It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Well, not really. But it is cold and gray right now, which certainly helps. Keara is SO into Christmas this year. She doesn't truly understand it all, but is so excited about the lights, the tree, the music, Santa, presents (though she doesn't get that she will be getting presents too or that this is part of Christmas), and the overall magic of the season. It has been really fun for me and Braden to get more into the season with her.

To start off getting into the Christmas mood, besides the music, we took the girls to an outdoor mall where they blow "bubbles" that look like snow. We played on the play area for a while waiting for the snow to start (we were told it was every half hour), but after an hour and no snow, we decided to leave. Oh well.

Our ward had our Christmas party on the 6th. It was SO SO SO amazing! The theme was the Polar Express and the kids all came in their pajamas. They all got tickets to board the "train" and then the commitee put on a great program, complete with clips from the movie, interactive activities, a visit from Santa, crafts, hot chocolate and other INCREDIBLE treats, and a chance to sit on Santa's lap. Taryn was scared and Keara was even scarder (name the movie). So, we have no picture of Keara.

We bought our tree from Target this year and it is big, fat, and beautiful. I love it. Keara makes sure we have turn on all the Christmas lights each morning and the outdoor ones at night. When our neighbors were first putting theirs up, she would ask each day if it was Christmas. Thinking she meant the day, I would always tell her, no, it's in a couple weeks. Then I realized she meant was it time to put on the Christmas LIGHTS. Ahh. So, we quickly got ours hung and now it is Christmas at our house every night. She loves to drive around and see everyone's lights. In fact, that's what we're doing for our Family Home Evening activity tonight.

We also made homemade soap in Christmas colors and shapes with Braden's sister's son, Kyle, the other day. They didn't turn out like I hoped, but it was fun to get so messy doing it!

I also made some really easy chocolate truffles. Here's the recipe:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3 cups chocolate (chips, milk or semi-sweet, bars, bark, white or dark, whatever)

1 Tbs vanilla.

Melt the chocolate with the sweetened condensed milk over medium-low heat until thick. Add vanilla. Pour into a bowl and let cool in the fridge. Scoop out and roll into 1-inch balls (easiest with a melon baller). Roll in toppings, such as peppermint dust, chopped nuts, sprinkles, powdered sugar, cinnamon, etc. Really good and easy! My favorite are the peppermint ones and Braden loves the almond ones. A great treat for a Christmas party!

Speaking of Christmas parties, we had ours on Saturday. It went well and we had 27 people there. It was sparser than last year and less mingly, but it was still fun. We're thinking of making adjustments for next year to make it GREAT!