Getting the Christmas Spirit

We have been getting into the Christmas spirit around our house.  Jenny and I put up the Christmas village again.  This year we put the bookshelves near each other, but with about a 18" gap between them.  Then we put a board across the top so we would have more room for the pieces.  Jenny did a really good job arranging the pieces into a nice looking village.  We are expecting to add a few pieces if we can find any at DI or goodwill.  They will have to be worked in where there are spaces.

We also went to Knox Canyon and cut our own tree again this year.  We were able to get over the top of the first mountain for the first time this year.  Every other time we have gone to Knox Canyon there was too much snow.  This year we made it to a great area with tons of good trees.  We took 3 sleds this year, so the kids had a blast sledding.  There was a nice sledding hill right next to where we stopped.  The kids could sled about 150 yards before they sled run ended.  We only had to hike about a quarter mile in to find our tree.  Alise and Zadik were great.  Brenna was fine as long as she was in the sled, but she didn't want to get out much.  Annie was more difficult.  She wanted out of the sled, but wouldn't walk.  When we got back to the truck, we had hot chocolate and sandwiches.  Annie loved that part.  She had almost 4 cups of cocoa.

Once we got home we decorated the tree.  Following our tradition, we also had a weenie roast for dinner and then let the kids sleep by the tree.