Christmas Festivities!

The week before Christmas we enjoyed several different activities to get us into the Christmas spirit and remind us of the true meaning of Christmas! We enjoyed one night at Austin's preschool Christmas program!This rascal is not easy to take pictures of and usually runs the opposite direction of the camera! Hence this not so amazing picture of my handsome little man! But, he was very excited to stand on the stage and wave to us sitting down in the chairs!Here he comes!Okay, I guess I'll wave to you! :)The sang a lot of cute songs about Jesus' Birthday! It was very cute!Austin spent most of the time with his fingers in his mouth, and would take them out occasionally to wave to us and to do a few of the actions for the songs. Typical Austin! Would expect anything less!A few days later we enjoyed what has become another Christmas tradition for us in the Drinkwater household. We went to the Oakland temple to enjoy the lights and a live nativity.SOOOO EXCITED!!! They look forward to this every year!Ryan wanted so badly to take a picture where it looked like he was holding the temple! He must have seen this somewhere, because he was relentless in trying to get this picture taken! It was funny!Our friends the Robertsons who went with us!Getting these three to take pictures was nearly impossible!In the past, the rooftop of the temple has been closed. So, we've never been up there. This time it was open, so we treked up to the top to check out the view! It was beautiful! Ryan thought it was so fun to look down over the lights!After walking the temple grounds, we enjoyed the live nativity! We got front row seats and enjoyed listening to, and watching about the birth of our Savior!We had so much fun!!!

O Christmas Tree...

The weekend after Thanksgiving we headed for the hills to pick out a Christmas Tree! I was beyond excited to take Justin, Ryan and Austin to Snowy Peaks where I went nearly every year growing up to pick out a Christmas Tree with my family. I think that this is a tradition we will start up in our family now!We were so excited to hike around and find our tree!We enjoyed the day with some of our favorite people!!!

Megan and AllenNatalie and AubreyTylerRyan and Papa SchmidtNana Schmidt, Aubrey and AshleyNatalie, Me and MeganLove them all to pieces!!! (Wish Trevor was in this picture, but he's serving the Lord, so we'll forgive his absence)Once we were all ready, we began the hunt for the perfect tree!Can you see it?! It's out there! I promise!Ryan and Austin thought they were pretty big stuff......and had a lot of fun following Papa around the mountain!"Bye Mom! I'm going to find a tree!"Such a cutie!I love this place! You can pay and go for a ride around the tree farm! After a while of hunting, we finally found it!!!Ryan had to help Dad cut it down and did such a great job!Counting the rings to see how old our tree is! 12 years old! Ryan thought Daddy was soooo smart that he could figure that out!Little Goober!Carrying it up the hill! Luckily we didn't have to carry it too far. The truck came by to pick it up for us and take it to the front of the farm so we could enjoy a leisurely stroll back. While we waited to get our trees, we enjoyed some hot chocolate by a nice bon fire......and played on Santa's Workshop and train!

Next we loaded up the tree......and stopped by the store for some dinner!I love this tradition and all of the traditions that come around Christmas time!

The following Monday for Family Home Evening we put up the Christmas Tree! This year was a lot of fun decorating the tree. Ryan and Austin were able to decorate so much of the tree themselves, and pretty much did. They would tell Justin and I where to put some of the ornaments, and we would do it for them. They did a great job and we all had a great time!