Santa, Santa, Santa...

I think we are Santa'd out. We saw 4 in one week. Our very first one was our ward Christmas party. I'm not going to post any pictures of this one, although I should since it's the only one that Tyson wasn't crying in. The second one we saw was at Kids on the Move. Now...I wasn't going to post any of this one either, but I got a really good picture of Tyson crying on his lap. He has never gotten scared of anyone before, so for him to recognize this isn't a normal person he sees everyday...I thought it was awesome. And the second reason for me posting pictures of this Santa....he gets the title of "The Worst Santa Ever". K, I know...it's really sad and mean of me to say that, but it's true. It's like the Christmas story, although he didn't push my kids. Brylee was the first to sit on his lap. Afterward she said "I know that's not the real Santa, his beard keeps falling down." So I told her it was Santa's helper because Santa is way too busy. Karston was next and he sort of just stood in front of him waiting for Santa to pick him up. It was just awkward. Finally I said, "Karston, sit on his lap so I can take a picture". Santa picked him up and asked him a few questions and then again....awkward silence. Then Tyson sat on his lap and he did not like it...as you can tell from the picture. I loved his reaction. All the kids got blankets and coloring books. They had activities and snacks for the kids. They really did do a good job. Poor Santa.

The next Santa we saw was at Grandma and Grandpa Juber's house this last weekend. This Santa called himself "Father Christmas". He was SO great. One of the best ones we have seen. The kids loved him...except for Tyson.

For our Christmas this year, we decided to donate our money for hygiene kits. It turned out great. The kids did all of the work and they loved it. The kids got spoiled with all of the presents they got from Santa and from grandma and grandpa. The boys all got matching froggy pajamas and the girls got matching candy cane pajamas.

So this year with the cousin swap, we decided to make our gifts instead of buy gifts....although I cheated a little. I'm not so creative when it comes to stuff like that, but my sister-in-laws on the other hand....VERY CREATIVE!!!

So, the picture below of Tyson is the present he got from Jeramie...although I'm pretty sure Mistie did all the work. :) He has socks on his hands and they are the "2 little blackbirds". It was the cutest present and one of the most creative. Tyson loves the song "2 little blackbirds". We sing it every week in motor class. He knows exactly what to do with his hands and he loves putting the socks on his hands. I took a video of him doing the song, but I took the video verticle and I didn't realize you can't rotate video. So, I need to record it again. It's adorable.

Now, the present Karston has in this picture...it's a book Jade (5 years old) illustrated and made up and Crystal wrote it down in a little book. It's called "Karston the Martian". Jeramie got the first half of the book (Jeramie the Dragon) and Karston got the sequel. Karston LOVED it. He loved that he had his own character. Although, a couple of days later when we were reading it he got scared and wouldn't look at the book. I kept probing him and asking him why he was so scared. It's not because of the "dark knights" (Tyson and Corvin that looked scary), it was the illustration of him with a big smile on his face. I was laughing so hard. He would say "the picture that looks like this...", and then showed me the big smile that "Karston the Martian" had on his face. I had to explain to him that the picture he was looking at was because "Karston the Martian" was happy...not evil. He cracks me up.

These next pictures are of the kids sprinkling "reindeer food" (oatmeal and glitter) on the lawn so Santa's reindeer could find us. It's a tradition grandma Juber has been doing since they were little. They also make the "magic drink" (homemade rootbeer). Grandma goes to the North pole to get all the magic ingredients from Santa. The kids love it and it's a great tradition.

The last Santa (and hopefully the final one) we saw was at our family Pace Christmas party. My grandma does a lot of work for this every year and it always turns out great. It took us 3 hours from Nate's parents to get there because there was such a bad snow storm...we even thought about just turning around and going home, but we stuck it out and we got there safe. What a fun-filled week, but I'm glad it's over.