Wednesday night the kids finally got to put together their gingerbread house. From the get-go, there was a whole lot of consuming candy rather than decorating with candy but isn't that part of the fun? The icing was really hard to spread so the kids only got to decorate the roof but I thought they did a great job.
Today Xander had his preschool Christmas party. They made two crafts - a Frosty the Snowman and a stocking decoration - and decorated Christmas cookies. They played a few games, sang some songs, and of course they ate yummy treats! Xander had a great time although he wasn't too thrilled about the book he received in the book exchange. Unfortunately one of the moms didn't buy a unisex book like we were supposed to...Xander opened his book to find 3 girl mermaids on the front. He stared at it for a second, turned to me and said, "I don't want this book." Xander is all about boy stuff and 3 little girlie mermaids are not going to cut it. I felt bad for him and tried to remedy the situation by telling him he could give it to Savannah as a gift for Christmas. Luckily one of the other moms noticed Xander's unhappy face and exchanged her daughter's book for Xander's. Overall it was a really great party and Xander really enjoyed it.
The nativity with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.
The new star guiding all to the birthplace of the Savior.
There was a forecast of freezing rain and snow but we decided to head down to the DC temple anyway to look at the beautiful Christmas lights. We missed last year so we were determined to make it this year and we're so glad we did. As we came over the hill on the freeway, the DC temple appeared, looking like it was suspended in mid-air! Savannah said, "Look at all of the cars, heading to the temple." I knew that she was referring to all of the cars on the freeway and I really wish that her statement had been true; I know first-hand the joy and peace that can be found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful experience we had, to be there with all of the beautiful lights and the gorgeous temple! Although it was cold outside it wasn't unbearable and we were able to spend some time wandering the temple grounds, looking at all of the many lights without a hint of rain or snow. There was a beautiful nativity display in the Visitors Center with nativities from all over the world as well as a live nativity outside which brought tears to my eyes as we watched the reenactment of that glorious night in Bethlehem. It is always so wonderful to be on temple grounds; one can feel so strongly the love our Heavenly Father has for all of us. 
I love how you can see the statue of Christ through the window.
My favorite picture of the night. There is no place I'd rather be with my family than at the temple, a symbol testifying to the truth of eternal families.
In our house, pirates are a favorite, especially for Xander. He loves to dress up as a pirate and has a lot of the Pirates of the Caribbean action figures. Last week I picked up the most recent Pirates movie out on DVD and Xander found it. He's been carrying the movie around all week and begging to watch it. All three of the Pirates movies are some of my favorite movies ever but I do feel that some of the subject matter is not appropriate for a 3 year old. Xander thought he could sucker David into letting him watch it but David also remained firm. Until Friday. Now, before everyone starts thinking that we're horrible parents for letting our kids watch Pirates (the first one) for their Friday night movie, I must tell you that it only took 50 minutes to watch the whole movie; I sat there with the remote and edited out huge chunks of it with Savannah and Xander being none the wiser. I did allow them to watch one fight scene - the one where Captain Jack fights Will Turner at the blacksmith shop. During that whole scene Xander just sat there staring with his mouth wide open in awe of such great pirate moves. Xander is now eager to watch the next two Pirates movies.
My cute little pirates!
For Savannah's school we have to keep track of how much she reads each day. She is supposed to read 10 minutes each night as part of her homework so we have always tried to read between 10-30 minutes each day. For October we read 540 minutes and I was so proud of her. A couple days after we turned in her reading sheet Savannah came home saying that she hadn't won the prize...a boy in her class had read 760 minutes and had been awarded a trophy. She said that she wanted to win the trophy the next month and so she committed to read for an hour each day. We tried really hard and some days we didn't make that goal but by the time November was up Savannah had read over 1,000 minutes! And she won the trophy for November! I was really proud of her for wanting to excel as well as doing the work necessary to achieve the goal we had set. She's hoping to make it two months in a row.
Here is Savannah with her trophy. It doesn't look like much but it means a whole lot to her.
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen...
And of course you know the most famous reindeer of all...Rudolph...
But did you know there is a new reindeer?
Chubby Reindeer! Isn't he cute?
Noah is such a great baby and loves to smile for the camera. He has also started clapping which is so cute to see. We love our little guy.
Saturday night we had our church Christmas party. It was really nice this year and we all had a good time. While we were eating dinner Savannah told me that she thought she was going to be Mary in the program. Since I hadn't heard anything about this I just said, "Maybe" not wanting to get her hopes up. Well, next thing I know the Primary chorister is coming up to talk to Savannah about what she needs to do in her role as Mary. As Savannah got up, she looked at me and said, "See? I told you I was going to be Mary." And she was such a sweet little Mary. The little Joseph was a cutie but there was a scary moment when he fell head first off the back of the stage. Thank goodness he was okay. He wasn't the only casualty of the night...two sheep also fell off the stage as well. But all the children looked so cute and did such a great job. It was a much better program than last year when the main songs sung were "Stranger in the Manger" and "Walk Like a Wise Man". Xander also got to be a star in the show...literally. He was the Star that shone over the manger. Backstage the Primary workers tried to get Xander to put on one of the costumes but he absolutely refused and did his "Xander grunt" at anyone who approached him with a costume. They finally threw up their hands and let him just hold the star. Since he isn't in Primary yet I think he was pretty excited to be included in the program with the big kids.
Sweet Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus.
Our little star!
The kids also got a special treat at the end of the party...another visit with Santa. Savannah mentioned that Santa didn't look the same as when they saw him at the mall. I said it was kind of hard to tell because of the different lighting. 
The next morning as we were getting ready to go to church, Xander said he was excited to see Santa at church again. Savannah said that Santa wasn't there anymore and Xander said, "Yeah...he went home to Old Navy." (Xander associates the mall with Old Navy because that's usually the only store we hit when we're at the mall.)
Saturday morning we (meaning David) hung up our outside Christmas lights and then we headed off to get our Christmas tree.
Xander helping David.
Little Noah was so sad he couldn't be outside with the rest of us.
We ended up getting our tree at Home Depot, a nice, safe place to buy. We did get a Douglas Fir which is my favorite kind of Christmas tree, and although it is a little smaller than I wanted, it's still a great, full tree. Plus, the fresh pine scent is wonderful and makes our whole house smell like Christmas.
Xander loves to help! Here he is helping David get the tree set up in the tree stand and trimming some of the lower branches.
The kids were so excited to get the tree decorated. It was Savannah's turn this year to put the angel on the top of the tree.
Since I posted our blog last week regarding our attempt to find and cut down our own Christmas tree there has been a general feeling that I am looking for some grand Christmas tree. Everyone is waiting to see what kind of tree fits my idea of perfection since I passed up so many Christmas trees last weekend. Well, lest anyone continue with the absurd notion that I am some kind of a Christmas tree snob, I have convinced David to let me tell the truth as to what really happened that day at the Christmas tree farm. It is true that the Douglas Firs were all too small but we did find a tree that we thought would look nice in our home. David started to saw it down...and then it happened! He sliced his pinkie finger but good. Blood was dripping everywhere! Although he wanted to continue sawing the tree down, I took stock of the situation and knew that we needed to get him to urgent care. Of course David didn't want to make a big deal about it because for some reason he was highly embarrassed about the whole thing. Rather than asking the workers at the farm for their first aid kit, David got in the car and I ran over to the concession stand to get him some napkins. It took about 15 minutes to get to the nearest urgent care and by then David was in some pretty good pain. Thank goodness we had a babysitter at home with Noah because I just dropped the kids off with her so they didn't have to be bored at the doctor's. The end result was that David ended up with about 7 stitches and we had to wait another week to get a Christmas tree. He wouldn't let me blog it or tell anyone about it until this weekend. So, there it is...I am not some weirdo looking for a light to shine down on some perfect Christmas tree...I am just so in love with my husband that I was willing to look like a tree freak to cover up his embarrassment.
Every year the kids love to see Santa at the mall, sit on his lap, and tell him what they want. We were even able to get all 3 to pay attention during the photo so that was a win!
