Gingerbread Houses and Other Christmas Festivities

 Shad sat on Santa's lap for the first time ever!  It was unplanned on Black Friday at Walmart, but it still counts.  And he didn't cry!  And he had fun smashing the candy cane Santa gave him... 

We got our decorations up shortly after Thanksgiving.  Now all we need is some more snow!  

Our home teacher brought us over a Christmas message and a Christmas countdown chart.  There are little chocolates each day and Shad LOVES opening them.  At first he wanted to open multiple days at the same time, but I think he has actually caught on to the fact that it's only one per day so it's actually worked out and been fun for him.

 We walked around a Christmas Gift Festival (which was basically an expo) at the mall where Nordstroms used to be.  They had a kids section with fun crafts and games and I helped Shad go "ice fishing."  He was excited to see a piece of candy come over the wall when he pulled on the fishing pole. 

 On December 9th Jeff's family held their annual Gingerbread House making party.  

I had to include this cute one of Tylie attacking Shad with hugs when we arrived at the house:

Nea and Tiff:

Nikki and Spencer:

Spencer's cousins Andrew and Carrie, and their kids Charlotte and Harrison:

Tyler's Hobbit house:

Amy and Tylie:

Jared:

Rick and Marnae's Stonehenge: 

Jeff, Shad, and I and our train engine:

A closer view of our train: