Gingerbread House Party

 
After such a fun time last year, Lola and I decided we needed to have another gingerbread house decorating party with her friends.  This Lola of mine is a girl after my own heart and loves planning a party as much as her mama!  We had lots of fun making invitations, baking cupcakes, shopping for gingerbread house decor, finding party favors, and making everything look as lovely as possible.  She went to great effort figuring out what bowls and trays we should use and how to set everything up on the table.  Seriously love her!

  

 

 Stella was also not about to miss out on the fun. . . she just wasn't quite so helpful!  She 'helped' us set up the table and then I headed her off for her nap.

Lo has so many cute little friends living right here in our neighborhood.  I just loved spending a couple hours with these girls.  We decorated our houses and then had a cupcake and a cup of hot cocoa.  Lola had dipped peppermint marshmellow stirrers and they loved watching the marshmellow's melt in the cocoa.  We finished with a Barbie Christmas movie before we took them all home.  

Such a fun afternoon!

Fetching the Holiday Tree

 We headed to Preston, Idaho on the Saturday after thanksgiving for our annual Fackrell family tree hunt.  We've done this for the past 4 Christmases and it really is one of our favorite traditions.

Stella was pretty happy to ride on her dad's back for most of the time, Miles headed off immediately with granny and grandpa as usual, and Jackson and Lola traipsed all over that hill in search of the perfect tree with us. 

It took us a little longer than normal, but we ended up heading home with 7 beautiful Christmas trees. 

 The kids had lots of fun goofing off on a little sledding hill that they found, and the babies sauntered around in their puffy snowsuits.  Stella was happy as can be tasting snow, until her fingers were frozen and we had to get her to the warm car.

 

We headed down the mountain and had our Christmas Kick-Off party at our house.  We had yummy soup and salad for dinner and then a big treat table to kick the holiday's off right!  If there's something the Fackrell family does well, it's making, eating, talking about, and sharing sweets!

My sweet mom goes all out every year on these awesome Christmas kick off gift bags for everyone.  Each grandkid gets a bag overflowing with fun stuff like puzzles, small toys, a chocolate advent calendar, bath toys and lots of candy.  Each couple gets such fun things to get us in the Christmas spirit: a new Christmas book, soap and lotions, gift cards for the boys, sprinkles and cupcake liners, and ornaments for the tree.  It is such a fun thing for us all and so, so nice of my mom and dad!

I love that I belong to such a fun family!  I love that even though we are growing and changing, that we all love being together and look forward to these traditions.