As I mentioned in my last post, it took me awhile to get into the Christmas mode. First off, I had Thanksgiving on the brain for a long time, so I hadn't even thought past that. Usually I start some Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, but that definitely didn't happen this year. And second, we have been having the warmest weather! Saturday was 70 degrees! December 12! It's very strange and has been throwing me off. We haven't had any snow yet this season and it's just making it seem like Christmas shouldn't be right around the corner yet. (I don't know how you do it in Florida, Wendy!)
Despite my sluggishness, we have managed to do a few really fun things this Christmas season so far. And planning and forcing myself to get into it has really helped! (Also, our poor pre-lit artificial tree had some major issues with lights this year, so it took a good week or so after we set it up before it was actually working).
The first weekend in December we had a "family date night". I love doing outings as a family and for some reason it feels like we don't do them very often. I found a Groupon for a Lego display down in Newport, Kentucky - just across the river from Cincinnati (only 25 minutes away), and I thought the kids would love that! So we went down on a Friday late afternoon and checked it out. It was AMAZING! They had two big rooms full of huge displays and the boys were in awe. In fact, we were all in awe. It was really cool. I took a ton of pictures, but I'll only share a few. We spent about an hour looking at all the displays and then they had a little area where the kids could play with some duplos. It was a really fun activity!
It was amazing! I was wishing some of my lego-obsessed nephews could have been there to see it too!
The displays were inside the mall in the Newport on the Levee, which is a really cute spot along the river with lots of restaurants and shops and stuff. It doesn't feel like a regular mall, it's a lot nicer. So anyway, after that, we went out to dinner at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which was of course also a hit with the kiddos. It was great also because we were there early enough in the night that nothing was crowded at all!
After dinner we walked around outside a bit to look at all the Christmas lights. They had some music playing and the lights were synchronized to it, so that was really fun. It was actually the only night this month that has been cold, so we didn't stay too long, but it was fun to get bundled up and enjoy the fresh air.
Then on Saturday, we put up some Christmas lights outside for the first time! We didn't go too crazy, but it was fun to do it. The kids were pretty excited. Everyone does Christmas lights out here so it's really fun. That night, I sang and played in a Christmas Concert put on by another ward that meets in our building. I sang in a few small groups and accompanied someone else. It was really nice to hear some great Christmas music and enjoy some good musicians. There were singers and instrumentalists - flugel horn, penny whistle, flute, cello, and oboe. Then on Sunday we watched the Christmas Devotional broadcast, which is always a favorite Christmas season activity. It was SO GOOD! We loved the music and the talks and it was a perfect end to the first week of December.
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