Christmas Time is Here

December is upon us, and we are gearing up for our first ever Christmas in Montana. It is amazing the we have lived in Montana for almost 8 years and have never celebrated Christmas here. For all of Addisons life, we have not had a tree in our house, or hung stockings. We are excited to start some of our own traditions with our kids this year. So far we have been out to the "wild" to cut down our tree. I had very low expectations, but our tree is one of the most beautiful I have had ever. I think the process of tromping through the woods with the kids, and finding the perfect tree makes it all the more beautiful to me. We have also started the count down with our advent calendar, and are trying to do daily advent readings along with lighting the advent wreath. This becomes a little difficult with a three year old, but we are trying.

This also marks the first year that Addison has not been terrified of Santa, and was even excited to have his picture taken with him. Abigail on the other hand screamed her head off (as you can see.)



We went on the Santa Train again this year, it is fun for Addison to get onto a real train, and although the train does not actually go anywhere, he had a blast sitting in the seats and looking out all the windows. Like last year, they gave every kid a hat, gloves and scarf.




Abigail seems a little oblivious to the whole Christmas going ons, she won't even touch the tree, I don't think she likes how it feels. But she looks very cute in all her Christmas duds, some of which she has been wearing for the past month because I was afraid she would grow our of them before Christmas arrived.


Here is her new favorite sleeping position


This past weekend, we had my company christmas party up at the Double Arrow Lodge at Seely Lake. Despite the weather (it was snowing and -4 without the wind chill when we arrived there)we had a wonderful evening and stayed the night in a great cabin. Bart played Santa for the second year in a row, and although he didn't let on at the time, Addison did know it was daddy. I asked him where daddy was, and he said "Santa is daddy." Evan Abbi warmed up to him, looking a little confused that her daddys voice was coming from a very weird looking man in red.




Another fun thing we have done this winter season is put up a bird feeder outside out front window. We are apperently the only one for miles, because there are literally swarms of bird that decend on it throughout the day. I counted 8 birds on it at one time today. At this rate we will be filling the bird feeder about 2 or 3 times a week. Aren't birds supposed to fly south for the winter??

More Christmas Pics to come!!!