Christmas at the Mazz House 2016

I think I say this every year but it just seems to get better and better! This year the kids were SUPER in to Christmas lights! We started driving around to look at them at least a week before Thanksgiving :) It was a treat to find the new houses that put them up every night. The kids didn't need any extravagant lights- they just needed lights and blow ups :) So this year we FINALLY talked Daddy into putting up light! Yeah!!



I took the kids to pick out their own Christmas trees- and guess what color we came home with?!? Mallory's was hot pink with heart ornaments and Miles was hot blue with monster truck ornaments! A memory I never want to forget it watching them each decorate their tree- Mallory kept telling me she was spacing hers out and being VERY methodical about where she was putting them and Miles just put them in all in one place to make things easy! We had ornaments dropped all around our house because they kept carrying their trees from room to room with them they loved them SO much!

We did something new this year and I LOVED it! We put our tree up before Thanksgiving ;) If you are going to do all that hard work you might as well enjoy it for a long time right? The kids love rearranging to ornaments daily! Their favorite were Jeff's old ornaments and little beanie baby ornaments I bought.

A tradition that I started several years ago is that they decorate or make an ornament each year. One day I am going to have the most beautiful tree of all the kids ornaments :) Another successful year or ornament decorating!

When Mimi and Non are in town we do extra fun things like go to Santa's Wonderland! We had a great time and somehow avoided all the crowds! We were out late past the kiddos bedtime- so Miles rested a lot on my lap :)

I sent out a record number of Christmas cards this year- so I enlisted the help of some neighbors to have a Christmas card licking party :)

We got to open up presents early from Grandma Hodges!

We attempted and had a great time making a mess and gingerbread houses :) We did it it while Dad was at work :)

They had a live nativity scene at our church- so of course we went!

We had fun getting in the holiday spirit at the Christian book store

We decided not to do anything big as far as gifts for Christmas because goodness knows they have enough stuff. So I went to the dollar store and loaded up so they had LOTS of stuff to open. We didn't do Christmas at our house till the morning of the 27th. They had a great time opening gifts but were a little concerned that a man came down their chimney to deliver them! Last year Miles was very meticulous about how he took his wrapping paper off- this year it was a free for all. I never want to forget though how he went around to everyone (when we were in a group setting) one by one (whether they asked or not) to show them his new present- it was ADORABLE!

And the obligatory Santa pictures.....