Christmas Awesomeness...

The past twelve days have been jam packed with Holiday Awesomeness...

Nothing starts the holidays off better than a visit from my awesome friend Cynthia.

Then it was Maya's orchestra concert...

This picture is awful but it's documented right??

Aric got death glares from people because he saved a whole bench for us and the Romney's.

Camden was making friends right and left and was definitely not using his concert etiquette.

I was in charge of our ward/congregation party that also included women and children from a local battered women's shelter. We had close to 300 people in attendance. This is what my car looked like on the way to decorate.

We also adopted eight families from the shelter. This is what my front room looked like after collecting all the gifts at the party. I have been working with this women's shelter for seven years now, it is hands down the best part of my Christmas.

We delivered the gifts on Monday for Family Night. I wanted a picture of Eden sandwiched between all the gifts...

But then Maya and Camden wanted to be in the picture, this is how those turned out...

We invited our friends the Young's to join us. It's so awesome to see the generosity of so many people. It's a ton of work to coordinate it all, but to be on the Lord's errand is such a blessing that the work doesn't feel like work at all.

We live in the coolest town ever...Santa comes to your neighborhood with his musical truck to check in on the kids, they run out and say hello to him. He reminds them to be good and gives them a candy cane.

Then we had Eden's 3rd grade Christmas concert. The poor girl was on the risers in the corner that had no light so I didn't get any good action shots, but here she is after the concert with some of her buddies and her teacher.

I have been busy making homemade Christmas gifts so I kept the kids busy with Aric making a gingerbread house...good thing I took this picture right when it was finished because unfortunately C was left alone with it this morning and let's just say some candy is missing...

I had "Muffins and Moms" with Maya before school this morning...

Then I made a ton of sugar cookies...these were the ones left over...

All for Eden's Christmas party in the afternoon...This party was a piece of cake compared to the ward party I had to plan!

Camden was AWFUL!!! Eating the candy off of kids cookies they had just decorated. Crawling on the floor like an animal because he said he was an animal. Knocking plates off of desks, on accident of course. He got snapped at by the teacher because he was snooping by her desk. He had all the boys acting crazy during musical chairs that there were injuries happening during every round. Seriously, he will NEVER be invited to another school party again!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks but it's all part of the holiday season and I really do love it. I only wish there were more hours in the day...we are headed to Oregon in the morning for a few days. We'll be back just in time for a quiet Christmas at home just our family of five. We've never done that before. It will be interesting ;)

Stay tuned, there will be more awesomeness to post soon ;)