blanchard life: Oh Christmas Time

Christmas has come and gone and it was DA BOMB. (And so now I guess I should actually start blogging about it) But of course half the fun of Christmas is everything leading up to it! Basically as soon as Thanksgiving dinner is cleaned up I turned into Buddy the Elf. All I see is Christmas. I actually think I was getting out the Christmas decorations while Garrett was still washing dishes. In December there are actually no rules in our home besides these:

1. Treat every day like Christmas
2. There's room for everyone on the nice list
3. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear

It was easy to keep busy this December, there was tons to do - on top of all the Christmas shopping that needed to get done. But best of all we had snow. When it first snowed our neighbors were housing two Saudi Arabian exchange students and they were so excited to see snow - I'm assuming it was the first time they'd seen real snow. Well one day we came home and in our yard was a normal sized snowman, an 8-foot snowman, a volcano (which they covered with pasta sauce to make it more "realistic"), and two snow forts. It was awesome, plus we didn't have to freeze our hands off making any of them.

Can you tell Garrett was born and raised in Texas?

The Christmas lights on Temple Square are a must in December. The whole thing is spectacular; the lights, the Temple and the nativities. Last year when we went to see the lights it was beyond freezing and it ruined the entire experience. Jack had to stay bundled up to his eyeballs in the stroller and we decided to leave after about 10 minutes. This year we figured we should go earlier in the month so Jack could actually enjoy the lights, but what did that happen? Not really. All Jack really cared about was playing with his stroller. The majority of our time at Temple Square was us following Jack around as his pushed his stroller into people, statues and fountains and we tried to point out lights to him. He's cray-cray.

Temple Square is awesome, always.

One evening the nearby mall was hosting a "Story Time with Santa and Mrs. Claus" and I knew it would be sups fun for Jack. Plus I knew that meant we could get Chickfila for dinner. (That's a win-win in my book) Basically Santa would be reading a few Christmas stories, there was some coloring activity and free mini cinnabuns. We arrived about 10 minutes early and there were already tons of people there, which I figured since it was a free children's activity in Provo. We were able to find a place to sit and after Santa read a few stories Jack wanted to play on the jungle gym - along with about 150 other little rascals. I followed Jack around like a hawk (because I'm still that Mom) but when his hat fell off and I took my eyes off Jack to pick it up he was gone. I was standing in a sea of children and none of them were Jack. I was immediately frantic and terrified. (It really didn't help that I've seen like every episode of Law and Order SVU) Actually terrified is an understatement. Luckily I was immediately able to have a lost child announcement made and Jack Boy was found. Where was he? Oh he had just wandered over to an arts and crafts table and was sitting there coloring with an entire family. He was totes fine and happy as a clam. The night ended fantastically when Santa gave Jack a high-five.

Cheesin' it up.

One of my most favorite things we did this December was when Jack and I went to The Festival of Trees. It was ah-maz-ing. I'm still annoyed that I've lived in Utah for six Decembers and I have only been once. I was seriously blown away. I expected there to be maybe 100 Christmas trees; I figured we would look at trees for 30ish minutes and then leave. But I was way wrong - there were over 400 beautifully decorated trees, dozens of mini-Christmas trees, wreaths, center pieces, gingerbread houses, Christmas quilts, Christmas treats, and a children's section FULL of different activities and crafts. Everything was donated to the Festival and then was available to purchase and all the proceeds are then donated to the Primary Children's Hospital. (They raised almost $1.5 mil. last year!) It was really a great experience.

Playing in "Santa's Workshop" where we went fishing, colored, made reindeer antlers and an Elf Wand (because that's apparently a thing that Elves use...)

We are related.

While Jack had tons of fun at the Festival his least favorite thing to do there was all I wanted to do! Looking at all of the Christmas trees of course. We were able to look through about half of the trees and I took some pictures of ones I really liked, but seriously I didn't do the Festival justice with my pictures.