The Buchanan Family: Christmas Festivities

December is definitely the most wonderful time of the year. I wish the Christmas season lasted longer. I love everything about it. I love all the traditions and festivities. There are too many things to do and see and not enough time! But we did the best to do as much as we could during the month to celebrate the season.

I've been taking the kids to the free concerts at South Town Mall since Kirstie was just a baby. It's one of my favorite things! I love the great music by local musicians, the kids love the free hot chocolate given out by Mrs. Claus! Most days I brought sack lunches and we sat on the floor (the concerts are really crowded!) and ate while listening to the music. We also made sure to visit Santa while we were at the mall. He is a wonderful Santa! He took a lot of time with my kids, singing songs with them, reciting parts of the Night Before Christmas, talking and asking questions. Ian has never been afraid of Santa. He always just walks right up and sits on his lap. Kirstie is more hesitant. But by the end of the month, she would sit on his lap and talk to him as well.

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Festival of Trees! I love looking at the amazing trees! The kids love it too-- at least for a little bit. After not too long, they were ready to move on to something else. But I could stay there for hours looking at everything!

Ian loved this baseball tree where the branches were made out of bats and the ornaments were baseballs.

Kirstie's favorite tree had all this princess dress up stuff. Any little girls' heaven!

Each year our Walmart offers free 5x7 pictures with Santa. Last year was a pretty good picture so we thought we'd do it again. It was the LAMEST Santa ever. His outfit was awful-- especially his beard. You could see the elastic part below his hat. He didn't even say anything to the kids. I had to tell them to tell Santa what they wanted. And look at the background. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Pepsi and Root Beer. They were even sitting on boxes of soda. They used a Christmas tree skirt as a blanket to sit on. It still had the tag on it. I'm sure they were just going to hang it back up and sell it. At least the picture was free!

Santa also made an appearance at our ward Christmas party. Kirstie has never like this Santa. She cries every year when he comes. This year I was up front leading everyone in some Christmas songs when he came in. I watched her start to panic and cry. Brent stood in the back corner with her, as far away as they could be while I helped Ian talk to Santa.

The same Santa visited Kirstie's school the following week. He was afraid she'd cry again, but she didn't! She was amazed when she told me the SAME SANTA came to her school and he wasn't scary!!

A fun family tradition is our Night Under the Tree with my family. We all wear our pjs, eat soup and clam chowder and play games. It's a fun night and a fun extension of a tradition we used to have as kids. We'd have clam chowder and sleep around the Christmas tree.

We now do the same tradition at our house (minus the clam chowder.) We get out sleeping bags, turn on a movie (or 2 or 3) and sleep downstairs under the tree. Polar Express has become a tradition to watch on this night. Ian has fallen in love with the movie and quotes it ALL THE TIME! We listen to the soundtrack constantly.

Ian LOVES to play with garbage cans-- he always has! This cute little boy thought it's be funny to use the empty garbage cans as a chimney and pretend to be Santa.

He taught the game to Kirstie too. They think they're pretty funny!

This is one of Kirstie's favorite traditions. Once again we put on our pjs (because who wants to wear normal clothes?), bring blankets and hot chocolate and drive around to look at Christmas lights. There are some ridiculously great lights set to music and everything!