Let the Christmas-ing Begin!

Christmas vacation has officially started!  Today was the last day of school for the kids and we've spent our afternoon/evening doing our best to kick things off with panache.  So, obviously, that meant heading to the grocery store after school for everyone to pick out their Christmas cereal.  {And Lunchables for dinner.  Mmmmmm.  My favorite.  Hahahaha.  Although, any night where I don't have to cook is my favorite.}

Since it's the first night of vacay, bedtime has completely flown out the window, and as a result, all six kids are still awake.  Yay!  Hahaha.  J/K.  Isaac REALLY needs to go to sleep.  But other than that, everything is going mostly swimmingly.  Jane and Alex have built a fort in the bonus room to have a movie night and sleepover; Ethan convinced me, Grace, and Sophie to head back to the town square tonight to see the lights; and Scott is taking one for the team and attempting to calm Isaac down and get him to bed.

Alex told me this evening that his teacher really liked his gift (a tumbler full of chocolates plus a Target gift card).  When I asked him how he knew, he said something along the lines of, "She was really stressed, but then she had one of the chocolates and she wasn't stressed anymore."  He deduced that based on his powers of observation -- in case you were wondering.  Hahahahaha.

 {How awesome is this book tree display at the library???}

 Scott and I snuck out yesterday for a lunch date while the kids were all still in school.

Grace won some Fish and Chips at mutual tonight during the Young Women's gift exchange.  She's pretty pleased with her new pets.

In addition to all of today's Christmas-y activities, we celebrated our 6th Annual Kid Ornament Exchange on Saturday!  As per usual, it was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.  I, for one, would love it if certain children didn't wait until the day of to make their ornaments, but all's well that ends well, and Sophie, Jane, and Alex were all excited and ready by the time the party started that afternoon.

 We went with cookies and hot cocoa for refreshments once again.

I always LOVE hearing everyone talk about where they got the idea for their ornament and how they made it.

 (I didn't realize until after the fact, that I never got any good closeup shots of the ornaments my kids made.  Sophie filled some Christmas light bulb shaped ornaments with metallic pom poms; Jane filled round bulb ornaments with glitter and regular pom poms; and Alex went the shrinky dink route once again and drew some Pokemon characters this time around.)

 Time for the exchange!  Everyone came with 10 ornaments, and hopefully everyone left with 10 ornaments.  :)

With 6 days left until the big day, we'll try and pack as much family fun in as possible.  Activities on the horizon will include (but are not limited to): decorating gingerbread houses, playing games, watching movies, shopping for the Jolabokaflod and for Secret Santa Stocking Stuffers, spending time with friends, and doing our best to focus on the real reason for the Season -- the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our scripture for the month is a quote by Elder Quentin L. Cook, and I love it because it talks about joy while also fitting right in with our "Light the World" efforts for 2018.

Following His light and example will bring us joy, happiness, and peace.

Here's to lots of light and love this holiday season!