Christmas Activities

We did so much this Christmas season! One of our favorite adventures was a sleigh ride to see Santa. The ride wasn't so great as it was mostly dark, but the bells on the horses trace chains, and the crunch of the snow under the wagon wheels was really nice. Seeing Santa was pretty cool, though. We met he and Mrs. Claus with no line and no fuss. It was great!

Mark and Mom snuggled up for warmth on the ride.

These guys can't take a normal picture.

Seth and Dax claim their favorite food is snow.

We had a pretty significant snow early in December too, which was awesome. Our boys love to shovel and though it was deep, they still managed to do a few driveways. Those six inches were mostly gone by Christmas, but we enjoyed them while they lasted.

Seth is a great shoveler.

We like to do a widow's driveway after we finish ours. 

Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place Heritage Park offered us free tickets again. We really like going, so the boys were grateful. They had a few more activities going on this year, but our favorite is always Pioneer dancing in the school house. This year Dad enjoyed it so much he said he's going to start his own Pioneer dancing tradition.

We took a picture in the Church, but nothing was going on inside.

The boys took a picture by the Nutcracker, which they named Leon.

Father Christmas looked every day of his 3,000 years old.

Seth enjoyed the fresh baked gingerbread cookies.

Best of all, we spotted our old friend the Barn Owl, whom we hadn't seen for nearly a year.

We managed tickets to the Alpine Nativity. We love the walk through noisy Bethlehem,
followed by the peaceful walk through the stable.

We had the neighbor boys over when their parents
locked themselves out of their house and car!

Seth is loving his kindergarten year with Mrs. Duvall. She has been a singing teacher for a long time, so we knew Seth would get some good training. Sure enough his class had a Christmas Concert in December. Seth had a smile on his face the whole time. It is so fun having a kindergartener!

Seth has adapted really well to calling Mom's friend Angee "Mrs. Duvall."

Dad misses all these concerts, but he's glad Mom is always there to take pictures.

We also took the kids back to Funtopia. We like the climbing place, and they had a night with cheap rates. The boys climbed every wall, and Seth started out pretty timid, climbing down after about ten feet. But by the end of the hour, he was at the top of the wall. Dad had the most fun of all, because the two workers were ex-students of his, and they gave him some free tickets for next time!

We're always amazed that the kids start out timid and end up confident in just an hour.

Both Mark and Dax tried the jump for the first time.

The Ockey Family Christmas Party took place at Aunt Sandy's, same as always. Our boys love being around family, even though there are around 70 people there now! They always look forward to three things: Sitting on Santa's lap, eating egg nog ice cream, and especially picking a candy cane to take home. They were not disappointed this year!

Dax recognized Santa from the other two times we saw him!

We've had our eye on the Miller Family Christmas Sing Along at the Jazz Arena for a long time. This year we finally made it. As usual, we arrived early and ended up on the sixth row. They had a live orchestra and some amazing singers, but mostly they let us sing along. They even sold concessions for half price. Grandpa and some of Sandy's family showed up and sat with us so we had a really great time. 

Seth graciously shared popcorn with Grandpa.

We like to sing Christmas songs. 

We were on the floor a few rows behind the Miller family.
It was so fun!