Visits with Father Christmas

The girls have had many chances to visit with Santa Claus this year. Fortunately, though, they haven't yet really caught on to the commercialism of Christmas and therefore don't regard him very highly. Christmas is still all about Jesus to them, thank heavens.

Avery asked Santa for some candy for Christmas and then was promptly rewarded with a candy cane by his elf. She's a believer.

Sophie said she was going to ask him for some whiteboard markers. I told her that we already had some of those, so she said she'd just ask him for some more for when ours run out. I love requests that are so easy to fill.

Joseph and I went to our ward Christmas party where each table got to decorate a gingerbread house. All the other tables were done with theirs before we even started, and they all looked so pretty that we felt like being rebellious and doing something different. So we made a bowling alley instead. And guess what? We won second prize, mostly because of Joseph's idea to turn the Christmas tree parts into a bowling lane complete with a ball and pins, and also because the judges were a few deacons who just thought this was funny. The girls loved it when we brought it home and spent the next week eating the candy off it slowly until the gingerbread was so hard that Joseph let them demolish the house with a hammer. How's that for Christmas spirit?!

The Primary also had a Christmas party for the kids where they once again got to sit on Santa's lap. This time Sophie asked Santa to bring Avery a bike (because I told her to say that since I'd gotten Avery a bike earlier that week. I'm sneaky like that.)

We took the Polar Express to the North Pole and saw Santa and his reindeer there. But the line to sit on his lap was too long, so we cheated and snuck through the exit to visit Mrs. Claus instead.

After all, anyone can sit on Santa's lap, but very few get to sit on his wife's.

The girls stuck their heads into these little snowmen.

I wish we could've gotten the entire family into these positions, but we never got the chance. It was a fun trip anyway, complete with a train ride to and from here. We've had a fun Christmas season so far and are excited now to celebrate with family in town! Merry Christmas, everyone!