This weekend

We had a pretty good weekend if I do say so myself. On Friday we decided that a movie night was in order, so we went and got The Smurfs, Super 8 and Water for Elephants (my "after kids are sleeping" movie). We all absolutely loved The Smurfs. Super 8 wasn't all that great, honestly. I wasn't impressed anyway. Water for Elephants was good, not one I would ever watch again.
Saturday we had a full day planned. We were going to clean the house and shop in the morning, then go see Santa, attend the Storybook Cavalcade and see the Tuba players in the afternoon. Then off to our ward Christmas party. Well, we heard that the parade was cancelled so we took a bit longer to clean and get ready to shop. Next thing I know...Ry is passed out on the couch. It is RARE that he actually naps on a weekend, so I wasn't about to wake him up. Finally I had to do it because we had to go shopping before our ward party (I was assigned mashed potatoes and needed to go buy some). We eventually made it to our party with potatoes in hand a half hour late. But there was still plenty of food and our tummies got full. After some grubbing and a few Christmas carols/stories....Santa showed up! Oh how Ryder was loving that. I was wondering how he was going to react....if it was going to be a screaming thing or a happy thing. It ended up being a very VERY happy thing as Santa gave an early Christmas present of goodies. And he officially put in a request for a shooting gun. Cause there are guns that don't shoot apparently.



Not sure whats going on with Nate's face...but they were all happy :)

Speaking of Santa....you would think at a church function people would be civil in the line for Santa right? Well, we got cut in front of like 3 times. Seriously folks...was it really that important for you to see Santa that you had to push the rest of the line back.... by a lot? Since you all had 3+ kids. Anyway moving on.
Sunday we had a fantastic lesson about keeping Christ in Christmas. We have a fun activity planned for FHE which I will share tomorrow that came from that lesson. As a random tangent....I am also going to be working on being more grateful for what I have this week. I think I've been in a slump the last month and it needs to stop. I know if I change my attitude, things will be much better. So....I'm working on the attitude change. Back to Sunday....we made some goodies for our neighbors as well that we are delivering as part of our FHE tonight and then headed to family dinner.
After a yummy Chinese dinner, the family whipped out the Christmas tree and got to decorating. It brought up memories of being a teenager and refusing to use the homemade ornaments becuase I thought they were ugly. My mom so kindly let me go choose all new decorations. Our tree was very classic and fancy for quite a few years. I saw those ornaments in the box and funny enough, I leaned towards the homemade ornaments. Funny how as you get older, the importance of those little trinkets are realized. I think this year we did a pretty good mix of fancy and homemade. I think the tree looks great. 

I shoulda done a close-up...but I like it anyway

This is my last week of school before finals. Finals are next week. I am lucking out BIG TIME as I only have two and they are not going to be cumulative. And I get to use notes on one of them! Awesome. Funny enough I am actually sad to see the semester go. As stressful as this semester has been, I have loved having the opportunity to go to school. I am very much looking forward to next semester. So...thats all. Hope ya'll have a good week!