Fitting It All In

This week has been a bustling one for sure!  The teacher gifts have been handed out, & Liam is now officially on Christmas Break!  I'm excited to have him home for two weeks, as we fill our time with family, friends, & good food.  We're still managing to fit in all. the. activities. while also finishing up the wrapping, putting together a gazillion part play kitchen, & making a handful of grocery lists.  Conor & I always meal plan as if we are feasting with a large group.  But in reality, we are having a nice little family Christmas at home.

We took our annual trip to zoo lights, where Liam exclaimed "This is amazing!"  Lights everywhere while Christmas carols played softly as we strolled.  It was mighty chilly, even though we chose the warmest night of the week.  And Liam has informed me that the only way he can ever warm up is with hot cocoa.  Well played little boy!

And happy Winter Solstice everyone!  We woke up to a surprise snowfall, which just had to shoveled immediately even though we had morning plans and were in quite the hurry.  I love celebrating this day with the boys in some small way; how exciting that our days will begin to get longer again!  We are not fans of having to head inside by 5pm each night.

In the spirit of giving, we passed out our neighbor gifts tonight.  I love this Utah tradition of always sharing Christmas cards and homemade goods with your neighbors.  I realize many people make goodies for their friends & family, but neighbor gifts are for your actual neighbors here!  We walked the neighborhood as a family, Finn carrying a speaker blaring Christmas music (and trying to run into every single house) while Liam had Christmas card duties.  He only fowled up the names & envelopes once!  Again this year, we shared our home-brew ginger beer with everyone!  And because I'm not a fan of change,  I made tags nearly identical to last year.

I'm going to try and make fudge before bed tonight (because it's not the holidays without grandma's fudge), and then tomorrow we will ride the train to downtown Salt Lake City for a special dinner and to see all the lights!  So much fun to still be had!