It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Festival of Trees

My mom was a volunteer at the Festival of Trees so Laura and I decided to meet her just before her shift ended. The trees are so beautiful and unique, with so many touching stories behind so many of them. It's hard for me to know the stories without getting teary. Festival of Trees has such a great purpose. The boys loved the lights, and being there with Luke and Grandma.

We watched the dancers....

Connor and Luke with Santa


Andrew and Benson with Santa. Santa gave them each a candy cane stick. When Santa asked Benson what he wanted for Christmas he replied, "um, I want a tree." This answer is consistent with what he has told us the last five times we've asked him. He even told us he wanted a tree after visiting the toy aisle at Target. Needless to say, we got a tree the very day after Thanksgiving this year- that's a record for us. He's been so excited about it.

"Thanks Santa, this is yummy!" Andrew dropped his candy and it broke within the wrapper. He got a hold of one half of it and started sucking on it. I think he was catching some sugar through the wrapper, because it was not leaving his mouth. ( I have six more pictures just like this- it was like a permanent fixture in his mouth.) I decided to be a softy and unwrap it for him. It wasn't as big of a mess as I thought it would be, that's because he didn't let any go to waste. I did go through a lot of wet wipes today though.

Benson- not so patient with his candy from Santa.

We went to the 'kids corner' and they had this huge bubble maker. Benson was a bit nervous about getting in there so the guy in charge invited me to go with him. It was really cool.

POP!

Benson also got to paint his own ornament- which he loved doing. He's really embracing this new phase in his development where he loves scissors, paints, paper, etc. (Yesterday he wrote an 'i 'and an 'o' all on his own and brought it to me.) He also made this cute little monster with glue and pom pom balls, and a necklace with a bottle of layered sand. He loved this area- thanks to Grandma.

After kids corner, Grandma bought a cinnamon roll for Benson and Luke while Laura and I finished looking at the trees. Then we got a taste too. Overall, we had such a fun afternoon. I've said this before, but I feel a little guilty when I get to do fun things like this with the boys while Kimball is working, however, it all evens out. (See tornado post...)

Decorating Grandma Jones' tree

Grandma has an artificial tree, so we got hers out early and let Luke and Benson help decorate it. They used the little stool to 'reach the top'. Andrew was helping two because he only broke two ornaments, and it could have been a lot worse...

I can't believe how much more magical Christmas is this year for Benson, compared to last year. However, he still thinks that all the presents he's helped me wrap and put under the tree are for birthdays. It's really cute.

a little closer, just a few inches

The High Christmas Tree

We didn't go as far as letting Benson pick a tree, it was really cold, and it was getting closer to bedtime than we'd planned, but he was sure excited to sit by it on the way home. I love our minivan! Especially with the natural pine scent.

It took Kimball some extra time to cut the trunk and vaccuum all the needles, but Benson and I were ready to put the lights on when he brought it up. I, with careful supervision, let Benson connect all of the strands of lights. He called it the 'lights train'.

Q: Why are we putting up a Christmas tree with a one year old?

A: For the two year old.

Just testing mom. All the ornaments claim to be shatter-proof, lets hope we don't ever find out.

We've had to keep all the decorations higher than two and a half feet. This way I don't have to set an alarm around the tree. Andrew and Benson love it, we love it. It's really fun to have the lights on in our home and listen to Christmas music. It's exactly what Benson wanted. He says that he helped build it, but Heavenly Father made it.