Jess in the City: Christmas festivities

We decided to stay in the city for Christmas this year. We were really excited about starting some of our own Christmas traditions with the boys at home and not have to travel during the holidays (besides the fact that Jon couldn't get the time off work anyway!).

We love attending our annual ward Christmas party and this year it was especially nice. Noah is finally old enough to participate in Primary activities and this year they did a live nativity for the party. Noah sang in the angel choir. He loved getting ready for it and insisted on having wings! I thought wearing white and tying some tinsel around his waist would suffice, but apparently not! My tinsel soon found itself wrapped around a wire dry cleaning hanger along with straps from his old Buzz Lightyear wings! He looked great and did a great job in the choir.

Santa also visited the Christmas party and Noah had a little chat with him (lucky for us because we never made it down to Santaland this year!). I was totally loving this year because he didn't really have anything in particular that he wanted. So when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he just replied, "whatever you bring me!" Then Santa said, "Well, you'll probably get lots of cars and trucks!" And he was like, "Awesome!" Unfortunately, I didn't really get him any cars and trucks this year, except for his traditional Hot Wheels car stocking stuffer. So, I found myself at Target on Christmas Eve purchasing some kind of Hot Wheels car- track-thingy that I hoped would cover it. Luckily, it ended up being his favorite present, but he was also confused when he got things other than cars and trucks. I'm pretty sure he thought that was all he was going to get. So, I guess he was pleasantly surprised :) Gabey had a total freak out when I put him on Santa's lap (also part of the reason Santaland didn't seem very appealing this year!) so no pics of him!

We also had a little Christmas Eve party at our place where Noah played Joseph in our live Nativity. He had a blast dressing up and acting out scripture. Good friend Addi was Mary and her baby sister was baby Jesus. She was SO good... apparently she loved her starring role! Forrest and Abbie stepped in as the angel and the shepherd and Rhett gave a ground-breaking rendition of the wiseman. It was fun having our first Christmas Eve party at our new place and I'm sure this will become a great tradition.