Making Christmas cookies

We try to do Christmas activities during December to have fun and remember the reason for the holiday.  We made Christmas cookies and decorated them.  Courtney had the bad luck of dropping her cookie, frosting side down, each time she finished decorating one.  It was hilarious.  The recipe I use is an old one from Emery County and it is so yummy!  

The sister missionaries were coming to visit so we put together a cookie decorating kit so they could have a little Christmas cheer.

Here is the second cookie that Courtney decorated then dropped, frosting side down.  Poor girl!

Courtney helped cut the cookies out but she didn't like making the dough.

Videos

Courtney is so creative and has fun with different apps on her phone.  These are some videos she made.

The Chosen

I was invited by a friend to go to see the movie "The Chosen" to start the Christmas season.  I didn't know much about it but it was a great movie.  The first part of it was like a concert of a lot of Christian bands, including some LDS ones.  The music was great.  The second part of the movie was the Nativity.  It was a different one than we usually think of because they showed that it wasn't all peaceful and that it was a birth.  The movie was made with help from many experts from different religions. I really liked the movie and was grateful for the invitation to go with friends.

Ski Swap

Courtney decided she wanted to go on a ski trip for her 16th birthday trip.  We decided to give her ski clothes for Christmas so she would be outfitted for the trip.  I was worried that Courtney wouldn't like any clothes I choose for her so we decided to have her pick out her ski clothes and then we would wrap them and she would act surprised.  ;)  There was a ski swap in Washington County so we decided to wait and see what we could get there.  They had ski jackets, hats, bibs, etc. for sale prices and we wanted to see what we could get.

Courtney and I went out to it and we found a jacket and gloves but everything else was a lot more expensive than we could find it elsewhere.  There weren't dressing rooms so Courtney had to try on the ski stuff over her clothes, which would be fine because she will layer when she goes skiing anyway.  We found a cute, warm coat and some ski pants (which we didn't end up getting) but I had to take a picture of her so she could see how cute she looks as a ski bunny.

Funny girl!

We had Lisa's family for Christmas.  We found some blow-up body things that you can wear and bounce off each other.  We had to get a set to see if they would be a good Christmas gift before getting them for the Lindquist family.  

Once they were inflated, Courtney found a lot of uses for them.  One of them was as a phone holder.  Haha!

Decorating

While everyone was gone, again, I pulled down all the Christmas decorations and began decorating.  I have been weeding out our decorations each year because there were a lot of things that we don't use.  So I went through and donated stuff we wouldn't use and put up the stuff we would.  It took all day long but it turned out really well.

Gingerbread Houses for YW

Courtney went to the first activity of December and they made gingerbread houses...out of pop tarts, which is genius!  The girls were all asked to bring some pop tarts and candy.  They have a great group and are a lot of fun.  It looks like they had a great time and it was a good start to the holiday season.

Courtney is at the end of the table on the right.

I love that Courtney's leaders take a lot of pictures and share them with parents. Otherwise, I would only have one picture.