Just Before Christmas

I have great memories of the fun activities and excitement that always preceded Christmas while growing up. Austin was getting old enough to really start enjoying some of these things this year, so we tried to do some fun Christmas things with him. For example, we took him and his cousin Zach to see Santa. Austin told Santa that he wanted a "Christmas car" for Christmas this year. He also got to see the reindeer that were there.

We also took Austin to the dollar store to pick out gifts for people this year. He was very good at picking out things that looked interesting to him. For example, he ended up getting his dad this calendar:

 
As usual, we made lots of Christmas goodies to share with friends and neighbors, including sugar cookies. Austin was able to frost and decorate his own batch this year.

Austin also helped make a cardstock Christmas stocking to give to his grandparents. Then he drew a picture to put inside of it. It turned out to be a big hit on Christmas day.

We drove down to my parents' place the day before Christmas. We got there in time to go snowshoeing with my brother Ben. Unfortunately, when we reached the trail, we found that most of the snow had already melted away. There wasn't enough snow to even use our snowshoes, so we just went without them. We headed part way up the Shingle Mill trail.

Zipper came with us and was able to try out her little boots that she got last year for Christmas. Unfortunately, they didn't always stay on her feet, but they did do their job by preventing ice from building up in the grooves of her paws.

We also got to talk to Nate's brother Timothy that afternoon, who is currently serving his mission in Australia. And that evening ate a delicious dinner, read scriptures about Christ, and sang Christmas songs. It was a great day!