December 2012 - Miscellaneous Fun

My four little sweeties.

We began the Christmas season by using the gingerbread house kit that Grandma Deb gave to us for our "December 1st" gift. :) 

(I decided it would be fun to give Charlie a little taste!)

Our Santa visit went pretty well. We found one of his "helpers" at Harmon's (this is now a tradition for us...thank goodness our kids don't mind!).
Tyler went first and showed Santa the letter that he had written expressing his interest in about three different toys...that way, Santa could take his pick and surprise Tyler!

Lilly was a little bit bashful, but at least she didn't get nervouse this time!

This is as much as we could get Sam to participate...just standing next to Santa for a picture. He reluctantly left his letter with Santa (similar to Tyler's letter) and that was all he wanted to do.

Charlie, on the other hand, was definitely "not sure" about Santa this year. I love his expression in this picture. We'll be adding this to our collection of "Scared of Santa" pictures that we have taken over the years! :)

We had some other miscellaneous fun during early December that included:

Charlie learned to vacuum!

Sam helped out in the lunchroom at school....and loved it!

Dad went with Sam on a class field trip up to a local ski resort. 

Sam didn't want to try skiing, and that is totally fine by me. 

He had a TON of fun, regardless, and spent most of his time getting burried in the snow!

  ....oh, and making giant snowballs!

Lilly decided to give up her afternoon nap....but occasionally I would find her mid afternoon in the hall like this: 

Grandma gave Lilly some of her old costume jewelry...and now Lilly has decided that she would like to get her ears pierced on her 5th birthday!

Lilly also discovered peppermint ice-cream! Lucky for her, Grandpa Leigh is always willing to share!

 She also learned about the joy of catching snowflakes on her tongue!

Our family joined in with my two brothers and their families to gather up a big delivery of toys to donate to Primary Children's Medical Center! Our family got to have the honors of taking them up to the hospital. It was fun to see our kids get excited about doing service!

Charlie went sledding for the first time! I don't have pictures of the action but I did manage to snap one of him fast asleep after the car ride home. Awwwwe!!!

We had plenty of other Christmas related fun and activities that I will include in another post. :)