Ward Party and Other Happenings

 Last night was our ward Christmas party. It's always a crazy time. Especially when for said party, 400 chairs are set up. I know there were empty tables and extra food but you can't say they weren't prepared that's for sure! Our ward has a great tradition of a professional photographer taking the Santa photos for every. single. kid. Genus, isn't it? I don't have to worry about taking my camera, they do all the work for me. The photog even put up the links to download this year and by next Sunday she will print out 4x6 prints for everyone. Love it.

 Reed was first in line for our family. He's not a shy one.

 I wanted Owen to cry because I love a good crying Santa photo.

 No dice though, he was just curious about that beard.

 Dane was not keen on sitting on Santa's lap. He finally agreed to for the photo after much begging on my part. But then he informed me he told Santa he wanted $50 cash for Christmas. What in the world?!

 After the line died down and dinner was almost finished, I convinced Kat and Nate to go get a picture for me. Kat was a 'helper elf', thus the ornament 'earrings'. Really they are ornaments tied around her ears because she doesn't have her ears pierced. She cracks me up!

Oh big son, slow down this growing business. Both he and Kat were fans of the candy cane from Santa. I don't care why then went for it, I'm just glad they did.

Reed was pretty much on one the whole evening. He's either making me laugh or wearing me out these days. His high energy can be exhausting. He was running and sliding on his knees in front of the stage or making gym floor angels. Yes, right during the whole program. Did I mention we were right in front? Closing prayer didn't come fast enough at that point.

One of our other holiday traditions (since moving here) is filling a box for the Salvation Army as a family. Isn't this the cutest little shopper at Winco? Our ward helps do most of the the dirty work for this service. They provide a list of foods, the box from the Salvation Army and deliver them when they're full too. All we have to do is fill it and tape it up. Pretty simple.

We usually split up the list, break into two teams, race around the store and see who can check out first. I've never been on the winning team but this year we won (Kathryn, Dane and me). Yeah! We were excited until Reed caught a glimpse of us. Whoa, he was  upset when he saw we were done and they (Nathan, Milo and Reed) were still in line. He screamed, ran over to me, yelled he didn't want us to win, started crying and punched me. What a show for the other shoppers! It was hard not to laugh, mostly out of embarrassment. He was so sad though. Next year he said he's on my team.

The other day out of nowhere, Dane asked, 'When is the Polar Plunge?' I told him they are usually held on January 1st and asked why he wondered when it was. One of his classics came next. He said, 'Because I'm preparing for it. Tonight I took the coldest shower possible.' Oh he makes me laugh, he was as serious as he could be. I laughed and laughed (not in front of him). I put it on facebook for laughs and our bishop thought it was pretty funny too (his wife told him about it). We had tithing settlement tonight and our bishop told the boys the priest quorum was planning such a plunge on Jan 1st. He invited both Dane and Nate to go with them. He even invited Kat but she said all she wanted to do was watch. Me too! Dane said sure he'd go, 'it was on his bucket list'. Ha. Kids are the best.