December Fun

Obviously December mainly revolved around Christmas activities since it is our favorite thing! We made sure to make a plan this year so we didn't miss anything. We started out with the Julgranfest (technically in November) which is the annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Kingsburg. It starts with the lighting of a giant tree in the park and then the streets are blocked off and everyone carols to the tree downtown. After Swedish singing and dancing (my personal favorite are the dances that include running in various circles) Santa comes and the tree is lit. It is such a unique experience and literally reminds me of something out of Gilmore Girls. I love it of course!

Elise loved Santa

We helped decorate the church and picked up our own Christmas tree on the way home! The kids were super excited about decorating the tree for a whole five minutes.

While Dada ran a 50K in the rain, we stayed nice and dry making sleighs at Home Depot!

We went to the Santa Lucia Parade in Kingsburg where the highlight was a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory float complete with a rapping Willy Wonka. We also went to the Farm Equipment Parade in Reedley where the highlight was Emmett running into the street to give the Fiesta bird a high five! Both parades were super wet.

A local church was so generous to set up a synthetic ice rink free to the public. There were also crafts, a story time, and a hayride through downtown. Although it was super difficult to skate on synthetic ice, we had tons of fun and went twice since it was so close to our house. The first night we got to see the Fresno Falcon hockey team skating! Once again, something that would happen in Gilmore Girls.

Watching the hockey players

The hayride was my favorite part

Legos was Emmett's favorite part

Dada was by far the best skater

We went to Tristan's band concert and now Emmett wants to play the trombone.

Emmett and I babysat Eleanora and he had tons of fun playing with her and insisted that I put her in the "boat" he made for them!

We saw It's a Wonderful Life at the Opera House and Clara and Sophie got to come along!

The kids all had pajama day on their last day of school and just happened to wear matching pjs!  

Mrs. Claus made an appearance at Bella Bakery. We got cookies and milk and a book that she signed and enjoyed the nice day to walk there and back!

Jace turned two and we had a blast celebrating him at My Gym!

Of course we had to make Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses with Bailey!

Dada got second place in the HMC window decorating contest! Clara helped us make it and came up with the idea.

Who doesn't love love cats in ugly sweaters?

We finished out the Christmas activities with a trip down Christmas Tree Lane. Emmett walked over half way and Clara walked about half way. They were both obsessed with taking pictures with all the decorations.

A couple of nights we walked around our neighborhood to see the decorations. This was the kids' favorite.