And the parties are beginning..........

In getting ready for the holiday season, Gary lit up our little library with lights to celebrate its first Christmas.

For the library and also for this tree that he created around our flag pole, he ordered solar lights which are great except for cloudy days.  We enjoy seeing them twinkle through the night from our windows or as we drive up the street home.

I am not a big fan of Christmas lights being on before Thanksgiving...but I LOVE them in December.  Our neighborhood is filled with lit houses and it is so great to drive through at night.

We held our Hall Almost Annual Adult Christmas Party last night.  Our invitation was a snowman with the caption--Do you want to build a snowman?  So we decided we had to capture that idea some way into our traditional White Elephant Gift Exchange.  As people came in with their lovely wrapped gifts we had them stuff them into two or three garbage bags with tissue paper to hid them.  (They look like snowballs, right?)  It made many of the gifts unrecognizable (except the one gift which was too big for the white garbage bags and had to be 'hid' in a black leaf bag.  There is always one!).  On each bag was attached some type of instructions which had to be read and followed before opening the gift.  It turned out to be a fun twist to the exchange.......our goal is to never do the rules the same year after year and you have to get a bit clever (or whatever you call it) after 30 years or so.

The bagged gifts

We missed some of our friends who had work or other obligations last night, but it was so fun to play games and laugh with our friends and a great way to start the Christmas season.

And actually it wasn't the first Christmas thing we attended this year. 

Jena had a Friday Friends Christmas Party where they made this cute craft which now sits on our kitchen table:

Then Saturday morning, I had a Relief Society Brunch and I actually made a craft, finished it, and I like it!  That is a rare occurance for me.  It now sits next to our TV in our family room.

I hope that your Christmas season is filled with lights, family and friends, games, and even crafts (if that makes you happy).

Other Christmas happenings:  We missed this important event as Jena and I had a commitment to usher at Centerpoint Theatre and then she had a practice for an upcoming performance next weekend.  But here is a picture of the cutest dancer at the recital yesterday.  Scarlett loves dancing.

Jessica and Elessia and the boys tried out Christkindlmarkt in Salt Lake to start off their season.

I love Christmas and am excited for the fun things which are ahead, starting with caroling in the neighborhood tomorrow night.