The Festival of Trees 2014

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was making a gingerbread house as a family and donating it to the festival of trees each year.
 
Then, going to the festival and buying Christmas treats, playing at the Kid's Corner, and seeing the different trees.  I miss getting to do that every year.

This year, I was lucky and was in town for the festival and gingerbread house making.
 
 

We were already there for Thanksgiving,

and we stayed in town for another week so that Lily and Amara could do their Christmas sleepover with Grandma Debby, who would be gone over Christmas.  (They loved that sleepover with their other girl cousins, by the way.)
 

Making Icicles.

We had such a good time helping decorate the gingerbread house.  Dad did such a good job constructing it!  It turned out beautiful!

 
 
Here's a slideshow of the festival of trees and the gingerbread village:

This photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

Thanksgiving Weekend

The turkey. Two angles. I had Steve take pictures at Thanksgiving this year, because my camera is dead, and I was helping out in the kitchen quite a bit. He took some great pictures, especially of the kids. But I have to say, it's kind of funny that the only pictures we have of the feast are these two pictures of the turkey.  Anyhow, we had the feast at my dads house. Jacob and Kelli and their kids were in town for Thanksgiving this year!  Because they were going to be in town, I made sure that I was there too. My family was very blessed that the weather was so decent for travel. 

We went on a nature walk with Steve's dad during Thanksgiving weekend. There were ducks, acorns, and lots of opportunities for pretty pictures.

We made a special trip to the temple while Jacob was in town so that we could all go together.

Lily loves dogs, and my dad's neighbors had a cute puppy running around in their front yard that Lily got to play with for a little while.

And the kids proved that you don't need snow to go sledding!

And the trees were perfect for climbing at grandpa Jim's house.

Isn't this picture pretty?

And this is what all the kids were doing while they waited for the food to be ready.

Good times! 

On another night, we also took over a whole section of a restaurant in Lindon called China Village. We were probably the most lively group they had ever seen, where the kids actually outnumbered the adults. We were so glad to have our own section of the restaurant. No one was there when we arrived, but more arrived after.

We all walked away with no major destruction to the place, so I say it was a success. 

I love to see my kids spending quality time together.