Santa came through again. I wasn't sure if he would come due to some last minute naughtiness on the part of the kids, but no lumps of coal were delivered and there were plenty of packages left under our tree. After we opened our presents and ate a big breakfast, we started the big push to move as much stuff to our new house as possible. It was a wild and crazy day.
We decided to stay at Greenfield until after Christmas. I posed the kids in front of our last Greenfield Christmas Tree in their Christmas outfits. I remember when we put Rachel in front of our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree when she was a newborn baby. Time flies.
We went to see the lights at the Los Angeles Temple as we do every year. The kids love running around and seeing all the beautiful lights. They don't put up as many lights as they do at Temple Square in SLC, however all the times I remember going to see the light at Temple Square, it has been so cold that all you want to do is get back inside. So, we are happy to trade a few (million) lights so that we can walk around in light jackets and enjoy the ones we have here. Jackson kept screaming "LIGHTS!!!!" the whole time we were there. He gets so excited.
I arranged for a photo shoot for Christmas cards this year with my friend Lindsay. It was with great fear and trembling that I arrived at the park with my three well dressed and perfectly groomed children. I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get a good group shot with Jackson and his two year old oppositional defiant disorder. But I never thought it would be as hard as it actually was. There were several times when both Lindsay and I had to stop and catch our breath from the antics it took to get Jackson to do anything besides roll around in the dirt. Thanks to a talented photographer we got some great shots. We never did get the perfect group shot for the card, but put three individuals together to make a cute card.
We debated whether or not to get a tree this year. I saw scenes in my head where Jackson would jump from the couch to the top of the tree, taking it down with him. This hasn't happened, thankfully. He has broken at least 4 ornaments so far. The tree is smaller than we normally get but I think it turned out pretty well.
Yesterday we went to Knottsberry Farm with Lance's parents and the California Cousins. Every year in November, Knottsberry Farm honors veterans and they get in free and they can bring guests for a discounted rate. Lance's dad was a marine years ago when Lance was little. This was our second year being invited to go with Grandma and Grandpa to Knotts. The kids had so much fun. The park wasn't crowded so they could ride their favorite rides as many times as they wanted to. The only sad part of the day was when Uncle Dave lost his iPhone on Montezuma's Revenge.
Is it too late to post pictures from Halloween when it is almost Thanksgiving? Needless to say, I haven't been on the ball lately. We had a fun Halloween at Aunt Jamie and Aunt Jill's houses. Lance forgot our suitcase so we had to borrow a few things but it was fun, the kids got tons of candy. Isn't that what really matters?
