Our city always decorates the Draper Park with lots of lights, including the popular "Tree of Life." Every year they host a tree lighting ceremony. Normally we don't go because its often snowing that night and my boys don't tend to do well standing in the cold for hours at a time. This year, however, the weather was decent (still really cold but no snow) and we didn't have any other activities going on. Jason was traveling, so I decided to take the boys myself. The boys and I were looking forward to it, but it ended up being a very crowded and less-than-exciting experience. Blake really wanted to see santa, so after the ceremony we rushed over to the barn that santa was in and waited in a huge line to get "free" pictures with him (ended up being tiny photo booth pictures). By the time we got out of line, the festivities were mostly over and we headed home. We probably won't attended the lighting festival again, but the park itself is always a fun place to see pretty Christmas lights.
Huge tree at our local outdoor mall.
This year we decided to get a real tree. Growing up my family always bought real trees, but since having kids, Jason and I have always used fake trees. This year I wanted my kids to experience getting a real tree. We ended up buying one at costco (which unfortunatly meant we didn't get the experience of picking one out, but oh well) the day after Thanksgiving. Putting up a fake tree after Thanksgiving is a good idea - buying a real tree that early probably is not. It smelled amazing, and I enjoyed having a real tree, but it started dying the week of Christmas. I wanted to keep it until New Years (for our New Year's tree tradition), so it was pretty brown and crispy that last week!
Each year I try to buy the kids an advent calendar. This year I got each boy their own. Wesley got a Harry Potter sock one, Chase got a lego one, and Blake got a chocolate one.
Wesley had his formal piano recital with his new piano school. It was the nicest recital I've ever been to!
I love decorating for each holiday! Its so much work, but I hope it helps create warm and happy memories for my boys.
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