Christmas Season 2013 -- Events & Activities

I'm trying something new this year, and breaking up all the Christmas photos into several different posts. For those that subscribe to my emails (always the best option because I don't post everything to Facebook!), that will be mean more emails, but I sought counsel on the decision and it was decided that a few large posts are better than one humongous post.

This is about all the different activities or happenings or events or traditions we participated in. Enjoy!

Austin actually helped hang his ornaments on the tree this year! (We did end up moving them, but only because they're fragile and we wanted fragile ones higher. Not because we didn't like how it looked.) It's a TowMater and McQueen in case there was any doubt.

Seth always decorates cookies at his mom's house. I think it's usually just Seth, his parents and the Grandkids, but Spencer was there this year. (Cheryl and I never go.) I hear Austin was great and that Graham had fun participating in the fun, though not the decorating. I spent my House Quiet time writing my Christmas cards and it was fabulous. It's one of my favorite activities of the season! ;-)

Caught red-handed!

They each got to add something to the frosting and then each got to make a color. Delaney was apparently super great with helping Austin. I don't doubt it because she's always amazing with both of our boys.

Austin actually has the attention span to watch movies now, so we watched several of the classics. This was us watching Rudolph. We watched Charlie Brown and since then, Austin can identify the music from the movie whenever he hears it. LOVE that!

We went around to look at Christmas light several times, but since the camera was off and on working, I only got meager pictures with my phone. Farmer's Branch has a park of lights you can drive through. It's very short, but gorgeous and the boys' school had a fundraiser one night, so we went that specific night.

It's not a great photo, but I need to record that Austin calls them Fowsnakes.

I love a tunnel of lights. My favorite!

There's a park near us that is filled with these trees, all different colors. You can't drive through it, but just passed it. It was super cold that night so we didn't get out, and the camera was broken so I couldn't get any super great shots, but I intend to try again next year. The first one below, I had Seth turn the headlights off so I could better capture how completely amazing these trees are. And the picture doesn't do it near enough justice!

Austin had a party at school. I'm not sure I'll go to one of those again. It's the adults standing around the edges of the room eating nothing while the kids eat their special food. Am I the only one that find that weird? There wasn't singing or a presentation of any kind. Just watching them eat. ?

What sorts of things does your family do in December?