I'm a Little Teapot

It is so fun to watch the faces of little kids at Christmas. We've been having colder weather lately - no crazy storms, but a little snow flurries here and there. But, the temperatures have definitely been chilly so the kids have been making hot chocolate on a regular basis. Nathan went to his buddy's house and they had a tea pot to heat the water - one that whistled when the water was hot. He thought it was awesome. Then some days later he went to another friends house and they had one too. He told them that's what he wanted for Christmas - a tea pot. So even though he was super excited about his bow and arrow and his other little toys and things, when he opened the box with the black tea kettle (that came with a top that whistles) his face was priceless! Charity and Chad and family came to our house to join us for Christmas this year. We went sledding, ate a traditional New Mexican meal on Christmas Eve (complete with homemade tamales that I had made with a friend earlier that week), went horse back riding at Will's house (Will is one of Dad's co-workers), acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve, waited for the music on Christmas morning and then rushed it, ate breakfast casserole, did a couple of puzzles and hung out together. It was excellent. The kids get each other gifts at Christmas time. I was constantly telling Nathan to choose less expensive things because he was always wanting to get something that his brothers or sisters really, really wanted (regardless of the $25 price tag). For Ben he wanted to get a panda blanket with a hood. It was $14. Again I told him to choose something that didn't cost so much but he begged and pleaded. He knew the money was coming right out of his account, but he just couldn't pass it up. He was so excited when Ben opened it Christmas morning (and especially to see how surprised and excited Ben was). I like when we get glimpses of the true meaning of Christmas amidst all the fun and other excitement.

Sledding

We found a great hill that we love to go to for sledding. It is up in the mountains, but only about 15 minutes from our house. Nathan goes and goes and goes. As soon as there is someone down with a sled he is ready to hike back up the hill to take another ride down. And the cold doesn't bother him at all - he usually bundles himself up pretty well, but even when he gets snow inside the gloves or boots, he just powers through until we're done for the day.

Mr. Snowman

First snowman of the season. There wasn't much snow to work with, but these kids made it happen. A few days later they went out and made a friend for the snowman - she was even smaller than this guy.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We've always wanted to cut down our own Christmas tree, so we decided this was the year. We bought a permit for $5 and headed to the mountains to look for the perfect one. We looked and looked and looked. We drove and stopped and looked around and loaded back up and drove somewhere else and looked around some more. Most of the trees were pretty sparse or way too big. After a few hours (and the excitement definitely diminishing) we found a spot with a couple different options that would work. The one we decided on actually had 2 different tops, which is kind of odd, but we decided it would be fun, so Dad chopped it down and we tied it to the top of the car and headed home.