on it. Good call on the tramp! Henry has still managed to fall off twice, but has not slowed him down. This weekend we finally got around to putting up some Christmas lights on the house. My kids LOVE seeing the Christmas lights around the neighborhood and town. It's still warm enough in the evening to go on walks and check out the lights. SO FUN! That is one good thing about Californians. I don't know if it's because it's not too cold and so they'll stay outside longer to put up all their lights or if it's because they're trying to compensate for the lack of winter weather, but there are so many decorated houses around us. It's great! We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and Santa was there walking around during dinner to give candy canes to the kids. Henry ran straight over to him and gave him a big hug when he first saw him. It was cute. He is crazy about Christmas. He asks daily if Santa's coming today. He boasts about being on the "naughty ist" as if that's the cool thing to do. He is always talking about the Buzz Lightyear gun that Santa WILL bring him. Anyway, there was a really impressive program at the party and Lillie held the star during the Nativity Song. We were lucky enough to be able to get some time off, so we will be driving to WA for a week to spend Christmas with my family. It's been a long time since we've been there for Christmas, so I'm really excited. Well, excited for everything but the drive. I'm just worried about the road conditions. Fingers crossed! Lillie had her last day of preschool last week. We had to take her out because it was too expensive. She loved it and I loved it, but we just couldn't justify the price. So we'll be having school at home instead. On the last day as we were driving home I looked in my rear view mirror to see silent, giant tears rolling down Lillie's face. It absolutely broke my heart. She is quite the social butterfly and will miss preschool.