transitioning to Christmas.

With the leftovers eaten we quickly transitioned our last 2 days of the holiday weekend into Christmas. Our family LOVES Christmas. All of it. The music, the lights, the festivities, the traditions, the shopping, the trees....we love it all!

We headed over to Watson's for our annual reindeer visit complete with a scavenger hunt for the Christmas gnome, hot chocolate and letters to Santa. Even though there are 395769393 decorations that could easily break from one of my adorable children touching it they always do such a nice job walking around admiring the decor before we write our letters. 

 The reindeer are so fun to visit and this year we even got to watch them play and eat a tree! Simon could have spent all day standing by the fence but the big kids were ready for the scavenger hunt.

 After they collected their prize we wrote our letters to Santa and mailed them away. Fingers crossed they get what they asked for!

 Later that afternoon we headed to the theater for a family movie. This newest version of The Grinch was fantastic! Other than Grandpa falling asleep for a bit and Simon wanting to cuddle in my lap I'd say it was a big success.

 And finally, the last morning we headed out to the Christmas tree farm. Matt is shocked every year at the price of a silly tree but the kids just love the tradition of hunting and searching for the perfect one so we keep at it. The weather was perfect for a morning at the farm.

 The boys all helped cut the tree down while Lucy and I supervised.

 After the tree was cut down Carter and Matt went to go pick it up and carry it over to the tractor so they could drive it to our car. Carter accidentally snapped off the top and was so upset! It was pretty obvious which tree was ours from that point on. Luckily, after a few tears, we told him he could keep the top for his bedroom mini-tree and we'd still find a way to get the star on top. Whew.

 We came home, unpacked and quickly put the lights on. I pulled out all the Christmas books for the kids and every single morning they've wandered downstairs, snuggled up with a blanket and read a good book. And this magical moment....it's why Christmas is my favorite time of year.