Pre-Christmas festivities.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas, we kept very busy with several holiday-inspired activities. Carter and Asher are so fun at this age and their excitement is contagious, so we took every opportunity to celebrate the season.

I think I introduced Elliott to everyone on the blog last December, but in case you don't remember, he is our Elf on the Shelf. Elliott made his magical entrance on Dec. 1 and Carter remembered him right away. I read the story to the boys and they were immediately intrigued. Every morning from Dec. 1-Dec. 24, the boys would wake up to find Elliott hiding somewhere new in the house. He would watch the boys to see if they were naughty or nice, then fly back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa. Carter was all over this little game, leaping out of bed every morning and asking "did I find Elliott today?" It took Asher a few days to catch on, but he followed big brother's lead perfectly and even found Elliott first some days. He would run to find Chris or I and drag us to Elliott's hiding spot and just point at him saying, "Ella!" So excited. Elliott was tricky this year hiding high and low, in cupboards, on the toilet, etc....
...in fact, there were a few mornings when Elliott just plain old forgot to hide. We think he was just too tired after all his flying overnight. As soon as Carter pointed this out to us, we made sure he got "un-tired" and quickly hid that little elf!

We also made a couple trips to the Winter Wonderland barrel train ride here in town. Carter noticed it all lit up every time we drove by, so he was thrilled when we stopped for a ride.
I'm trying to make it part of our "tradition" to spend time baking and decorating sugar cookies every Christmas. It's a royal mess and quite a lengthy project, but it's quality time with our boys and seeing the pure delight on their faces makes it all worthwhile. Carter was much more meticulous with his frosting this year and learned that we can't lick the knife every time we dip it in the frosting. Asher basically served as quality control...he took his licking very seriously.

There were LOTS of cookies to test.

Sprinkles are the best part!

And finally, he got to try out his masterpiece. The next week we visited the Winter Wonderland again, this time with our friends, the Eilrichs. Carter and Reanna were old pros at it and I think they ended up riding the train four or five times that night. Hunter and Carter. Asher rode once, then hung out with the moms. He was more content running around all the safety cones.

Many Christmas pictures to come!