Christmas: Getting Ready

I have so many random pictures of this Christmas season that I want to share so that I can always remember these precious moments in my life! One day I will have to turn my blog into a book, but that's when I have a lot of time and probably a lot of money...

Until then, here's some random pictures from December...

As soon as we got the Christmas decorations out, the Santa hat stayed on Gavin's head through most of December...

Yes, even to bed!

We got "Elf on the Shelf" this year and I had so much fun doing silly things with our elf "Larry" (Gavin picked the name). Here's a couple of examples:

I want to do much more with him next year and even incorporate him into Advent. Like maybe he'll bring us Scripture every morning to read as he shows up in silly places? Haven't figured that out yet. Glad I have a whole year to think about it. :)

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree before we got to put up our real tree:

Decorating the real tree with Dad:

Henley in awe of the tree:

I would like to title this "Looking for Santa Clause" but really they're just watching 2 men rip apart our deck in the backyard :)

Probably my favorite picture of Henley...

...well, maybe tied with this one:

Love seeing these sweet kiddos popping up in our new opening while I'm doing dishes!

Henley's foot (strapped in for good reason)...

+ Gavin's foot...

=Our Christmas craft for the grandmothers

(Thanks to my new addiction: Pinterest!)

We've had snowball fights thanks to Mom's genius idea of cotton balls...

...and at the Blantons:

We even had a snowball fight via FaceTime with Unk and Aunt Meg in New York!

(p.s. Thanks for sacrificing so much paper, Chad and Meg! This was so fun!)

We decorated sugar cookies with Kim and Rev:

...and enjoyed some yummy Hot Chocolate!

(I should really make this for him more--he loves it so!)

Gram brought up a Gingerbread House to decorate:

(Gram--Gavin is still in mourning after finding the Gingerbread house in the trash! He still asks about it!)

We went to church with our neighbors a few weeks ago and the kids looked so cute that I have to share these pictures...

Gavin and Gabe in matching bow ties that Gabe's mom made:

On Christmas Eve, Gavin helped me make a birthday cake for Jesus. This was the first year we did this and we will do it every year!

This boy loves helping me cook. Hmmm...wonder why?

Finished product:

Hopefully I'll have more time + motivation to document Christmas day pictures!