Christmas

I can't believe that it is already over. Christmas time is so much more beautiful and magical with a child. Every Christmas just gets better and better. We were able to spend Christmas with people we love and care deeply for. Christmas Eve was spent at my dad's family's house. Christmas morning was spent at home with my mom's family and Christmas night was spent at my in-laws house with siblings and cousins. Judah loved opening gifts, I don't know if he was so much interested in the actual gifts as he was in opening them. Before he could finish opening one gift, he was already looking to open another gift. We had to slow him down to appreciate what each gift was! He now has so many toys that he could probably open his own small toy store. I need to figure out a toy rotation or something because there is absolutely no room for them all!
Judah still hasn't quite grasped that Santa came to our house with the reindeer and brought him a gift, maybe next year he'll understand it more!

 Judah's cousin James

 On Christmas Eve before bed Judah got to open his Christmas pj's and new book to read before bed

I totally forgot to take pictures at my husband's parents house but I took a quick picture of Judah with one of his cousins before we left

Side note- I totally procrastinated and took Judah to see Santa on Christmas Eve. 2 hours later, every time the woman tried to get Judah to smile he would smile and look over at me. Cute of him, but maybe next year we'll get him to look at the camera!

Salt Dough Ornaments

This past week Judah, Daniel and I made salt dough ornaments. I've seen them all over Pinterest and Instagram and thought they looked simple enough, so we gave them a try!  

We used the 1+1+2 method 
(Ours was 1 cup of salt + 1 cup of water + 2 cups of flour = 6 cutouts and enough dough to make a toddler hand print)
We then left it in the oven at 200 degrees for 4 hours and left them out overnight to make sure they were completely dried out. 

Christmas time is here!

After months of not having a camera, I finally bought a new one! It is a beginners DSLR but it is definitely an upgrade for me.

It is finally Christmas time and it is in full swing around here! Earlier this week we got our Christmas tree and yesterday we went to look at Christmas lights. There's this neighborhood that block after block has all these amazing lights. They even had carolers, a Santa and sold hot chocolate. Judah is at the age now where it all fascinates him, which makes it totally worth walking around in the cold for me.  He actually sat with Santa which surprised me. Last year he was terrified to sit with him at the mall. By the end of the night Judah was cold and so tired that I had to carry him back to the car. 

I think this time of year we can all get caught up in the materialistic part of it but it is such a great reminder of the love our Father has for us. As much as I love the spirit of Christmas and reading Judah books about Santa, I know it is even more important to use this as an opportunity to talk about Jesus to him. He loves helping me bake and later this month we plan on baking a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and read books about Jesus' birth. 

 Picking our tree

 Unwrapping our ornaments 

 Getting hot chocolate with Grammy

 Santa!

Tired and cold!