Christmas Magic

This time of year is magical. Anyway you cut it, it's so much fun. As my kids get older, it becomes more and more magical. Even the excitement of having Christmas lights is a blast! I love seeing the world through their eyes!
Ben and Trent putting up our Christmas lights...I was too lazy and cold to open the door, so you get the through my dirty windows view. Sorry about that! Ben is always so patient with Trent and let's him help out with just about everything. Trent, on his own, ran and grabbed his rake and started cleaning out our gutters. I think he's helped Ben with that a time or two! The result. Simple, but we've never had lights on the house before. Last year, our first with a house, we didn't feel like putting them up since I was 8 months pregnant and Ben was in the midst of capstone finals! We went up to SLC to see the temple lights. It's always so beautiful, peaceful, and cold, but we always have a good time. Trent loved seeing the baby Jesus, riding on the elevator and escalator, and looking at the glowing bubbles on the water. We had a lot of fun. It's been a good tradition for our family. Tuesday night I was able to go see The Nutcracker with my friend, Heather. We first went together two years ago, but realized this year that we missed last year. We were probably both not feeling like doing more than necessary! Anyhow, it was really good. There was one little boy who was so small and so cute in the first scene. I could almost imagine Trent playing that part. The performance we went to adds in two songs that I've never heard before, but I remembered them from two years ago - popcorn and irish songs. I really like them, which is a good thing. Tonight we had to run a few errands, and since it was our only free night together as a family this week, we used it pretty well. We had to get new pants for Ben at the mall. Fortunately for me, about two years ago I started remembering what pants he liked the best and now we just head straight for that store. It's not even worth the rounds of finding something else. While Ben was finding what he wanted there, Trent found the pile of hats. He immediately put one on and started laughing. He's so much fun! Driving all around tonight he kept singing the theme for "Thomas". I think he's trying to learn it a little better because he keeps asking me to sing it with him. You know you're a parent of a little boy who likes "Thomas and his friends" when you AND your husband can sing the entire theme song and it makes your kids so happy! It was a fun night together!