Must Be Santa...

We've been busy getting into the Christmas spirit around here!  

The boys have been wearing Santa hats and jingle bells nearly every day since we decorated after Thanksgiving.  

We've celebrated Christmas with Kade's birth family.  

We've made the obligatory trip to visit Santa.  

We've done lots of shopping...oh wait.  Correction.  I'VE done lots of shopping.  I need give Mason some credit too because he's been with me on a number of trips.  Erik and Kade on the other hand...well, let's just say if Santa knew the amount of effort they've put into buying presents--they'd be on the naughty list.  Just kidding, Erik!  I've been giving him a hard time and making him feel guilty because I've started buying and wrapping my own presents (Thanks for the idea, Melody!).

We've made Christmas cookies.  

We've been singing Christmas songs every night for bedtime.  

We've been reading and teaching them about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  Jesus' birth.  "Away In a Manger" is one of their favorite songs and Mason loves babies so they love hearing the story!

And tonight, weather permitting, we'll be heading down to La Crosse to see the lights!  Weather better permit because we missed it last year due to Lice Armageddon 2015.

My cute little elves.

Kade and his friend Charlie dressed as Santa and The Elf on the Shelf.

Seriously.  Best Elf on the Shelf impersonation I've ever seen!

The following pictures are from Breakfast With Santa.  

You'll notice one key player is missing from every picture.  

Waiting in line, with friends, until their turn to talk to the Big Guy comes up.

And, this is the picture from their turn.  

They are on the opposite side of the room from Santa and Kade is in the process of running to hide behind Erik.  

Erik said that later Mason did end up telling Santa he wanted a tractor but he would still go nowhere near him.  

Love my brave boys :-)

Luckily, an actual conversation with Santa is not required in order to reap the rewards of donut holes and chocolate milk!

We didn't do such a great job getting pictures of cookie decorating.  

This is all we got of the frosting lickers....I mean, cookie decorators.

Isaac and Mason were too busy eating their toes to be bothered with decorating cookies.  

Thank goodness for that because I'm not sure I'd want to eat one of their cookies after seeing these pictures!