We had lots of Christmas fun last week in Des Moines! We were there most of the week because Kley had tax school (continuing legal education credits to maintain his law license), so we tagged along and then stayed through the weekend. It was a great few days! Always fun to see family and friends. This time was special because, since we were there for longer than just a weekend, I set up some things to see different friends. I saw a few friends I used to work with when I taught there, two old friends from church, and one of my good friends from high school. Kley had a pretty boring time at tax school, but he was a good sport about it. One of those things you just have to do!
There is this house a couple blocks from my parents that has an awesome light display that we like to walk through every year. The girls loved it! (Norah didn't want to be in this picture, so I convinced her to be in it by telling her to poke her head through the hole in the middle. Ha.)
Sometimes she doesn't want to be in the picture at all, and other times she'll request a picture all on her own!
Oh, the child-like wonder!
A tax school highlight every year is going to the mall to say hello to Santa and ride the Christmas train! I feel like the topic of Santa has come up a lot this year amongst moms and asking each other how they handle it. Obviously, everyone can make their own decision for their family, but we personally focus on Jesus. Yes, we take our girls to say hello to him, but we tell them that Santa isn't real, that it's just for fun and it's a man wearing a costume. We don't to anything along the lines of leaving him cookies or the naughty/nice list, etc. We try to make Christmas about Jesus' birth as much as possible, because that's the true meaning of Christmas!
Love spending time with Grandpa and Grandma! And how cute are their snowman dresses?
The only way our girls will ever go up to Santa is if we go with, so we will probably have a family Santa photo forever! (Or until they decide they are too cool. We saw one family there and their oldest boy said he didn't want to ride the train, acting like he was way too cool for that, and Kley and I commented to each other that we will be a little sad when that happens!)
Christmas train!
Decorating gingerbread houses!
Cute pics! So glad you had fun with your family! So sweet to have those traditions! Enjoy the childlike wonder for as long as it lasts! 💗
ReplyDeleteThanks! Always fun to go! And yes, the child like wonder is definitely a seeet positive of parenting in the younger years! So fun to watch their eyes light up!
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