Halls? Decked.

Chuck and I have always been big fans of Christmas lights on other peoples' homes but have never taken the plunge and put them up on our home... until now. I found two sets of opaque C-9 lights at Savers and took it as a sign; those are the kind of lights we had on our house growing up and they've my absolute favorite.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and string them up before Chuck came home from work. This meant climbing up on a ladder (admittedly a very small one) and praying that I didn't die and also jimmy-rigging (that's a term right?) the lights in a couple spots where the previous-owner-installed brackets were broken.

All in all, we think our two rows of lights above the garage are pretty. dang. festive. and not as much of an embarrassment to the neighborhood as I feared they might be, so success! I kind of want to add a new strand each year (like one half of a triangle at a time, haha) but that would involve a higher ladder or getting on the roof, sooo.... yeah.

We took advantage of Chuck's weekend off at the beginning of December and got our merriment on inside the house as well!

Grandma Pam: the lovely stocking you made for Jack last year still needs a central embellishment. Let's channel your inner elf and nimbly get that done, eh?

In another effort to get into the holiday spirit, we partied it up with Chuck's co-workers at their work shindig. I didn't have my camera, so enjoy these dreadful awesome cell phone pictures:

Sean and his wife generously offered to host the party in their home, and the boys had a blast in their garage - it had black lights, a nerf gun target shooting area, and hockey equipment. We saw very little of them the whole evening, which obviously equals much more enjoyment for us! I bonded with the daughter of another co-worker; Kaitlyn and I have the same birthday (meaning she's just a couple of weeks younger than Jack) which makes her awesome as far as I'm concerned! And finally, there was a white elephant gift exchange, so Chuck is holding what we brought - a winter-themed baking dish with a Stetson cologne sampler and a bottle of sparkling cider.

Here's what the attached card read in explanation:

Basically Chuck and I made ourselves laugh sooooo hard while we were putting it together, which is apparently the way to our hearts since home-cooked meals are not my forte and Chuck rarely smells like worn leather and suede. 

Our ward Christmas party was last weekend, and the boys were SO excited to don paper crowns and bathrobes to act as wise men in the little reenactment of the Nativity Story. 

[Chances are if you've seen Will in the last couple of weeks he's inquired what you're being for Christmas before explaining that he's being a wise man. There's a strong possibility he thinks costumes are a thing for every holiday now...]

I was a last minute fill-in to lead the primary kids in a couple of [obscure] Christmas songs, one of which Will happily did the actions for... by himself, haha.

Santa made an appearance at that Christmas party, prompting the boys to spend some time writing out their wish lists this week:

Funny story: Will has been talking about Santa bringing him a board game for quite some time now. Awesome, we happen to know for a fact that Santa can handle that. But randomly when he sat down with his marker, Will cheerfully declared, "Santa have no more board games, he going to bring me a telescope!" Chuck and I immediately looked at each other in a silent panic. Upon further questioning, we realized that Will was quite enamored with a 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' talking telescope that we saw the other day at Target. I quickly explained to the wee lad that Santa has PLENTY of board games and that a talking telescope sounds more like a birthday gift. Luckily Will nodded along and he is now banned from any toy aisles until January!

Here's Will's finished (two-sided) letter:

And here's Clyde's finished letter:

Obviously the best way to ensure that Santa believes your claims of having been good is to tack "I SWEAR" on the end...