Merry Christmas!

We had a FUN Christmas day! The kids woke up at 6AM and we opened presents.  They all said Santa brought everything they wanted and were very happy.  We do 3 gifts each: a gift of Love, a gift of Fun, and a gift of Learning. We had found that this keeps things simple, and we put a lot more thought into gifts rather than just buying whatever their whims are at the moment.  They also exchange names and buy a gift for their sibling, so that is a lot of fun as well. 
So Tink got roller blades for love, watercolor set with easel for learning, and a music creator for fun.  She got a Fur Real dog from Goofy.

Bucko got roller blades for Love, a lap harp for Learning, and remote control car for Fun.  He got a dinosaur thing to dig for the dinosaur and then put it together from Tink.

Minnie got the Leapfrog Tag with 3 books for her gift of Learning. She also received a princess suitcase with a Minnie Mouse lunchbox for her gift of Love, and a doll for the gift of Fun.  Bucko bought her a Fur Real baby panda.

Goofy got a Toy Story 3 suitcase with a Mickey Mouse lunchbox for his gift of Love. He received the Leapfrog Tag system as well for his gift of Learning and a remote control car for his gift of Fun.  Minnie bought his 2 books and a little basketball game.

After opening presents, we quickly ate breakfast, bundled up, and headed up to Sandringham.  We waited to watch the Royal Family head to church.  I got a few decent snapshots.  After the church service, the kids were allowed to give flowers to the Queen.  Mine even made it onto the BBC news!  Here are a few of my best pictures.



A friend took this one and it was by far the best one we have of Tink giving the Queen her flowers! Oh what memories!

All in all, it was a very fun day.  Yes, it was cold, but well worth it.  Who knows when/if I'll ever see them again! Maybe if I can make it down to London for Will and Kate's wedding.  Hmmm....we shall see.  



This one actually came from a news site, but since it had two of my kids in it, I saved it!



Santa Claus 2

The "real" Santa Claus didn't make it to our ward Christmas party today. Obviously he wasn't the real one this time because he didn't have a real beard. (This is all told to me by my children. I think he was actually supposed to be Father Christmas.)  Goofy didn't have any problem this time though.  Total pro!  We told him it was our turn, and he walked right up to him and climbed in his lap!! I was astounded!  Amazing what a two-year-old will do for a candy cane!

So I love our ward. I have met some of the best people in the world here.  So many great examples.  And most of the time I enjoy ward activities.  It is crazy here because we have the smallest building compared to amount of people who attend. It can sometimes be just outright madness to have an activity where 250-300 people are packed into our cultural hall which isn't even a full size basketball court. Not even a half size either really.  But it was a lot of fun and well planned out. 

We stopped at the Lynford Stag park on the way home. I wanted to get their picture in front of the reindeer.  Someone gave them these balloons as we were leaving the party.  They LOVE them!



Here they are getting ready to slide down the pole out of the large stag.



Soccer Finished!

Tink and Bucko had their last game today.  Well, their original last game.  Last weekend no one came to open up the gym, so we waited outside for a long time only to find that no one could open it and then they just canceled all the games for the day.  Since that happened, they decided to have a make up day for next Saturday! I am not taking them to that.  It's too close to Christmas and wasn't in the original plan.  We have other things to do that day.  So we had Tink's soccer party today. She got her first trophy! She was so proud!

Santa Claus

On Friday we went to a Christmas lighting (Well, we got there late and the lights were already lit) and to see Santa Claus.  It was SO cold, but we waited in line for a long time.  And I guess it was a good thing, because according to my oldest, this was the real Santa!  Apparently because his beard was real and he had glasses, he must be the real Santa. He was a very nice Santa and even Goofy sat on his lap! I was amazed, but when he was tempted with the candy cane, he went right up to him and then Santa picked him up and sat him on his lap. Amazing!

After Santa, we went over to the movie theater and watched Tangled.  We loved it!  We saw several other friends there and the kids were even able to sit with some of them. Bucko was the cutest (well, they are all cute, but I sat next to him and could hear his comments!).  He would say things like, "Boy, sing!!" when the boy would sing and when he died, he was so sad and made his sad face where he frowns really big and pushes out his lower lip, and said, "Boy dead?"  He was happy when he came to life again.  (Sorry if I just ruined the ending for anyone.  But it's not like you wouldn't have guessed it from a Disney movie. But I will say this was different than most other Disney princess movies! I liked it!)

We all got stamps to show we had paid. The kids love getting stamped, so we took a picture!



My House continued...

I bought a dresser for Minnie today. She ripped the drawer right off of her old one. It was super cheap. Storage drawers that we bought at Lowe's years ago. So it was time for a new one.  I found one for 30 pounds at the "Junk Lady" in our village. Moving all of Minnie's clothes into the new dresser was a major process, though.  We had to clean the entire room. The good thing, though, was that I was able to take some decent pictures!  I've been trying to get my room clean for a few days now. I moved some furniture around too.