Ugly Sweaters and Gingerbread!

It's not the holidays without fun traditions!  We do a few around here, which I will get to.  Like I mentioned in my last post, we did a service each day leading up to Christmas.  Here are some more service pictures and some holiday fun pictures!

We visited our neighbor Elza.  We need to see him more often!


One night the girls rode in the town Christmas parade.  It was SO cold out!




That same night as the parade, we hosted our annual ugly sweater party.  It was so fun! Lots of people came, and they brought lots of yummy food.  We did a hot chocolate bar again. 


We also do a white elephant gift exchange which is really fun.  Some gifts are nice, some are corny, and some are regifted gifts! Last year I opened a gift that had a baby bottle and a pregnancy test.  Our friend Chris picked that gift.  And surprisingly, someone stole it from him!  (As part of the game...)








This couple won the best "ugly sweater". 


Here are Lee and I in our finest!  We found a goldmine of Christmas sweaters at our local thrift store last year and bought a few to stock up!


The kids look forward to the ugly sweater party as much as we do...and they don't even come!  They do get to stay upstairs, eat treats and watch a movie.  We pay them to "babysit" themselves.  They like that part too. I think it's so cute seeing Elden in his robe!  Reminds me of an English fellow in his library.


Another special treat in December was going to the temple with Darrell, Stacie, Lois and Jeff!  And of course Lee.  All of our kids are old enough, and we live the right distance, that we can do this now.  It was awesome!  Later that afternoon we went downtown Baltimore to the Cake Boss place.  It was fun looking around and Darrell treated me to a cupcake!  Yum!




That evening at Lois' we did gingerbread houses.  This year we split it up.  She did the gingerbread and I did the frosting.  I brought candy too.  It was a win, win in my book!






















And if the day couldn't get better, it did!  We also did a party for Blake.  He turned 6 the day before.  So glad we could celebrate with him.


A service I did for Lois was wash her dishes, which in and of itself is very easy.  It was tricky this time around because their hot water heater wasn't working.  Lee and I heated several pots of hot water to wash and rinse the dishes.  With all the extra people at her house I wanted to help her out and she was very grateful!


We ended the evening with some sparkle and looked at the lights at the Washington DC Temple Visitors' Center.  So pretty!  LOVE Christmas lights!














Oh, I guess technically we ended the night with a stop at the mall. 




Clark and his house before he ate too much of it. 


Shanna and Elden played a game Cal created the next night.  So cute.